Ms. Chen’s daughter, Cai Xindi, is a dancer with the Shen Yun Performing Arts troupe, a girl who always wears a radiant smile on and off the stage. Talking about Xindi – a child who needed her parents’ care everywhere, growing into a filial daughter who worries about her parents everywhere, Ms. Chen couldn’t help but show her pride and gratitude.
Ms. Chen introduced that her daughter entered the Feitian Arts School in San Francisco at the age of 11, graduated from junior high school, and got into the Feitian Art Institute in New York, later becoming a dancer with Shen Yun.
Ms. Chen works as a project analyst in a California state government department; her husband used to work at a well-known high-tech company in Silicon Valley and is now a senior patent examiner for a federal government agency. Their family provided a carefree environment for their child to grow up in.
When asked why she sent her child to the Feitian School, Ms. Chen said, “The biggest concern for parents is their child’s character. In this increasingly decadent society, without the right worldview guidance, children are easily swayed by the prevailing trends.”
For children growing up in the West, “Chinese parents all hope their children can learn Chinese well, but the vast majority fail. However, Feitian has achieved this, which is remarkable,” she said. “Moreover, learning Chinese traditional dance and arts will benefit her future character, temperament, appreciation, and many other aspects.”
Initially, Ms. Chen took her child to Feitian’s summer camp to let her understand it herself. “The child liked the classmates and teachers there, so she was willing to go to this school herself,” Ms. Chen explained.
Feitian School is an art school founded by professionals who adhere to the principles of “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance” and have professional knowledge and educational backgrounds in the United States. In Ms. Chen’s view, this aligns perfectly with their concept of raising children: “Emphasizing morality, valuing tradition, cultivating children’s correct values.” What’s rare is that Feitian also offers bilingual teaching in Chinese and English.
“If children don’t learn Chinese well, they won’t be able to draw nourishment from the profound Chinese culture, which would be a great pity,” she said.
Getting into the Feitian Art Institute in New York means the child has to go to school in New York on her own. When asked if Ms. Chen was worried, she firmly replied, “Of course, I’m confident.”
“When our child attended a regular American school in elementary school, we could see the negative side of society affecting the child as they approached graduation,” Ms. Chen recalled. “Such as rebellion, premature maturity, self-centeredness, which really worried us.”
She mentioned that ever since her child went to Feitian, she changed; and after joining the Shen Yun troupe, the transformation was even greater. “The changes in appearance are very prominent, with clear, healthy skin, a focused demeanor, graceful temperament, mild character, and a lack of ego,” Ms. Chen praised her daughter. “She has become disciplined, independent, diligent, considerate of others, kind, understanding, good at handling interpersonal relationships, mastering boundaries well, and has learned to be filial and grateful.”
She shared some stories from daily life: one summer, when her daughter came home to play with her former elementary school classmates, they and their parents all felt Xindi had changed but couldn’t pinpoint how, “They just feel comfortable around her, her temperament is different from others.”
Every summer when Xindi comes home, Ms. Chen and her husband take her on trips or vacations. “Her father often lets her plan and interact with people during the journey. We found she handles it well, converses easily, is calm and friendly, and others are willing to assist her.”
This behavior came as a surprise to Ms. Chen, “Considering children coming from a more rigorous academic environment, wouldn’t they have trouble adapting in society? Not at all,” she said. “Not only my daughter, but I see other Shen Yun artists as well, who are confident, well-mannered, and handle responses appropriately when interacting with people in society.”
Having such good training and foundation makes Ms. Chen feel at ease: even if her daughter gives up the dance career in the future and transitions to other industries, she doesn’t have to worry at all.
Shen Yun Performing Arts is a top traditional Chinese dance and music troupe globally. Since its founding in 2006, Shen Yun has presented a new program to audiences each year and toured top theaters around the world.
Joining Shen Yun Performing Arts is a wish cherished by many Chinese dancers, classical musicians, singers, and artists. Being a member of Shen Yun Performing Arts requires a lot of sacrifices, facing tight training schedules and touring performances annually.
According to Ms. Chen, her daughter, who doesn’t get to see her parents often, always remembers their birthdays. She would send gifts and make phone calls, even on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day. She even sent heartfelt Christmas gifts to her grandparents, whom she had only met in childhood, when they visited the United States, making them pleasantly surprised and happy.
This is also attributed to the influence of the Feitian Arts School on students in traditional cultural aspects.
Ms. Chen also shared an incident from this year’s summer vacation when she, her husband, and daughter traveled to Turkey. On the last evening, everyone was exhausted, returning to the hotel at 11 p.m., with an early morning flight the next day at 4 a.m. Seeing the room full of unpacked luggage, Ms. Chen couldn’t help but mutter to herself, “So tired! I can’t even pack now,” and went to freshen up.
After a short while, when she came out, she saw her suitcase packed neatly, the purchased items wrapped and organized, while her daughter’s suitcase remained untouched, “She bought even more gifts!” Ms. Chen said, “I was surprised and touched at that moment.”
Ms. Chen sighed, “If it weren’t for Feitian and Shen Yun, we probably wouldn’t have had such a wonderful family trip. Even if we did, when everyone was exhausted, I would still have to shout at the father-daughter duo lying in bed, using their phones, to hurry and pack!”
Subsequently, her daughter also neatly packed her luggage in no time. “Almost everything that could hardly fit was neatly arranged. This energy, skill, effort…,” her mother genuinely admired at that moment, “It’s not surprising because our Xindi is a Shen Yun performer!”
After more than a decade of learning and a career in dance, her daughter has grown from a clueless young girl into a healthy, happy professional dancer with a sense of mission and responsibility. Ms. Chen said, “We feel more relieved and grateful.”
She shared that although her daughter always loved to move and play since childhood, she wasn’t the athletic type. During the process of mastering many high-level techniques in Chinese dance, her daughter indeed faced many challenges. “A skilled master molds a top disciple. Shen Yun’s high level of performance skills is well known, so naturally, the actors’ efforts are visible to all.”
Xindi practiced continuously to meet the standards for a certain movement, often resting late, sweating heavily from high-intensity training every day. “To be honest, during adolescence, which is a time of physical development, it did worry me,” Ms. Chen said. “But Xindi never complained to us, nor did she give up.”
“If I had to point out a time when she was unhappy, it was when she first entered the Feitian branch in San Francisco. Her body was working on basics, stretching the joints was indeed painful, coupled with transferring from a public school to a private school, and leaving home for a boarding school; it was quite challenging for a child to adapt to a new environment.”
Looking back on the concept of sending her to the Feitian School, Ms. Chen was pleased to see that this goal had been achieved. Feitian and Shen Yun helped them raise a good child, and as parents, they are extremely grateful.
Over the years, what has been most gratifying for her is that “my daughter truly understands the meaning of life, knows the purpose of this life and the next, and uses ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance’ to measure good and bad and guide her own life,” Ms. Chen said. “Feitian and Shen Yun have given my daughter something that secular society cannot provide her.”
Ms. Chen sees in her daughter the values and virtues possessed by Shen Yun performers, perseverance in hard work, traditional knowledge and culture, as well as a broad view of the world from traveling. “My husband and I are very confident in the future our daughter wants to grasp for herself.”
When asked about their expectations for their child’s future, Ms. Chen said she and her husband are practitioners of Falun Dafa, who have greatly benefited mentally and physically from practicing Falun Dafa according to its principles. So their greatest desire is for their child to also become a true cultivator in “Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance.”
“But faith cannot be forced. If she truly doesn’t like it or isn’t suited for it, we won’t compel her,” she said. What pleased her was that Xindi took the initiative to practice cultivation after joining Shen Yun.
Shen Yun is not just a performance but a revival of traditional Chinese culture and virtues prior to communism. Shen Yun brings viewers a feast for both the eyes and soul, inspiring them spiritually. Ms. Chen explained, “Watching Shen Yun, you can feel the beauty of those principles in the performance, and thus generate righteous thoughts.” This is also why Shen Yun sets such high performance standards; she believes, “The success of Shen Yun is inseparable from the tremendous efforts of the actors, which would be difficult without the support of faith.”
“We as parents also know that children don’t dance for fame and fortune,” she said. “Due to the brutal persecution of practitioners of ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, Tolerance’ by the Chinese Communist Party, in mainland China, numerous Falun Dafa practitioners have suffered shattered families and lost lives. In order to end this persecution as soon as possible, practitioners both inside and outside China voluntarily resist the persecution in various peaceful, rational, non-violent ways; this is also an obligation.”
Shen Yun performances include mini-dramas about how practitioners resist persecution. Due to the exposure of the CCP’s atrocities in the performances, the CCP continually interferes and sabotages Shen Yun, even resorting to causing accidents to endanger the lives of the performers. “Therefore, we fully understand some of the special regulations governing Shen Yun’s management, as this is not an ordinary performing group in society.”
Lastly, Ms. Chen expressed how much she hopes that this persecution will end soon, and Shen Yun can perform in mainland China. She hasn’t been able to return to China to visit in 23 years, and she said, “My parents are already in their nineties, how I wish they could see their granddaughter’s performance while they are still alive.”