Letter From UNIMA-CHINA

The recent events surrounding the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic have the world watching with concern. Unima-USA recently received a letter from our colleagues from Unima China extending gratitude for all of the inquiries they have received. The letter is full of resilience and positivity. 

It’s encouraging to see the puppetry community worldwide embrace this opportunity and make it their mission to educate, as well as ease the minds of their community through thoughtful puppetry. 

When people need it the most, puppeteers get to work and cast their magic of love and peace. They find their strength, importance, and power through puppetry. 

Puppeteers create beauty to inspire their communities;  inform, educate, spread awareness, and entertain people’s troubled minds through their art. This is the true “super” power of puppetry in real-time. 

Puppetry unites people.

THE LETTER FROM UNIMA CHINA:

Dear Friends, 

Recently, lots of you have sent emails to us concerning the current situation after the Novel Coronavirus outbreak in China. On behalf of all puppetry practitioners in China, I would like to express our sincere gratitude to all the friends for your concern and greetings. Please have faith in us, my dear friends. Although the epidemic hasn’t been totally under control yet, the prevention and treatment measures have been taken by the Chinese Government are highly prompt, efficient and effective. Till now, no puppetry practitioner was reported to be infected. Even if someone was unfortunately infected, he or she would be sent to the best hospital by the local government and receive free and adequate treatment. We believe that the epidemic transmission will definitely be prevented and under control. This abrupt outbreak was quite unpredictable. Putting the life and health of people and the safety of the state in the first place, our government closed public places that may gather a crowd in time to efficiently prevent the larger epidemic spread. It depends on the effort of everybody to defeat the epidemic. Each person and each family should take self-protective measures to reduce the risk and speed of the virus transmission. We believe that every country would take such effective measures to fight such kind of virus outbreak.

Since the outbreak, the medical workers in the whole nation are making full use of every minute to rescue critically infected patients, without considering their own safety. The entire nation is voluntarily supporting Wuhan with finance, manpower, and materials. Our Prime Minister arrived at the epidemic area to command the virus combat. Specialized finance has been allocated for the construction of hospitals for severely affected patients. Daily supplies and self-protective gears have been mobilized to ensure people’s life. PLA commanders have been urgently assigned to the epidemic frontline to participate in rescuing and treatment with utmost effort. We are witnessing that the whole nation is hand in hand with one heart and one mind, helping each other during a hard time. We are also witnessing again the Chinese spirit, confidence, and speed, as well as each one’s strong affection to the nation and family and the nation’s care to its people.

In front of this sudden outbreak of the epidemic, we are not doctors and cannot rescue infected people, but we are also doing our part in preventing transmission by staying at home, not gathering and take care of ourselves. Together with the whole nation, the entire puppetry practitioners in China are taking their responsibilities as citizens, based on their greater love for the nation and its people. To be frank, it is indeed a particularly tough time since the start of early spring this year. Meanwhile, it is also in this period, we are surrounded and deeply moved by the strong love and affection, iron will and persistence. We are gaining a further understanding of the national bond as “when disaster strikes, help comes from all sides”, national will as “unity is strength” and national spirit as “Much distress regenerates the nation and we will constantly strive to become stronger”. Currently, the cultural and artistic circles in China are taking advantage of the internet to present their creation of shows like music, dance, songs, paintings, and talk shows, etc. By sharing their love and care, the artists are helping strengthen people’s faith, supporting Wuhan and all infected patients and instructing people to stay away from the virus by using scientific methods. Chinese puppetry practitioners in Hubei, Hunan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Sichuan, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Beijing, Tianjin, Henan, Hebei, Zhejiang, Heilongjiang, etc., have all created shows to encourage the heroes fighting in the frontline.

Thank you, my dear friends, for your concerns about people in China and the situation. We believe that you are getting daily up-to-date information about the authentic situation here from the News reports and TV programs from China. We would like to sincerely thank again all the people who are thinking and care about us. We, Chinese people, have always been a grateful nation and will never forget those who have helped us.

Dear friends, please don’t worry. The epidemic will definitely be controlled and go away. By then, we will continue to present to the world more wonderful artistic creations of puppets and shadow puppets. And we will welcome you as always to China again and share a more fantastic time together. The trust, friendship, and cooperation among us will never be affected by the epidemic outbreak. 

With sincerest regards,
Tang Dayu 
General Secretary
UNIMA China 
China Puppetry and Shadow Art Association 
February 9th, 2020