Full-house audience at the matinee of Divine Performing Arts on February 11. (Ming Li/The Epoch Times)

TOKYO--Mr. Li, a researcher at the Japanese Information and Intelligence Research Institute, was deeply moved by Divine Performing Arts (DPA).

He attended the matinee on Japan's National Foundation Day, Feb. 11, in Tokyo.

"This is a culture derived from our very ancient China. It was refined through arts and displayed in front of us," Mr. Li said.

In fact, DPA's mission is to revive ancient Chinese arts by way of traditional performing techniques.

He noted the beautiful backdrops and how perfectly they blended with other components of the show. He also acknowledged that although he knew little about costuming, DPA costumes were "gorgeous."

Mr. Li found the show displaying two aspects of China.

First, he commented on the cultural aspects, like the program about poet Li Bai. This poet, he said, "represent[s] the elite work of China."

The elite work he mentions is again part of DPA's mission. It aims to capture the spirit and substance of pre-modern China, and bring to life divinely-inspired virtues such as goodness, harmony, and self-improvement.

Along the same lines, he mentioned the vocalists, whose songs stirred Mr. Li so deeply, "The songs are easy to understand, yet the content is very profound. The soloists are very professional."

The other aspect Mr. Li spoke about is modern China--specifically its current persecution of Falun Gong. "Maybe the arts cannot really fully display the brutality of the torture. Yet this is China's reality."

In DPA, a program called Heaven Awaits Us Despite Persecution tells a story about a broken family that parallels the stories of millions suffering in China today. A father, who practices the spiritual discipline Falun Gong, is taken out of his home by the Chinese Communist Party policemen and murdered.

"We have to eventually change these things," Li said. "I am an ordinary person. I don't have that much power; however, such events should not take place among humankind. I think, regardless of what you believe in, such brutal persecution should not occur in China, a country with such a long history of civilization."

Mr. Li will introduce the show to his friends.