Issued by Clearwisdom Net

Adelaide, Australia: Practitioners Protest the Six-Year Persecution

 On July 23, 2005, Adelaide practitioners gathered at Victoria Plaza downtown to raise awareness of the six-year persecution of Falun Gong in China. They displayed banners and photo posters, demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises, and collected signatures calling for an end to the persecution.

Passersby reading posters

The plaza is very close to a transit center in the city and thus there were always many pedestrians passing by. The banners reading, "Peaceful Appeal to End the Six-Year Persecution" and "Falun Gong Spreads Around the World" were very eye-catching. Practitioners demonstrated the graceful and relaxing exercises to the beautiful exercise music. Nearby, posters were displayed which documented the photo evidence of the brutal persecution. Many passersby were attracted by the peaceful practice site and were shocked by the brutality of the persecution. A lot people signed the practitioners' petition calling for an immediate end of the atrocity in China.

One practitioner said, "When the persecution started in 1999, practitioners in southern Australia soon started to clarify the truth at the plaza and Chinatown. Through their persistent efforts over the past 6 years, more and more people have learned about the beauty of Falun Gong and the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). With the publication of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party and the most recent defection of former Chinese officials including Chen Yonglin, Hao Fengzhun and Han Guansheng, more and more people have come to understand the evil nature of the CCP. Consequently, they have awakened to see the beauty of Falun Gong.

Teaching a citizen the Falun Gong exercises

Another practitioner told the reporter about her experience with Falun Gong. She said, "Since I started to practice Falun Gong, I have not only become very healthy but also very optimistic and clear-minded. I have become more efficient and very joyful every day. My high spirits have also brought positive effects to my coworkers, who no longer argue with each other in my presence." When we were talking, a westerner came up and asked how to learn the exercises. A practitioner then started to teach this young fellow. The practitioner continued, "We have more than 10 free teaching sites in community centers and public parks, and everyone is welcome. People can obtain our activity schedule at our practice sites in Chinatown or Victoria Plaza every Saturday."

A Chinese International student knew some details of the persecution of Christian house church members in China. After she learned about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, she understood better about the CCP's atrocities against the Chinese people's freedom of belief. She was also very worried about her parents who are still in China and exposed to the CCP's propaganda every day. A practitioner had the following suggestion: "People in Mainland China can use free software programs to break through the Internet blockade, in order to read objective information from websites such as Clearwisdom, and they can also listen to the radio station, Sound of Hope."

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/29/107272.html

 From July 22 to July 26, 2005, the "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" International Art Exhibition was held at the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton. In the five-day show, thousands of local residents came to appreciate the paintings and learned about the ongoing human rights atrocities against innocent Falun Gong practitioners in China. Many visitors were deeply moved by the serenity and beauty of Falun Gong depicted by the paintings.

The exhibition coincided with the Edmonton 2005 World Masters Games at the peak of the tourist season, and people came to the exhibition in a continuous stream. Besides local residents, tourists from many countries including the U.S., Mexico, Ireland, Israel and Korea also came to appreciate the paintings.

A corner of the exhibition

After viewing the paintings, many people were shocked by the ongoing brutal persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. A large number of the visitors had never heard about Falun Gong or knew very little about it. However, they often commented that the facts of the persecution presented by the paintings were beyond their imagination. One visitor said that he didn't know about the persecution before and that the exhibition was very educational for him. He hoped that the exhibition would reach more people.

After viewing the paintings, very often the visitors came to thank the practitioners for holding this event, which helped them learn about the brutal persecution against people's belief in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." A Mexican visitor said that the persecution of Falun Gong was so much like the persecution of Christians. Another visitor stated, "The exhibition displays the truth behind Chinese Communist Party's lies."

While many visitors were shocked and very sad for practitioners' unbearable suffering, they also saw the hope that justice will eventually defeat evil. In the exhibition notebook, a visitor wrote: "The [Falun Gong practitioners'] suffering brings the world the hope for peace."

Many people said that the exhibition inspired them and they could feel an unknown mighty energy behind the paintings.

After learning about the truth, many visitors asked practitioners how they could help to end this persecution. When they were told that many orphans of practitioners were still suffering in China and that overseas practitioners were trying to rescue them, a large number of them donated money to the Rescue Orphans of Falun Gong Practitioners Foundation.

During the exhibition, many people learned the Falun Gong exercises at the site. There were also people who learned how to fold paper lotus flowers, a symbol of peace and purity.

Exhibition visitors learning how to fold paper lotus flowers

At an intersection outside the exhibition building, practitioners distributed all the materials they had prepared. They distributed more than 10,000 copies of Falun Gong truth-clarifying materials and about 3,000 people visited the exhibition. Moreover, nearly 300 visitors signed the practitioners' petition and/or wrote down their comments to condemn the persecution and to express their admiration for the practitioners' conviction in "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance."

A visitor writing down her thoughts

It is worth mentioning that a nearby coffee shop offered free coffee to those at the exhibition after the owner learned about Falun Gong and the persecution in China. Also, a nearby gallery invited the practitioners to hold another exhibition of this kind.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/29/107219.html

 Between 16th and 22nd of June 2005, for the first time Falun Gong practitioners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia made wide contact with the mainstream media, exposing the brutal persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist regime. They also hosted various activities to introduce Falun Gong to the general public. Practitioners invited Falun Gong practitioner Xiong Wei from Germany as a special guest. This article is the third part in the series recording their experiences. To read previous parts of this report, please see /emh/articles/2005/7/28/63344.html

On the morning of the 20th June 2005 the practitioners held a press conference in the Slovakian capital Bratislava. The conference was supported by the human rights organisation Amnesty International.

The press conference was to be held in a venue called Culture Plaza. When the practitioners reached the entrance to the conference hall, they were shocked: the place had obviously just hosted a pop concert and was strewn with chairs, huge speakers, beer bottles. Everything looked a mess. The room was also very dark. Without any complaint or even discussion about the situation, the practitioners immediately started to clean up. They worked in harmony and put the room in good order with great efficiency.

The above kind of thing is very common among Falun Gong practitioners. Falun Gong practitioners follow the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance" in their lives and always consider others first when doing things. This press conference was organised in order to get help from international communities to end the brutal persecution of innocent Falun Gong practitioners in China. Practitioners organised the activity all out of their own hearts, not imposed by any company, management rules or laws. Therefore they can work together in great harmony and self-coordination.

More local practitioners also came to help and everything was soon in order. Chairs were arranged neatly, leaflets prepared and pictures revealing the torture that the Chinese Communist Party has inflicted on Falun Gong practitioners were lined up around the walls. Two huge oil paintings exposing the persecution were set out beside the main platform. Beautiful lotus flowers were laid out on the table.

During the press conference, Xiong Wei described her own personal experience. After being arrested for handing out leaflets exposing the human rights abuseas aganst Falun Gong, she was imprisoned in a Chinese forced labour camp for two years and suffered various types of torture and abuse. Her talk was very simple and straightforward. The atmosphere in the room was very solemn. Everyone was looking at her and carefully listening to the story of a group of kind people who keep steadfast in their belief.

Female journalists couldn't hide their sadness and sympathy. At the beginning, the young female representative from Amnesty International sat very comfortably and was very relaxed. Soon after she leaned towards Xiong Wei, eagerly awaiting the translation of the next sentence.

All TV stations present wanted to have a special interview. A female journalist asked hesitantly, "I have a question. You don't need to answer if you don't want to. I want to know is: when the police treated you very badly, did you still face them with compassion and tolerance?"

Xiong Wei replied, "Yes, but it wasn't easy for me at the beginning. Faced with such humiliation and hurt for no reason, I could not understand and felt angry. I obtained physical health and spiritual purification by practising Falun Gong, why torture me like this? With more and more thoughts about the principles of "Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance", I finally understood: if I am willing to whole-heartedly believe in compassion, I have the determination to get rid of all passive thoughts. I truly did that. The more serious the persecution became, the more clearly I knew that Falun Gong is good. Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance are great!"

Xiong Wei answered the questions very fluently. The honesty, sincerity, kindness and strength displayed by Falun Gong practitioner moved everyone. That evening, they invited Falun Gong practitioners to talk about the persecution in a live programme.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2005/7/16/106301.html

During spring 2005, Finnish practitioners arranged to hold Falun Gong photo exhibitions in libraries in Lapland. The light summer nights (the nights are very light in the North during the summer) made us able to drive until the late night hours before making any stop. In this way we could take the exhibition to different libraries and the local people in the most rural areas in the north have now learned about Falun Gong and the brutal persecution.

Summer had arrived when we moved the exhibition to the city of Kittila. The exhibition remained there for two weeks. The local people in Kittila showed great interest in the exhibition.

The next place was Kemijarvi. We began to hang up the exhibition and put the pictures in a nice order. The first picture told how Falun Gong was spread in China and how in a short while it became the most popular qigong practice in China. In a few years millions of people practised it. The second picture showed different awards that Teacher Li and Falun Gong had received from different local governments and organisations in China, Canada, US and other countries.

From this photo exhibition the viewer could learn about the history of Falun Gong and that it was the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin's communist regime that launched a persecution campaign against Falun Gong in China in July 1999. This is now six years ago. Under pressure from the international community, the malevolent party's persecution of Falun Gong has also changed its tactics from a large-scale public persecution, to one that appears relaxed on the surface, but that has actually intensified. This ongoing persecution has destroyed countless Chinese people's lives.

We paid a visit to the local newspaper and told them about our photo exhibition. The newspapers' main editor interviewed us briefly and an article was later published. The article revealed how Falun Gong is a practice for mind and body that improved many people's health and well-being. The article went on to say that Falun Gong is a peaceful spiritual movement but suddenly in 1999, the Chinese regime prohibited this very popular practice method among the masses. The regime changed its mind and began to suppress this practice, when they realised that the numbers of practitioners had grown from 10 million to 70 million. But practitioners have continued to increase around the world.

When we come to pick up the exhibition, two ladies hurriedly came to take a look. One of the ladies wanted to show her friend how this peaceful practice is being persecuted for no reason in China. She tried to find the picture where the persecution was detailed but she couldn't. So a practitioner told her how the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin couldn't stand that something could reach so great a popularity among the masses so he became very jealous and in July 1999 he launched the persecution. Practitioner talked about the practice of Falun Gong and of its benefits. One of the ladies said she had read the Falun Gong book and now she had become interested in trying it. The ladies were grateful to have learned the truth and left the library satisfied.