In the early morning of July 16, the Chinatown that is located in south Chicago began to get crowded. The annual Chicago Summer Festival attracted tens of thousands of eastern and western tourists and local residents. Along the long street, there were traditional crafts and delicious foods. Of course, there was no lack of the inseparable parts of the Chinese cultural - martial arts and qigong.
In the past years, Falun Dafa practitioners participated in the Summer Festival. Since the Chinese government crackdown on Falun Gong last year, more and more people are becoming familiar with it. When people saw from a distance the blue banner of Falun Dafa, with yellow English and Chinese characters, many stopped and wanted to find out more. In order to further tell the truth to the world, we displayed and distributed large amounts of pictures and articles, from the Tianjin Incident to the peaceful appealing on April 25, and the facts of inhuman prosecutions of the practitioners since the suppression on July 20 of last year, exposing the conspiracies and crimes of Chinese government to the world. The practitioners also demonstrated the five sets of exercises.
I remember during the Chinese Spring Festival (beginning from February 5 of this year), some friends from China who were influenced by the propaganda of the Chinese government asked all kinds of acrimonious questions. After looking at the photos of Zhao Xin and others being cruelly injured, most of them were shocked. On one side were the peaceful Dafa practitioners; on the other side was the brutal violence. Many people could not understand it and asked us for the reason. They approached us and asked for materials. Upon hearing our explanations, the eastern and western people, who have a sense of justice and kindness, expressed their deep concerns and sympathies. They showed extreme dislike and abhorrence towards the Cultural-Revolution-like propaganda made by a few leaders of the Chinese government.
The followings are some short stories from the summer festival.
1. Facts speak louder than words
The few people in the Chinese government have not only prosecuted Falun Dafa practitioners without reasons, but also have smeared Falun Dafa inside and outside China to cover up their brutal persecution. In order to let the facts be known to the world, we prepared many photos this time. The large color photos displayed the truth to the people: the peaceful appealing practitioners being severely beaten by the police; young practitioners that were disabled by the prosecution; the peaceful practitioners being harassed by the government employees with high pressure water guns -- the facts of the truth destroyed the shameless lies.
When I came to work the second day, a colleague told me that she and a good friend of hers went to the Chinatown Summer Festival and saw the Falun Gong booth. Being influenced by the Chinese government's false propaganda, her friend had deep prejudices towards Falun Gong and had even opposed her intention to get to know Falun Gong. However, when her friend saw the photos displayed and learned some of the truth, she was shaken by the contrast of the peaceful practitioners and the ruthless persecutors. My colleague told me that her friend kept silent for a long time after looking at the photos.
2. "I finally found you!"
Throughout the festival, we repeatedly told people, who did not know the truth and what was really happening in China. During the day, a lady over 60 years old came to the information table reading the materials quietly. A practitioner thought that she wanted to learn, and talked with her. She then took out a book from her bag. It was a well-wrapped Zhuan Falun. Actually, she was a practitioner from China, visiting the United States. Her children here were not practitioners. She did not know how to use the Internet and how to contact the practitioners here in Chicago. Each time she went out, she was hoping that she could find someone wearing a Falun emblem. When seeing us, she was very excited and said, "I finally found you." When we passed Teacher's new articles to her, she was so happy, she cried. Through the conversation, we learned that the practitioners from her area in China persevered very firmly with their cultivation and practice. However, that area was very isolated and many false articles were spread around. She said that she would try to send the new articles back to the practitioners in China.
3. The demonstration of the exercises
The organizer of the Summer Festival asked us to do the five sets of exercises on the stage. Many people were attracted there. Right after the demonstration was over, people asked where they could learn the exercises. After we came back to our booth, several practitioners continued doing the exercises in an open area nearby. The slow and graceful movements and beautiful music made many people stop and watch. There was a booth a few steps away playing very loud rock-and-roll music. But the noise did not affect our exercises at all. On the contrary, it showed the peacefulness of Falun Dafa practice. We often heard people's praise. Some imitated the exercises. People no longer waited for the flyers, they stretched out their hands for the materials. Over a thousand copies of the materials were distributed and a practitioner went to make additional copies again and again. Many people sighed: "How could the Chinese government persecute such peaceful people?" The peaceful exercise site became the channel for us to express our sincere feelings and to tell the truth.
The festival lasted 10 hours and ended at 8:00PM. From morning to evening, everyone was busy all the time. When we were packing up, there were still people asking about Falun Dafa.
Chicago Falun Dafa Practitioner 7/25/2000
