Clarifying the truth in Manhattan's Chinatown

Influenced by the Chinese regime's negative propaganda, some Chinese people in New York City do not know the truth of Falun Gong and hold negative opinions and sometimes even a hostile attitude towards Dafa and practitioners.

On Nov. 4th, New York practitioners held a photo exhibition and exercise demonstration in Chinatown's Roosevelt park. This was the fourtháSaturday in a row that this same event was held here. On the previous weekends we had noticed that more and more Chinese people, who hadábeen poisoned by Jiang Zemin's slanderous propaganda,áwere slowly opening up and were learning about the truth ofáFalun Gong and the persecutionáin China.

Practitioners handed out truth clarifying materials to people who were walking by, and many people were receptive. Severaláwestern practitioners handed out flyers. A Chinese practitioner taught a couple of the Westerners how to say, "Falun Gong truth clarifying materials" in Chinese. Then when Chinese people would walk byáand hearáthe westernersáspeaking in Chinese, they would smile andáusually take the materials. In general, it seemed like many Chinese people are more receptive to westerners, probably because they don't have any notions about westerners practicing Falun Gong.

This timeápractitioners brought a television, which continuously played Dafaávideos. This method of clarifying the truth was very successful;ámany people sat and watchedáfor hours!

Unfortunately, there were several thugs, who appeared to be hired by the Chinese Consulate, that tried to disrupt our event in any way possible. Several times, the thugsásurrounded 1 or 2 practitioners who were trying toáclarify the trutháandáthen attempted to provoke aádebate among the crowd.áIf a debate started, then the thugs would become very angry andátry toástart fights with practitioners by shouting and swearing at them.áEventually the practitioners called the policeáwhoáthenádrove away the "ring-leaders" that were the root cause of the problems. Actually, based on the previous events at this park, we found that the best way to make the thugs disperse was to have all practitioners, especially those who are trying to engage theácrowd,ásit down and send forth righteous thoughts.

We found that in many cases,áit was theápowerful fieldáthat waságenerated byáDafa practitioners doing the exercises and sending forth righteous thoughts that created an environment where those poisoned Chinese people could have a chance to be saved. Whenever the focus of the event was shifted to the group of evil thugs arguing with practitioners, most people would stop reading our poster boards and would not take flyers anymore.

After the event, many practitioners shared experiences and understandings from the event.áá

A couple ofápractitionersácommentedáthat Western practitioners can play a large role in clarifying the truth to Chinese people---even if they don't speak English. Some suggested that next time it might be good to have western practitioners shareátheir viewsáon Dafaáover the loud speaker (with a simultaneous Chinese translation). Or, perhaps just have more westerners engage in dialogues with Chinese people, using an interpreter.áIn addition, practitioners realized that it's better to avoid engaging large groups of thugs when trying to clarify the truth--since they use the "group mentality" as a way to provoke anger among the crowd. Instead, practitioners found that it is much more effective to quietly speak with the troublemakers individually if possible. In several cases, practitioners commented that many of the thugs are good people; theyáare justáuneducated and haveábeen misled by the evil propaganda.

New York practitioners hope to do better in ouráfutureátruth-clarifying events to Chinese people. We appreciate any comments and suggestions.