“Fairy Boat” comes floating Down The Street in Seattle And Blows Everyone Away With Its Beauty
3 min readImagine this scene, you are visiting a parade and suddenly you see a “boat” come “floating” down the street. In the twilight, the boat lights up with soft fairy lights. There are colorful satin flowers on the deck. There are a few people on the boat practicing gentle movements so gracefully. There is a lovely lady dressed in a long dress looking like she just popped out of an ancient Chinese fairytale. What would you say?
Perhaps someone with the kindest face will give you a glossy pamphlet as the group in golden yellow suits come by banging their drums joyfully.
It all happened at the 70th Seafair Torchlight Parade, on July 27, 2019.
Flanked by two men dressed as generals from the Tang Dynasty, the practitioners’ float is 47 feet in length, 12 feet wide, and 10 feet high. The sail reaches up to 25 feet.
A man talked with some people and said that he had heard about Falun Dafa. “I have been following a YouTube channel which talks a lot about this,” he said, “The situation there [suppression in China] is really terrible.”
The parade had 300,000 spectators and was broadcast live to 700,000 viewers through KIRO 7.
“Here comes Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, a mind and body self-improvement practice,” the TV host introduced during the broadcast, “It is based on the principles of Truth-Compassion-Forbearance, and five sets of easy-to-learn exercises that reduce anxiety.”
One practitioner said the green color of this year’s float represents spring and hope.
More than 1,000 hand-painted plum blossoms on the float next to the colorful clouds and lotus flowers on the deck,
Adele, a professional photographer interested in traditional Chinese culture, said that she supports practitioners for their belief.
Chinese residents and tourists were so glad to see the float and the practitioners’ waist drum performance.
Ms. Zhang, a tourist who came with her husband, said the float was magnificent. She was proud of what practitioners do to promote traditional Chinese culture.
A man who had emigrated to the U.S. more than 20 years ago said he knows about the situation in China. “I have already quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organizations,” he added.
Influenced by propaganda from the CCP, two Chinese men were initially hostile to practitioners.
After talking with a Western practitioner, who answered their questions, they accepted materials and said they would read them.
