MODESTO, Calif.—Gary Beaudette is the owner of a consulting firm. He is also a renowned songwriter and an author of children’s books. On the evening of Oct. 20, he, his wife, and his daughter came to see Shen Yun Performing Arts. “All [the] stories are great. They were very in-depth too,” Monica Beaudette, his wife, said. New York-based Shen Yun tells vivid stories through music and dance. Sometimes, the stories come from the four classics of Chinese literature, such as “Journey to the West” and “Outlaws of the Marsh,” or they are derived from things happening in present-day China. One of the dances told the story of Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted for their faith. Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese spiritual practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. The practice was banned by the CCP in 1999, shortly after a state-run survey estimated that there were at …