It was only after he returned to the U.S. did he find the true China he had dreamed about, in a most unexpected place.

We sat down with Jared Madsen to hear his story.

Reading Chinese philosophy isn't exactly the norm for most Americans, but Jared Madsen is a rare exception.

For him, traditional Chinese culture isn't something too remote or irrelevant.

Instead, the ancient wisdom in it gave him new perspective.

So when I was in high school, I already started to learn Chinese, and I started to learn about traditional Chinese culture.

I was very fascinated.

It just seemed to talk about things that I'd never even imagined, about Confucianism and Daoism.

And then I went to China.

I went to China in 1994.

But the trip didn't go according to plan.

It seemed right the very moment I landed in China, it was a wake-up call.

Oh, this is a communist society.

This is not this anymore.

Honestly, I was incredibly disappointed, and it was very disheartening, I suppose.

The experience didn't measure up to his expectations, but eventually Madsen found what he had thought was a lost cause, not in Beijing, but in New York.

He is now a master of ceremonies for U.S.-based classical Chinese dance company Shen Yun.

He says that's where he discovered the true China before it was tainted by the Communist Party.

Then I heard about Shen Yun, and I came to Shen Yun, and I thought this is exactly what I had been interested in from the get-go.

And then we can portray it on stage, things that I had been thinking about, only trying to imagine what it was like in my head, and then I get to see it on stage.

I get to see people portray these roles.

I was blown away.

I had to be part of Shen Yun.

The classical Chinese dance style Shen Yun performs in is an antiquity dating back at least 3,000 years to the grand courts of Chinese emperors.

And from that ancient tradition,

Madsen found answers that modern science and technology couldn't give him.

Why do you think it's important to have this push for authentic Chinese culture, especially nowadays when there's so much pushing for modernization and these alternative views?

Why is it so significant?

We're losing our connection.

We're becoming more and more like robots.

I think everybody feels that.

We all have cell phones, and it's great.

We can look anything up, and it has all these advantages.

But at the same time, this is a hot topic these days.

People are going off into the forest to do a retreat, right, to get rid of technology.

Really, this is what they're looking for.

What does it mean to be human?

Some of these deeper questions that when you come to Shen Yun, we explore these.

Madsen believes classical arts are universal.

Just like you don't have to be German to appreciate Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, audience members don't need to be Chinese to get inspired by Shen Yun.

You mentioned that there are a lot of similarities and universal values between classical Chinese history and Western tradition.

So what are some of those similarities?

Well, one of the biggest ones that you see on the stage is the idea of a hero, what it means to be an upright person, what it means to be a hero, what it means to face the bad guy and valiantly strive forward.

This is something that I think is deep within all of us.

We all want to make something of ourselves.

We all want to move forward.

This is not a cultural thing.

This is just being human.

It's an incredibly uplifting show.

This is something that lasts with people.

Existential threats have plagued traditional Chinese culture for the last century.

That's following the Chinese Communist Party's rise to power and its attempts to eliminate those traditions.

Persecuting intellectuals and scholars, smashing temples, historical statues and other cultural relics, and denouncing all traditional ideas as feudal and backward.

Only after Mao's Cultural Revolution brought Chinese society into turmoil and bankrupted the ultra-left ideology did the CCP turn back toward ancient culture, this time using it to resuscitate its own totalitarian ideology by provoking national pride in the Chinese people.

And the Chinese Communist Party also talks about traditional Chinese culture.

But how is that different from what Xinyuan represents?

Well, they started doing it recently.

And when they do talk about traditional Chinese culture, they use it to try to end up promoting communism.

Xinyuan is soon to perform its first show since the pandemic shut down theaters over a year ago.

Matson says he can't wait to once again time travel to ancient China, together with audiences.

Everybody just wants to get back out there.

They want to see something.

And I've met so many people who, during the pandemic, who wanted to see Xinyuan.

And they're like, oh, I had tickets. I had tickets.

And then it all got canceled.

So I guess it's that yearning, that yearning in society, that feeling of, you know, that cabin fever, being at home for, I mean, months and months, over a year.

How has it changed my approach?

I don't know. I guess I'm just extra excited this year.

Xinyuan will take the stage this weekend for its first 2021 performance at the Palace Theater in Stanford, Connecticut.

It's scheduled for this weekend.

Those hoping to catch a last-minute glimpse can visit the company's website for ticket information.