(Clearwisdom.net May 24, 2003) Every May is America's Asian Culture Month. The Sixth Annual Asian Culture Festival in Central Virginia was held at the newly-built Grand Conference Center in capital city Richmond. Several associations and enterprises from different places jointly organized the activity.
A Philippine girl requests Dafa truth-clarifying flyers from practitioners and then passes them out to passersby | Practitioners demonstrate the exercises in front of Falun Dafa booth |
Practitioners in front of the Falun Dafa booth | People yearning for the truth about Falun Gong |
Participants were from a dozen Asian communities and groups from Southeast Asian countries, and government departments from multiple cities and counties as well as local cultural and commercial groups. They provided a variety of art performances, and set up various booths, including folk-customs, culture, arts and crafts and clothes. A lot of people of different nationalities came to visit. State Governor Mark R. Warner also came to attend personally.
Falun Gong practitioners in Richmond set up a Falun Dafa booth inside the hall. A banner hanging high with the Falun Emblem and the words, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" was eye-catching. The practitioners took this opportunity to spread Falun Dafa, clarify the truth and expose the evil persecution. We were so pleased to be able to demonstrate and introduce Dafa to the local people. With the help of practitioners from Washington D.C. and other cities, we had good results.
The practitioners demonstrated the five sets of exercises to Dafa music and at the same time some practitioners answered questions raised by visitors in front of our booth. A beautiful and elegant Chinese Tang Dynasty Dance performance added to the peacefulness of the exercise. Many people expressed that they did hear news about Falun Gong, but it was the first time that they saw Dafa practitioners' performances personally and become immersed in the peaceful, pure and righteous field. Quite a few people expressed that they wanted to learn the exercises at their local practice sites. Some took down the related information, and expressed that they would invite practitioners to introduce Falun Gong to their employees or students.
What is worth mentioning was that we met more people of Asian descent, especially Chinese residents, and they learned more of the truth about Falun Dafa. Even though there were still many people who did not pass our booth, we believe that Dafa's peaceful field would definitely benefit every attendee who saw our banner bearing, "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and our exercises demonstration.
Prior to the conclusion of the activity, a staff member beside our Dafa booth smiled to us and expressed his congratulations. He said, "We're glad to be your neighbor. All that you have done allows me to feel the peacefulness and beauty of Falun Dafa." Before leaving, he presented a large vase of fresh flowers from their booth to our practitioners.