Dear Editor,

I was so shocked to read an article called “Leaflets in Hand: Divine Performing Arts at Durham Performing Arts Center” by Kate Dobbs Ariail. In my family, we are all Divine Performing Arts fans. We love the show so much. I was truly upset by [Ms.] Ariail’s article. Even though it has been days, I still feel hurt. So I can’t help writing to you.
 
I am a travel agent manager in Durham. Last December was our 3rd year to watch Divine Performing Arts show.
 
In 2006, a friend highly recommended this show to me. So I drove my parents to Washington DC to watch it. They enjoyed it so much.
 
In 2007, we were glad to learn that Divine Performing Arts would come to North Carolina for the first time and the closest show would be in Greensboro. So this time, I also brought my 6-year old daughter Angela and 4-year old son Alex. I was so surprised that Angela and Alex just sat there quietly watching the whole show, which was over 2 hours. They just loved it.
 
In 2008, it was even better. Divine Performing Arts came to Durham! So I also recommended it to a lot of my friends and even some of my customers.
I grew up in China. Though I immigrated to the United States and have been living here for 12 years, I still feel that experiencing the culture of China brings me HOME. While watching the Divine Performing Arts show in Durham, my heart and soul were traveling with the performers through thousands of years of Chinese history. It is just so beautiful! So powerful! So touching!
 
When I was at NC State, I had checked out Falun Dafa books from D. H. Hill library to read. I really liked them. Basically, they talked about cultivation and truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. I couldn’t agree more about the importance of these values. Without them, how can we have a peaceful world?
 
Cultivation is part of traditional Chinese culture. The legend of the Monkey King (Journey to the West) is actually describing a monk’s cultivation story, which has been one of the most famous stories in China for over 400 years. So a traditional Chinese show with no mention of cultivation, the Buddha School, and Taoism would be truly strange.
 
Therefore, the subjects of the Divine Performing Arts shows are familiar to me. I can understand different people may have different feeling about a show. But as a reviewer, it is misleading to criticize a show because of a lack of understanding of traditional Chinese culture and Falun Dafa. The misleading information included in the article is unfair to Divine Performing Arts and unfair to the readers.
 
I am proud of Chinese culture. I am proud of Divine Performing Arts. And Happy Chinese New Year!
 
Sincerely yours,
 
Emily Li
Durham, NC