Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said, “We are honored to have such talented, world-class artists and the dedicated professionals who make this production possible.”
Kings County Supervisor Joe Neves wrote, “These performances draw audiences from throughout the Central Valley, including residents of Kings County and surrounding communities.”
“I commend Shen Yun Performing Arts for its dedication to artistic excellence and for sharing cultural traditions with diverse audiences,” Mr. Neves said.
Kerman city manager John Jansons stated: “We celebrate your courage to remind the freedom loving people of [the] world that political ideology will never conquer love or the human spirit yearning to be free.”
The office of Alma Beltran, mayor of Parlier, issued a proclamation saying, “The Mayor extends her best wishes for continued success to Shen Yun Performing Arts in their mission to celebrate and share the beauty of classical Chinese culture with communities throughout the world.”
“Incredible. Especially the tenor,” said Rene Emilio, a singer and entertainer.
“Of course, me being a man that the tenor, just when he hit that one note, I'm like, ‘wow,’” Mr. Emilio said.
He attended Shen Yun with his wife, Dorie Hibanada, a music teacher.
For people who haven’t seen the performance, Ms. Hibanada recommends it.
“They have to come and watch it because it's very different from any other type of musical that you see, the Broadway shows,” Ms. Hibanada said.
“We see all of those, but to have it connect to heritage and really connecting us to ethnicity to our backgrounds, to wherever we're from, whatever culture that might be, that it's very important to keep that alive and to let our youth also know about all of that,” the music teacher said.
Helen Aydinyan, former owner of Ararat Market, said the performance was amazing.
“The amount of work that they put to get to that level of excellence. It's wonderful,” Mrs. Aydinyan said.
Her husband, Ara Aydinyan, who also ran the business, said: “The whole show is just breathtaking.”
“It's a unique combination of providing history, modern touches of technology in the background,” Mr. Aydinyan said.
Laura Smith, who owned Beach Sweets, said, “I think the sets and the costumes and the dancing is just so beautiful, and they're so talented and athletic.”
“It's remarkable,” said Jon Starkey, owner of a repair business.
“The discipline that goes on with it, the spirituality involved in it, it’s just excellent,” Mr. Starkey said.
Chaplain Rodney Gupton, founder of the Making Disciples Outreach Ministry, said “I witnessed with my spirit of how it told the story, and how it end up.”
Being a person of faith, Mr. Gupton felt touched by the performance and the elements of spirituality.
“I was enlightened about it,” Mr. Gupton said.
For Eric Thomson, a consulting engineer, it was his second occasion seeing Shen Yun.
“We love it the first time, we love it even more the second time,” Mr. Thomson said.
“It's a great story,” he said.
