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More than 15,000 Chinese rallied in lower Manhattan, New York City on May 4 to voice their support for the summer Olympics in Beijing and promote a peaceful world united under the Olympic spirit.

The rally, with the theme of "Peace and Olympics," was organized by a group of Olympic supporters, mostly young Chinese students and professionals living in or around New York, via the Internet.

"As Chinese living in the United States, we need to get our voices heard," Howard Hou told Beijing Review. Hou, currently working in New York City, is one of the 10 organizers of this event. He said that the rally has gained overwhelming support from Chinese living in the United States, including Tibetans who signed a petition to show their support for the Beijing Olympics and provided pictures and information to help people learn more about Tibet.

Waving the Chinese and U.S. national flags and holding up banners supporting the Beijing Olympics, demonstrators sang China's national anthem and shouted slogans like "Go Beijing, Go Olympics!"

According to Hu Jie, one of the coordinators of the event, two light aircraft were hired to circle overhead, carrying banners supporting the Beijing Olympics and condemning CNN commentator Jack Cafferty who recently made insulting remarks about the Chinese.

Among the enthusiastic crowd were also some Westerners dressed in white "Beijing 2008" T-shirts. One of these was Joachim who moved from Germany to become a New Yorker over 10 years ago. "You've got to show more support for the Olympics and show more of the good sides of China and of the Olympics," Joachim said, adding, "it [the rally] is so good and absolutely necessary." Joachim has been to China many times. He said that the way that some Westerners viewed Tibet and China was so wrong because "they don't understand the whole picture." He suggested that Westerners get into more dialogues with Chinese and try to understand China from different perspectives.

Raffaele Abbate, an Italian now working in New York, joined the gathering with a self-made banner written: "China United, not De-vided." "I came here because someone needs to represent those of us in the West that have a different point of view," Abbate told Beijing Review, adding, "a lot of Westerners are misinformed about China." He also said that China needs to improve its public relations efforts and let foreigners get a better understanding of what's really going on in China.

The date of the rally marked the 89th anniversary of the May Fourth Movement in China's history, an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement in early modern China that featured Chinese nationalism and ideological emancipation.

(Wang Yanjuan and Chen Wen, Beijing Review, reporting from New York)