[Celebrating World Falun Dafa Day] New Ambiance at a Children’s Amusement Park

(Minghui.org) There is a children’s amusement park in my area. Because some employees resigned and it was shorthanded, I was pulled in to help.

To be honest, this was a new industry for me, so I was reluctant initially, thinking I might not be able to do the job well. But my friend who invited me to come was very earnest and sincere. I didn’t want to say no, so I accepted the job offer.

The park owner was very happy and he gathered all employees (including those on the night shift) to welcome me. Although I did not plan to work here long, I thought I would do my best anyway.

I used to work in an office, quiet and simple. Here it is crowded and noisy, which can be a challenge. Plus, for a long time, I hadn’t had children around and I enjoyed a peaceful life. Here I had to deal with hundreds of kids and parents every day. I had to watch everything and know everything, while keeping cleaning things up.

Compared to the managerial position I came from, I was like an entry level waitress here. The pay was low and I could only have two days off per month. I did not like it, and was also afraid of running into acquaintances. Other employees and I did not think I would last long.

Nonetheless, I later stayed and ended up being the longest-working employee since the park was opened. I was also promoted to be the the park manager. Below are some stories.

A College Student

When I came to work here, the park manager was a mother with two kids and could not do the night shift. As such, the park owner gave her low pay. Although her commission rate was higher than other employees, her total compensation was just a little higher. She was also hot-tempered and often ran into issues with others.

The employees included former peasants and college students who worked part-time to earn some money. They fought with each other and shirked responsibilities. For example, they recorded happenings in the park on their cell phones and then sent the videos to the park owner or the online chat group for employees. The park manager checked the surveillance videos and the employee-recorded videos every day, and often deducted pay for people’s mistakes. Since she had a poor education, often took off from work early, and left dirty or tiring jobs for others, most employees did not like her. They often reported her to the park owner. The owner could not do anything about it since it was difficult to find another manager in a short time.

New to this industry, I just stayed quiet and kept learning. I worked hard and did not get into conflicts. But the manager still gave me a hard time. Almost everyone, especially the manager, gave me the hardest job. I was arranged to do the night shift almost every day. Many employees gossiped around. Although I had worked in human resources for many years, this was still a challenge for me.

After a few days, I became familiar with the work flow, and began focusing on my responsibilities. Even for cleaning, I always did my best. Gradually, a college student named Wei on the same shift stopped bullying me. In the past he used to tell others to do things when he just sat behind the desk. But I did not argue with him. After finishing my work, I often helped him.

Several days later, we worked closely with each others. When there were not many customers around, he always wanted me to tell him about something, since he found what I said was new and interesting. His major was dance, so I told him stories of Shen Yun Performing Arts company and its artists, the downfall of high-ranking officials, and other uncensored news. He listened attentively. I also downloaded songs from Falun Gong practitioners, along with videos from NTD Television about Falun Gong, and gave them to him.

Wei was hot-tempered and often fought with others. He said whenever he wanted to fight, he would get started soon. So other people were afraid of him. When I asked for more details, he said he had heard from someone that keeping a Chinese national flag could help one to be safe, so he kept one in his dorm. Now I knew why whenever confronted, Wei would become like a stranger – ferocious and violent with his face turning red. It was the communist elements related to the flag.

I talked with him about traditional Chinese culture, as well as roles and responsibilities of a man in the family. I explained to him the vicious element of communism in the flag and urged him to discard it. I also mentioned how one could stay safe by quitting the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its junior organizations. In addition, based on his dance major, I helped him plan for the future.

In the end, I said to him gently, “you know, fighting with others is no good. Please take good care of yourself and others. Also, your family may need your help as well.”

Looking shy, he lowered his head and smiled. He told me his parents worked extremely hard for their family business and his young sister was very lovely. He promised me he would no longer fight with others. Instead, he would study hard towards being a dance instructor. He also agreed to quit the Youth League and Young Pioneers, two junior organizations of the CCP.

I had helped many people quit the CCP organizations at the time. But Wei was somewhat unique. When he announced to quit those CCP organizations, he was suddenly sweating and his white T-shirt was soaked. He asked what happened.

“Do you have fear?” I asked.“No,” he replied, “Instead, I felt a warm current inside me.”“That is good. The CCP is vicious and dark. Once you quit the CCP and its junior organizations, you will regain your strength and vigor,” I explained.

One time Wei told me about an accident he encountered after renouncing the CCP organizations. “Aunty, that day when I was riding a motorcycle, someone bumped into me for no reason. I was fine, but my helmet fell to the ground and rolled far away,” he said.

“When looking at the helmet, I felt as if my head would have been lost rolling like that had I not been protected,” he continued, “Thank you so much!”

He also said that after dumping the flag in the trash can, he noticed the dorm becoming much brighter. Looking at this young man, positive and vigorous, I was very happy for him.

A Bucket of Clean Water

Since I often chatted with Wei at work, I once suggested to change our way of working.

“What should we do then?” He asked earnestly.

“Well, let’s stop complaining about or blaming others,” I replied, “Instead of being affected by negative influence from others, let’s guide them with positive examples. What do you think?”

He agreed. Every day, I gave detailed recommendations and he followed.

This way, we worked happily every day and there was no worries. At the end of our shift, he would pick up the microphone and say goodbye to the customers, wishing them well. Then we would do the accounting and put away the cash, followed by cleaning, with no complaint. I later had another suggestion, “After all these are done, we could bring a bucket of clean water and send a picture of it to the online chat group for employees.

Wei asked why. I said staff members in the morning shift often tried hard finding problems with night-shifters. “If we leave them with a bucket of clean water, they could see it first thing in the morning and be in a good mood. This way, they may not leave a bucket of dirty water for our shift.”

“They may not understand this,” he questioned.

“That’s fine. It doesn’t hurt to give it a try anyway,” I said.

Because the floor needed cleaning all the time, we had several mops and two water buckets. Hardly anyone wanted to replace the water, though, thinking it was something extra. So people continued to use the dirty water as long as there was no bad smell. Following my suggestions, we stayed late to clean well everywhere. When we posted pictures to the chat group, people could see the uploading time as well.

From the park owner to the employees, every one saw us working late and replacing the water. On the first day, the owner asked in the group, “What’s in the bucket?” We were not sure if he asked that question intentionally.

“It’s clean water,” Wei responded.

“Is it the night shift’s responsibility?” he continued.

“No,” we replied.

After a few days, the manager said during the shift change, “Oh, maybe I can replace the water today.”

“That’s okay,” I said with a smile, “Please go ahead and pick up your kids. We can do it later.”

Other employees also changed. Instead of simply leaving on time, they would clean things up right before the shift change, so that the night shift would not see a mess.

Not long after that, Wei resigned from his job. Other than regular school work, he became a substitute teacher at several dance schools. But the tradition of leaving a bucket of clean water for the night shift continues.

Becoming a Manager and Changing Business Philosophy

Although busy with other businesses, the owner did come from time to time for a checkup. He also asked his family and friends to check occasionally without advance notice. There is also video surveillance in the park. But these may not prevent all problems, especially stealing of cash and not recording transactions after merchandise is sold. There were always staff members taking advantage of loopholes.

The owner trusted me from the beginning. He knew I was a Falun Gong practitioner, and some of his relatives were also practitioners. He always hoped I could take over accounting. So right after I came, he wanted me to do accounting every evening, and he told the manager to transfer the responsibility to me. Because I did not plan to stay there long, I did not follow up on that.

The manager did not want to transfer the accounting responsibility to me either. One reason was to avoid losing face; the second reason was so that she could avoid doing other work by using the excuse of her being busy with accounting work; the third reason was that she wanted to have full control of activities and know what to record and when to record. Since the owner wanted me to do accounting right after my arrival, the manager was wary of this and became jealous.

Noticing the challenges, I thought of resigning. But Wei was gone and we were very busy during the summer break. As a practitioner, I knew I should be considerate of others. So I decided to work a little longer and wait until after the summer break to quit the job. But the owner sincerely asked me to stay and talked with me over the phone for more than an hour.

I visited a practitioner for something the next day, and brought up the situation. The practitioner asked if anything had happened in the park that triggered my thoughts of quitting. I said there was nothing. I wanted to resign, but the owner wanted to keep me, making it hard for me to make a decision.

“I think you should stay,” said the practitioner.

“But the owner will ask me to take over and it would be too harsh for the current manager. Plus this place is too messy,” I continued.

“This is a large facility with so many kids,” the practitioner explained, “If you – a Falun Gong practitioner – become the manager, it would be good for the business and the kids.”

I agreed and decided to give it a try.

Other than crowdedness and noise, another thing I did not like was that this place had all kinds of videos games, especially those related to violence, monsters, and killing. Since they were more profitable and kids could easily get addicted to them, the park owner had been increasing those games.

I sometimes talked with the kids who played these games. They told me it was no big deal since the characters in the games had unlimited lives. But, if they kept playing, wouldn’t they confuse them with real people and lead to dangerous behaviors? Plus, some kids liked zombie games, and they came every day. To keep things under control, when it was my shift, I turned off such game consoles.

As practitioners, we know these games are bad for kids, or anyone. I had talked about this with the owner before, and he said he had to check with the co-owner. So I knew I had to talk with him about this again later, probably from a different angle.

I counted the video games, toys, and crafts related to ghosts or violence. The numbers were very high. If people knew the situation, probably very few would come and play. I knew some kids who were sensitive to them always had fever whenever they came playing those videos. Some kids were also scared and did not dare to come to the park. Some people said some young children could see things in other dimensions that adults could not see. Of course, we practitioners understand this well.

Thinking of these things, I knew what I should do. After all, this was the only decent children’s amusement park in this area. With a good business strategy, the profits should be good even without those violent games. Plus, it would benefit a lot of kids in this region. Many preschool kids came to the park all the time. Plus, with the abolishing of the one-child-policy, some families even had three kids. With so many kids visiting our park, what we offered would affect them a lot.

If these kids were poisoned since childhood and became addicted to those violent games, their good nature would be lost. Both the park owner and the kids’ parents would be at fault. We know that after coming to this world, people can return to the origin through cultivation. But if they are destroyed and lost, there is no way they could do that. It seems I came to work at the park by accident, but I did have a mission. Thinking about this, I no longer considered this a new industry; rather, I had confidence in myself.

So I called the owner, explained the situation and told him I would like to stay. He was excited, saying that he had been very worried lately, and even thought about asking more people to convince me to stay. I then talked about how to improve the situation. To my surprise, he was fully supportive and said I could proceed with my plan.

It was not easy to start a business, he explained. “In the beginning, I just wanted to get back my investment and did not think much, although I did not allow my own children to come here. Shame on me!” he continued. He said he was a Buddhist and burns incense every day, hoping not to make money against his conscience. He had also asked vendors to supply healthy games and toys that helped kids, but they kept sending violent games. In fact, he did not even know there were so many zombies and ghosts games here.

“Aunty, what you said is right. For bad toys, we can ask the vendors for exchange. The large video game machines are not easy to discard. Each of them cost tens of thousands of yuan and I have to convince the co-owner to get rid of them,” he continued. He said when purchasing games or toys in the future, he would pick a time during my shift so that I could check. For unhealthy toys, I could just put them together and take a picture. He would then contact vendors for an exchange.

“Also the co-owner has stayed overseas for three months and I have mentioned you to him. He is very happy to have you run the park. I said you are a Falun Gong practitioner, and good at finance as well as management. He asked me to talk with you as soon as possible to keep you here,” he added. He said my base salary would double that of the departing manager while the commission rate remaining the same. He also asked me to be in charge of human resources and operation. I said that would be fine, but I needed some time for learning. He agreed.

To my surprise, several days later, the owner sent a message in the chat group about replacing the manager with me. The owner explained to me that the co-owner liked the idea and they decided to move forward with the plan. They did not even notify the former manager in advance, who resigned within half an hour after the message was posted.

I thought this might be too embarrassing to the former manager. But the owner was not worried. He said the former manager had violated policies by selling game coins to make money for herself, taken stuff home, and formed cliques to push good employees away. All these things had affected the revenue of the business. According to company policy, an employee should submit their resignation at least one month in advance to ensure a smooth transition. But the former manager stopped working right after that and even deleted some data in the computer.

A Business That Serves Goodness

In this way I became the park manager without preparation. The former manager just stepped aside and offered me little help. I treated the situation as if we didn’t have her as an employee. If she wanted to do something, I gave her a task; otherwise, I did not give her any assignments. Interestingly, all other employees suddenly became very active. I also offered to give everyone four days off per month. The owner approved it and everyone was excited about it.

During summer or holidays, some employees had family emergencies and couldn’t report to work. When no one was able to replace them, some were so worried that they cried. I helped them on a few occasions. No one had done this before. So right after becoming manager, I made this change both to help employees and motivate them.

I explained to all partners and vendors that the majority of the customers are preschool children brought here by their grandparents. The children are young and they are learning about the world. The grandparents are mostly in their 50s or 60s, and like traditional values, not contemporary, eccentric stuff. To help children with both entertainment and education for good childhood memories, we hope vendors can provide products that focus on learning, knowledge, or sports. Those “cool” products that are violent are not suitable for young children, and zombies or ghosts are absolutely unacceptable. Especially in the morning, the customers are usually children under three, and we want to introduce the world to them in a good, positive way. For things that we do not want our own children to play, we would not want other kids to play either.

As a result, more than half of the toys were removed. One type of dolls was well made, but the face looked dark and pale. Some people may buy it as a gift thinking it was a high end product. I checked and found it was related to ghosts. So I also removed it.

One of the game computers was for adults. Once turned on, it was as if entering a cave of ghosts. In contrast, paintings during the Renaissance were about religious belief, sacred and bright, and they lead people in a positive direction. Right now, moral decay has led to artistic degeneration, which is a sad situation.

To have more choices of products and prevent a monopoly, I also contacted another supplier. This way, we could select traditional products that children like. The price was also lowered. This way, in the first few days after I became manager, the revenue increased a lot even with toy sales alone.

Many video games mimic wars or fighting. The victims are usually screaming in a bloody scene. This will likely lead children to ruthlessness and numbness, and not value life. It is similar to what Karl Marx said that a human being is just a mixture of carbohydrates. There are also games that target zombies, ghosts, or worms that seem to have unlimited lives. Children were often addicted to it, continually spending money on coins, and not stop until beating them to death. Most of these kids who played the guns games had violent behaviors.

There was also a dance machine. On the surface it was to keep people fit and improve reaction capability. But most of the songs and music were not good. It encouraged people to move around like crazy. These were not good for children, so I also replaced it.

Vendors usually like such products because they can make more money, so I needed to give them justification for replacement. I explained to them both our principles and the operating revenues. They knew I was considerate of children and truly wanted to protect children, so the discussions all went smoothly.

In the end, the products were changed to a basketball machine, pingpong ball machine, excavator, racking, railroad train, and candy machine. Besides a rocking car and rocking horse, we added rotary and other types of products. Lots of young children like those swaying devices like cradles. They love to stay there for over ten minutes before switching to something else.

Being Nice to People

Revenue in the morning used to be very low because kids under three hardly had anything to play with. They could only have two rides on the rocking car. During spring and autumn, lots of parents and babysitters took kids there to climb over the devices without spending money. Now, there are many rocking cars, horses, and cradles for them.

So I proposed to the owner a plan of offering a monthly pass or ten-visit naughty castle pass. In the past, parents felt their kids were too small to play and did not want to spend the money. I now recommended that they spend ten minutes with kids checking out the naughty castle first. I explained that the naughty castle is a great option for toddlers during the daytime, especially for those who are learning to walk. This is because the sponge floor is soft, so there are no injuries if someone falls down. The space is big and kids can either crawl or walk. There are no older kids before 4:00 p.m., so all the time belongs to the toddlers. The tickets are for an entire day and they can come in the morning, and return again after lunch and a nap. One child’s ticket can be accompanied by parents, or grandparents, so it is very convenient. The children can also learn to play and communicate with other children, which helps to develop social skills.

After the trial, lots of parents changed their minds and purchased tickets for the naughty castle pass. Some kids were also rewarded for their positive behaviors. Since lots of kids came, parents felt relieved. Both parents and kids have become our friends.

I was able to remember the children’s names. When I speak out their name, they are very surprised and happy.

“How do you know my name?” They would ask.

“Because you are special” or “Because you are so good,” I often replied.

I found that encouragement helped the kids to behave even better.

Later, when the relatively older kids came and left, they often helped out with cleaning. When playing around and seeing some other kids leave trash around, they may come up and suggest, “Aunties have to work hard cleaning. How about we put things away neatly?” I am always so touched by that. Even if I closed the park late for them, I think it is worth it.

The service industry is not easy these days. Some customers are shrews and just look for trouble. The former manager was scolded by customers many times and could barely work. She later vented her anger elsewhere, making more people suffer. But, when kids see this, what do they learn and what will they do after growing up then? In fact, sometimes it is the customers who violate our policy. But to keep commercial activities, the business bureau agencies always blame businesses when conflicts arise, and unconditionally require business to apologize to customers. Some employees were even fired.

Mankind has decayed so much and there is nearly no way out. I have seen this a lot. Had I not been a practitioner who followed words of Master Li (founder of Falun Gong), those customers probably would have bothered us endlessly and reported us to the business bureau.

Master said,

“Tense situations with others will come up unexpectedly for those of us who practice. How can you be prepared, then? If you can always be compassionate and calm, you will handle the issues that arise in your life well since you will have a buffer, in a sense. Things will work out well if you are always compassionate and good to others, thoughtful towards people, and handle whatever situations you get into with people by first pausing to consider how well your actions will go over with the other party and whether anyone will be hurt by them. You should hold yourself to high standards and raise the bar still further as you practice.” (The Fourth Talk, Zhuan Falun)

As a practitioner, it was not that I tried to suppress anger. Instead, I did not have anger at all. When our hearts are calm and peaceful, the other side is not able to stir up issues.

Considerate of Customers

After I became manager, the owner hardly came to the park again, and he just focused on other businesses. In addition, he told me the passcodes for Alipay and WeChat so I could pay employees directly, make transactions, and conduct other types of transactions. He used to be responsible for purchases, but now I take care of all these, and both he and his co-owner trust me.

My sales revenue is always very high. One employee was puzzled since he tried hard recommending products to customers, but the sales were still not so good. He often watched me secretly to learn. But it seems I was just very causally chatting with customers, and they would just buy toys and apply for month passes. So he asked me why.

I smiled and explained that I never pushed customers for sales. Instead, I would just think from their angles. Based on their financial situation and children’s condition, I would give recommendations. “I think for them, not how to boost my sales. If there are places to save money for them, I remind them to avoid repeated consumption or waste,” I said, “This way, they know we are not trying to squeeze money from them; rather, we just want to help them.”

“Oh, I see. Every time I tried so hard to sell them stuff, they don’t believe me,” he replied, “So I would push more. And they would leave in the end.”

“Well, just think about it. If you are a customer and meeting such a sales rep, would you trust him or her?” I asked.

He nodded.

I also shared Master Li’s words,

“...you need to treat others with kindness and try your best to be considerate of others.” (Teaching the Fa and Answering Questions in Jinan, Zhuan Falun Fajie)

I said that when working here or promoting products, I focus on how to make it more convenient and cost-effective for the customers, just like being considerate of ourselves. When thinking this way, the results are often good.

Later on, the owner sold the business and I began to work for the new owner, Gang. Just coming here, Gang was happy to hear my input. He is also good at handcrafts and put lots of effort into improving the business. Seeing he was young, I often talked about being a good person, and how doing good things would benefit families and future generations. He was able to accept my advice. He also listened to my input when purchasing new devices or starting new programs.

One morning, I sold over 4,000 yuan of products in the first hour. This was a breakthrough for my own record. Noticing my good communication with customers, affinity with kids, and trust of me from customers, Gang hoped I could do more. So he hired someone to take care of cleaning so that we could focus on operations. When encountering difficult customers, he often came to me for help.

In the past, I did not work on the morning shift. Now working on the day shift, I was able to talk with these day customers. Some of them even treated me as a psychological counselor and talked with me about all their troubles. I explained to them what I learned from Falun Gong and helped them. The results are often very good.

One time I had several days off and the owner was so thankful when I came back. This was because many children, parents, staff, and even the cleaning lady kept asking him every day if I had resigned.

“You are truly amazing!” Gang said to me, “If you stay at home a little longer, we might all go crazy!”

We have over ten speakers on the ceiling and walls, and the sound is very good. I played some music and songs composed by Falun Gong practitioners. Especially when there are lots of customers, I selected some children’s songs and stories from practitioners. Seeing the kids dancing around with the music, I felt that my past few years of working here was worth it.

Here I would like to wish all children and their parents along with grandparents a happy, safe, and prosperous future!