(Minghui.org) What a shocking experience I had at Hong Kong's Hung Hom Train Station on October 2, 2012.
I am a Falun Gong practitioner from Taiwan. I decided to go to Hong Kong for a week after a friend of mine told me that Falun Gong practitioners in Hong Kong have been repeatedly accosted.
Two female practitioners and I arrived at Hung Hom Train Station after we finished practicing the exercises at 6 a.m. We were preparing to demonstrate the Falun Gong exercises, study the Fa, display banners with important information about Falun Gong, and do the sitting meditation.
When we arrived at our destination, a young man in green who looked like a college student was holding a banner with messages that attacked Falun Gong and its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. I approached him in a friendly manner and explained to him, "Falun Gong is good. Please don't do such things. Practitioners all have families and careers, and we are sacrificing our personal time to help people in Hong Kong understand the truth. We all have to take time off work to come here. Please don't be deceived by the Chinese Communist regime's lies and hatred." He turned his face away and did not respond.
I then noticed a slightly plump young woman from the Hong Kong Youth Care Association who was staring at me wide-eyed and who exclaimed, "You are so young and beautiful, yet you come here?" I moved to the front of where a banner that said "Falun Gong is good" was. While holding it in my hand I replied with a smile, "I am 31 years old. You say I look like I am in my early 20s. I don't use any skin care products, and I look young because I practice Falun Gong. I also used to have a bad temper before I started practicing."
The young man then returned, and he looked angry. He shouted verbal assaults at Falun Gong and called it a political movement. I did not get emotional, but I explained to him in a gentle manner, "A political movement seeks to gain political power. Falun Gong practitioners are not interested in any political power, just a legal environment that protects their right to practice. This is about personal freedom of belief and speech and fundamental human rights.” He had nothing to retort.
However, the peace was short-lived. The young man and woman were silent for less than 60 seconds before they started shouting verbal abuse at Falun Gong again. I decided to ignore them and started doing the exercises, as they were irrational and would not listen to reason.
As soon as I started doing the exercises, about six men and women in green T-shirts from the Hong Kong Youth Care Association ranging in age from their 20s to 50s began to accost me. A slim woman in her 50s took many photos of me with an iPad, and the rest of them surrounded me. They jeered, mocked, and laughed at me. I ignored them and continued to do the exercises, yet I felt very sad for them. How did they become so foolish? They are insulting themselves with such behavior.
In the afternoon, these members of the Hong Kong Youth Care Association covered up our golden banner that read "Falun Gong Is a Righteous Cultivation" with their own banner with religious epithets. I felt terribly hurt. I could no longer sit there and watch people who were passing by read the message of hatred on their banner. I began to talk to these people and explain to them how wonderful Falun Gong is and that we had traveled here to stop the senseless hatred against Falun Gong. Fortunately, people knew how to tell right from wrong. Many I spoke with understood and accepted the truth about Falun Gong. Even Hong Kong legislators have issued statements to support Falun Gong's peaceful appeal.
While I was speaking to a person passing by, a slim middle-aged woman whose name sounded like Li Xue kept taking my photo with an iPad. She must have taken more than 100 photos. I decided it was inappropriate and wanted to tell her to stop. I patted her on the shoulder to get her attention, but she shrieked in rage. "What are you doing? Why did you touch me!" I was shocked by her shrieks, but I decided that I should tell her to stop. I patiently told her, "I wanted to tell you to stop. It is not good for you." Yet she continued to shout insults. Then a man in black appeared. He tried to calm her down and asked me to leave her. I returned to Hung Hom Station the next day.
The situation did not improve. While we were doing the exercises, about 10 people from the Hong Kong Youth Care Association accosted us and verbally attacked the founder of Falun Gong and us. They even made lewd comments towards young female Falun Gong practitioners.
In the afternoon, the young plump woman from the day before led a group of seven people to our area. They approached a practitioner and covered her with a banner with hate epithets! I took photos of the attack with a mobile phone. The practitioner who was attacked was a lady in her 30s. She endured the attack with her eyes closed. A practitioner next to her removed the banner of hatred from her face. What type of hatred would drive these young men to this level?
More and more people appeared during the early evening peak traffic hours. Several Westerners that had been working in China for a long time approached us. I explained to them why Falun Gong practitioners were here and about the behavior of the people from the "Caring Youth Association." A young Westerner talked to me for a long time before he started videotaping the situation. While he was videotaping, a plump woman in her 50s charged at us angrily. She covered our Falun Gong banner with their own banner of hatred. Then she charged off angrily while shouting insults. The young Westerner videotaped her. He looked at me and said, "I see. Your behavior is the complete opposite of theirs. That woman's face was full of hatred." He told me that he would upload the video to the Internet so that more people would know the truth.
We went to Lok Ma Chau, a border area between China and Hong Kong, on October 8. This is another location where Falun Gong practitioners have been repeatedly accosted by members of the "Caring Youth Association."
A friend showed me a video she took of an attack on October 2. The video showed that members of the Hong Kong Youth Care Association surrounded Falun Gong practitioners with large banners. I was more astonished when I watched a middle-aged plump woman from the association hit the poster board that a Falun Gong practitioner carried. When she hit the poster board, the practitioner was hit as well. She showed me another video from July 4 when a member of the association even showed a jagged knife to intimidate practitioners and reporters. Yet the police officer at the scene did nothing!
We began to approach and chat with tourists from China that had arrived at Lok Ma Chau. We talked to them about the truth of Falun Gong. Three women from the Hong Kong Youth Care Association accosted us. Two of them wore sunglasses and hats, and they avoided eye contact. There was also a man in black that looked like their leader. When we looked in his direction, he would lower his head or hide his face behind a newspaper. We wondered why he wanted to do bad things that forced him to hide?
There were many groups of tourists from China at the square near the bus station who looked at us with curiosity. I was happy to see them. I approached them and quickly explained what Falun Gong is, the truth about the staged self-immolation as hate propaganda against Falun Gong, and the news about people quitting the Chinese Communist Party and its two affiliated student leagues. Several young men that looked like college students kept asking me questions. One of them said he knew the self-immolation act was false. I was very pleased that more and more people from China knew the truth about Falun Gong!
We helped the tour guide remind the tourists to keep their personal belongings and store their large luggage in the trunk. The tour guides and tourists all smiled.
While we were chatting with tourists from China, members of the Hong Kong Youth Care Association broadcast hate epithets via speakers. A lady from Hong Kong appeared and shouted at the people from the association in a Cantonese dialect, "This is Hong Kong! How dare you do such things?" She yelled at them for some time before she left. Meanwhile, the tour guides spoke up as well. They told them not to make such loud noise through their speakers because it affected their tours. We were very encouraged by this because it meant there were more people that could tell right from wrong.
I felt anxious and responsible as I saw the look of anticipation on the faces of those Chinese people who have been prevented from learning the truth. I am convinced that the persecution will end soon and that Falun Gong will be praised and spread in China once again.
