Stephanie’s Story … Born in China—Made in America

It was with a great amount of love and concern that I asked Stephanie to tell her story.

Her background is such that she needs no self‑promotion—nor has she ever sought any. In reading Stephanie’s story, told in her own words for the first time, her love and gratitude for America are as obvious as our task is clear: we love our country, and we will help De‑Marxify California.

Please have no doubt; we will De‑Marxify America.

In November 2024 I began my exploratory candidacy for governor of California. I approached a diverse group of people—people of differing talents, convictions, temperaments, races, religions, and cultures.

What struck me most is what used to be called “the silent majority” was alive and well. I was consistently and pleasantly surprised to find so many people who agreed that the “mind virus” of atheist Marxism leads to the societal cancer of socialism/communism. So many individuals whose voices are ignored by the mainstream media agreed that atheist Marxist ideology (a religion of non‑belief) is not compatible with America’s founding ideals, while other sects of the atheist “religion”—such as atheist atomist and atheist humanist—are compatible with America’s ideals (e.g., Albert Camus and many others). Atheist Marxism is not compatible. The fact is, it is not compatible with any society or country that has a spiritual sector as its core principle of leadership in politics, economics, spirituality, and the military. The mind virus of atheist Marxism’s goal, from its decades‑old desires, is to dominate academia, advocacy, and media, infiltrating societies by aligning financially with them and then aligning with politicians and business leaders by any means necessary until the cancer metastasizes to the stage of socialism/communism.

The response to the message Stephanie and I were delivering was met with overwhelming gratitude, and that response bolstered my decision to run for governor of California.

I met my wife Stephanie at a Shen Yun performance in Long Beach in 2018. Shen Yun, whose advertisement states “China Before Communism,” is a spectacular display of beauty and elegance. I recommend Shen Yun; you will leave, as many have over the years, fully entertained and connected to the possibilities to which humanity can aspire against all odds.

As Stephanie and I discussed the many miseries that have befallen China since the rise of communism and worked together to promote a documentary film, we felt a growing kinship. We fell in love and married in 2020.

A book of Stephanie’s life—her struggles and triumphs—is currently being written and will be published in the spring of 2026. The following is the foreword of the book. Stephanie will make a great first lady of California, and once again the citizens of California will be proud to be called Americans. 

I was born in 1964 into Maoist China. I can still remember the several songs we sang in homage to Chairman Mao. When I was a small child, my one wish was to grow up and travel to Beijing to visit “Heaven’s Gate,” Tiananmen Square. Little did I realize then that, in the years to come, I would witness unspeakable acts of suppression and murder against people of my generation.

Tiananmen Square would come to mean, for me, anything but “heaven.”

In my youth, Chairman Mao was our god. Our party—the Communist Party—told nothing but the truth, and our state media helped them tell the truth. And that truth? America was a hateful place, full of weak and foolish soldiers, as told in our many propaganda films.

It would take years for me to realize that, all along, the Communist Party had lied to us. The torch that led my way out of the darkness of the mind virus of Marxism—which leads to the cancer of socialism/communism—was called Qigong, pronounced “chi‑gong.”

China’s “chairman” Mao Zedong led a brutal, murderous, and disastrous fifty‑year attack on all Chinese who did not align with the regime’s propaganda and indoctrination.

The mind virus of atheist Marxism entered China from Eastern Europe. Prior to that, China had centuries of spiritual culture, so looking back, I was not truly of Chinese lineage until I broke free of the Eastern European atheist‑Marxist propaganda/indoctrination.

Chinese tradition was brutally and relentlessly attacked, beaten down, and suppressed from the 1920s until the late 1970s. With Mao’s death in 1976, some traditions began to be accepted—Qigong being one of them.

Fortunately for me, Qigong became the centerpiece of my life. In 1980, at age 16, I began to study Qigong. The old, wise, peaceful ways of China began to make a quiet comeback. A teacher who was leading the way came to treat my father. I became very interested in his knowledge and wisdom. The teacher recognized my interest, and I started meeting with him two hours every morning, every day before school, to learn Qigong.

It was a very rigorous and demanding period of my life, but I took to it with light excitement and quiet dedication. I felt very fulfilled with what I was learning. I had no aspirations other than to learn.

I had no idea how far and fast I was developing. All I realized was how much I enjoyed being taught. My teacher was older and passed away when I was 19. When a Qigong research committee held a meeting in my province, I was asked to represent my first teacher. That is when I met my second teacher. He told me that what I had learned was from the same lineage as his, and he invited me to become one of his students. Both teachers treated me as well as they treated their own children.

My second teacher and I bonded in a beautiful teacher‑student relationship. In 1983 I joined my second teacher who was treating members of China’s upper political echelon to improve their health with Qigong.

I had no idea then, but I realize now that I was searching for a deeper meaning—a place where I could feel at home in my heart, my mind, and in the society I lived and served.

In 1986, my teacher and I were asked to come to Thailand to treat the king’s brother (Mom Rajawongse Kukrit Pramoj).

The following year, in June 1987, we were asked to go to the United Nations headquarters in New York to teach Qigong.

Although I was completely new to New York and America, I felt oddly at home in a country I had only heard about in negative terms from Communist Party leaders and consistently disparaged in Chinese media and propaganda films.

All that was about to change.

While teaching Qigong in New York at the United Nations, I quickly found out that other Chinese officials working at the United Nations had come to love America. Over and over, wherever I went in the Chinese‑American community, I heard the same thing: “America is a wonderful country, a beautiful place to live your life.” I began to recognize their truths as mirroring my own sentiments. I, too, began to fall in love with America.

I found myself traveling its subways, admiring the architecture, the buildings, the supermarkets, etc., but most of all, I fell in love with America’s people.

I felt the quiet happiness and strength inherent in a people born in freedom. Instead of the weak, venal people characterized in Chinese propaganda, I sensed how strong America was—especially compared to China.

I began to realize the decades of Chinese indoctrination that had wholly lied to me and all Chinese people. The American people were very kind and exceedingly nice to me. Everywhere I went in America, whenever I got lost, what I remember most are the smiling faces offering directions—some even walked me to my destination.

Soon, I was about to discover just how different our countries were.

June 1989 brought the reckoning.

The Chinese government swiftly, brutally, and ruthlessly attacked peaceful protesters in an ugly demonstration of raw power at Tiananmen Square. As I sat in shock, watching the video streaming over American airwaves, I felt dread and fear for my fellow brothers and sisters in China.

How could China do this to its own students and citizens? I immediately called my father. He told me not to talk about it as I described what was happening in Beijing. In his tone I sensed a fear of the conversation I was trying to convey.

I realized then that all Chinese had grown up in fear and desperation, even my own father.

I saw with my own eyes the senseless and brutal attacks conducted by police and military on innocent people in “Heaven’s Square.” It was the opposite of what my friends and family in China were told by the machines of propaganda—a complete perversion of the truth. I was witnessing the truth myself, thanks to freedom of the press in America.

I saw first hand the heart the American people held for the Chinese people.

Looking back and recognizing what my husband Scott identified as atheist Marxism being the mind virus that leads to the societal cancer of socialism/communism, I see that the American people were not being educated about it. I believe that if the Chinese had been educated, they would have awakened decades ago. But, as my husband says, better late than never.

The contagion of communism is the father of lies. There is no truth, no decency, no beauty… there is only, in communism, the subjugation of every single soul, and the mind virus of atheist Marxism is the pathogen.

In one instant, my eyes were opened. This became a difficult time for me, as my mother was sick and I missed my parents, family, and friends back in China. I went back to visit my mother as she became ill in 1992. I returned to America, the land of freedom and opportunity, and have not returned to China since.

In 1996 I realized all my teachings of the past had led to a pivotal moment. While I was extremely satisfied with my expertise, knowledge, experience, and implementation of QiGong, I became enlightened to the past cultural richness that Mao and the Communist Party had always tried to hide from the Chinese people and the world.

It was obvious to me, though I’d never seen it before.

Was it my own lineage that drew me to the truth? Was it destiny that opened my eyes to the fact that I had been indoctrinated all those years ago?

Either way, it did not matter. While I was an accomplished QiGong expert at this point, I knew what I was teaching was missing something.

QiGong, as I learned, is a very effective energy practice for treating others, yet I became aware of a more advanced type of QiGong in 1996.

Immediately after listening to the lectures of my third teacher, I was enlightened to China’s spiritual cultural past. It was the spirituality that flourished in China before it became infected with the mind virus of atheist Marxism, which led to China’s societal cancer, communism.

I made a promise all those years ago: to open the eyes of everyone I meet to their own spiritual lineage.

I never realized that journey would take me so many miles, to meet so many beautiful souls.

It was that journey that led me to meet and marry Scott.

My husband, Scott Shields, is a man of great mind, strong heart, and deep, abiding ideals.

He will make a wonderful governor for California.

Together, we will lead the fight to De‑Marxify California.

Once we De‑Marxify our great state, we will do what Californians have always done: we will lead the world in Humanity, Industry, Creativity, Finance… and Freedom based on Americas Founding Ideals & Principles