(Clearwisdom.net) An annual multicultural festival was held in Harrison, New Jersey from May 31 to June 1, 2003. Harrison is a small town in the north of New Jersey. Its convenient transportation has been conducive to the rapid increase of the Chinese population in the past few years. Local Falun Gong practitioners have actively cooperated with the local government and lived in harmony with Chinese community so as to create a good environment to thoroughly clarify the truth. City Council has issued proclamation for Dafa and passed resolution to condemn the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. And at the same time, the city government provided free venues for the practitioners to show Dafa truth-clarifying films every week. Person in charge of Chinese community has also maintained a favorable relationship with the practitioners. We had a harmonious cooperation. Taking the opportunity of this multiracial culture festival, the practitioners once again displayed the beauty of Falun Dafa to the local people.
Falun Gong practitioners participated in the entire preparation process of the festival as members of the preparation committee, and at the same time, the practitioners took various opportunities to introduce Falun Dafa to local government officials and persons in charge of other groups. Mayor Mr. McDonough fully affirmed the practitioners' excellent performance. During the culture festival, he had several conversations with the practitioners, and carefully watched practitioners' performances and had a photo taken with practitioners.
In addition, we also paid great attention to the communication with Chinese communities. During the two-day activity, whenever there were potential contradiction or conflicts, such as booths arrangement and order of performance arrangement, we always let others select first and offer necessary help. When we learned that a Chinese circus could not perform without tents, we offered to provide them with booth and tents, so that they could perform smoothly. They were very moved and were glad to accept our Dafa materials. Practitioners' kind words and actions not only changed the attitudes of some groups who used to have negative opinion of us, but they could also feel practitioners' kindness, tolerance and cooperation. Chinese organizers often came to our booth to express thanks and hoped to maintain a long-term cooperation with us.
Our booth was next to the booth of a Western qigong master. During the two-day, we helped offer translation for Chinese people who visited his booth, and helped him take care of the booth, and also kindly gave him and his assistants Dafa truth-clarifying materials. Prior to the conclusion of the activity, the qigong master told us that he had read our Dafa books and started to visit our Dafa websites. One of his assistants requested all materials we prepared and learned in detail about Dafa.
In addition, the practitioners' excellent performances left good impression on the audience. Young Dafa practitioners from Minghui School were invited to demonstrate the five sets of exercises. Their pure and lovely demeanor, gentle and orderly movements, left a favorable impression on the audience too.