St. Louis Mayor Speaks at Opening Ceremony of Zhang Cuiying's Painting Exhibition (Photos)

(Clearwisdom.net) On July 2, 2002, an exhibition of Ms. Zhang Cuiying's traditional Chinese Paintings was held in the City Hall of St. Louis, Missouri.

At 10 a.m., the Mayor of St. Louis, Mr. Slay, gave a speech at the opening ceremony. After him, a representative of Congressman Clay presented a proclamation letter to Ms. Zhang Cuiying. State Representative Ms. Jones also spoke at the opening ceremony. The speakers appreciated that Ms. Zhang Cuiying brought her beautiful artwork to St. Louis and praised her endeavor of appealing against the persecution of Falun Gong. A Chinese artist from St. Louis also spoke at the ceremony and highly praised Zhang Cuiying's paintings, emphasizing that "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" gave Zhang's paintings a rich content.

Ms. Zhang Cuiying talked about her experiences of being jailed and tortured in China for eight months because she wanted to tell people the facts about Falun Gong. Three major St. Louis TV stations, one English newspaper and two Chinese newspapers conducted interviews with her. The largest circulation English newspaper published the interview the same day.

Opening Ceremony of Ms. Zhang Cuiying's Painting Exhibition in the St. Louis City Hall	Congressman Clay's Secretary presenting a proclamation to Ms. Zhang Cuiying

During the daylong exhibition, many people came and asked for copies of the paintings and the artist's signature. Through the artist's extraordinary experiences, people learned that "Falun Dafa is good," and they learned about "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" and the fact that millions of practitioners are being brutally persecuted in China.

At noon, practitioners took the opportunity to clarify the truth to the staff in City Hall by inviting the clerks from the Mayor's office and other city council members' offices to the exhibition. After the lady in charge of the city hall meeting schedule saw the exhibition, she volunteered to help the practitioners. About eight or nine city council members who were in the office that day also came down to the first floor to view the exhibition. There has rarely been such a good chance to clarify the truth to so many officials face to face. The practitioners sincerely appreciated Teacher's arrangement. During the day, Ms. Zhang Cuiying was busy all the time; she hardly had any time to rest. She talked to the people and signed her name on the printed paintings. Our only regret was that we had only one day to exhibit in City Hall.

The success of the exhibition was the result of contributions from almost all St. Louis practitioners. We shared the work and cooperated with each other. Some practitioners went to the Mayor's office and Congressman's office, some contacted the media, some reserved the exhibition hall and some made the exhibition shelves until midnight for several days.

After the exhibition, practitioners gathered together and shared experiences. We recognized the importance of studying the Fa well and sending forth righteous thoughts, and of putting Dafa first and being tolerant when we had different ideas. We are all striving to progress in the Fa-rectification process together.