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Spain: During the Chinese Lunar New Year Festival, People in Spanish Cities Learn the Truth about Falun Dafa (Photos)

February 14, 2003 |   By a Spanish Practitioner

(Clearwisdom.net)

Chinese New Year is one of the most important annual occasions for Chinese people. Families often have a reunion and socialize with one another during the celebrations. During this New Year, the three Spanish cities with the largest Chinese populations invited some groups from China to travel to Spain to give performances. Practitioners realized that this would be a great opportunity to reveal the facts about the Jiang regime's persecution. Usually it is not easy to meet so many Chinese people, and materials could be given out very efficiently. We hoped that during the gathering of these thousands of Chinese people, we could bring to them the beauty of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance".

Barcelona has the second largest Chinese population in Spain. As soon as the practitioners in Barcelona heard of the planned celebrations, they went to hand out flyers and talk to the Chinese people who attended. They hoped to help the many Chinese people, who have been deceived by the Jiang regime's web of lies spread through state-controlled media, to see the true situation. Practitioners arrived early and divided into two groups; one group demonstrated the exercises, while the other handed out flyers.

The first group of Chinese people that the practitioners met consisted of performers from China. As the performers got off their bus, Falun Gong practitioners approached them to talk. When the performers learned that they were talking to Falun Gong practitioners, they were curious and gathered around to hear the truth about Falun Dafa. When they heard about the facts of the staged self-immolation in Tiananmen Square, they were shocked. They thanked us for telling them the facts about the persecution in China.

As the time for the performance approached, more and more Chinese people arrived. As they passed the display boards, they stopped to look at the photos and were surprised to see so many people in nearly 60 countries in the world practicing Falun Gong. They were also amazed to know that Falun Gong had won so many international awards and earned high acclaim in several Health Expos in China before 1999.

After learning the truth of Falun Gong, some of the Chinese people immediately asked the practitioners to teach them the five sets of exercises, while others inquired about local practice sites. One child wanted to learn the exercises, but was a little shy. With a little encouragement from his mother, the child joined in and learned the exercises in earnest. However, one elementary school student, who was eleven or twelve, stood nearby saying, "I don't believe these superstitious things." One of the practitioners told the child patiently that Falun Dafa was an advanced science, and scientists have done research on the blood and cells of practitioners, finding great positive changes in their cells. After this explanation, we saw that his facial expression eased up. At last, the student listened to the practitioner attentively and said, "In that case, I also want to learn Falun Gong." We were delighted!

One couple and their child came to see the performance. A practitioner handed Dafa materials to the wife. Seeing that the materials were about Falun Gong, the wife asked the husband to also take a look. Unexpectedly, the husband grabbed the materials and threw them on the ground. A practitioner hurried to pick up the materials, telling them sincerely, "Please don't throw them away. They are very precious. Falun Dafa is the Buddha Law, and you should cherish it and remember 'Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance', which will be beneficial to you during your life." The wife gave the husband a disapproving look and told the practitioner, "I believe in Buddha and I believe in what you say. Believe me, I will read the materials carefully." There were still others who came back to ask for more materials for their friends. After receiving the materials, they thanked us and left.

There are only Western practitioners on Gran Canaria Island. To reveal the truth to Chinese people during the Spring Festival, they made efforts to learn several Chinese sentences such as "Falun Dafa is good," "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good," and "This is for you." Though they spoke only a little Chinese, their sincerity and kindness were very touching. Many people asked for materials and Dafa VCD's.

Madrid, the capital of Spain, is the city with the largest Chinese population. Since Jiang ordered the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, practitioners have handed out materials that reveal the facts of the persecution to people here. However, at the end of last year Jiang's criminal gang directed some Chinese people to set up an association to spread lies about Falun Gong in Madrid. After this association was established, several Chinese newspapers in Spain published a series of reports to slander Falun Gong. This poisoned some of the Chinese people with more of Jiang's propaganda.

This year during the celebrations, practitioners came to clarify the truth to the misled Chinese people. But this time the evil people from the association to slander Falun Gong seemed to be well prepared. Upon the arrival of the practitioners, the chair of the association against Falun Dafa asked a group of people to disturb practitioners' activities. They shouted and screamed at practitioners with abusive language. They also threatened to hit the practitioners. Seeing their violent behavior, people passing by were startled and shook their heads in disapproval. Faced with arrogant and violent behavior, practitioners began to take out their cell phones to call the police. As a result, the thugs retreated. After this interference went away, practitioners immediately returned to their activities, handing out materials and VCD's revealing the truth about Falun Dafa and telling them about the benefits of practicing Falun Gong.