Monday, May 14, 2001

About 300 members celebrated the Falun Gong's self-proclaimed World Falun Gong Day in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday, proclaiming that interest in joining the [group] is on the rise in Hong Kong. The [group] staged public exercises on the Tsim Sha Tsui East promenade and in Kowloon Park.

Hong Kong Falun Gong Association spokesman Kan Hung-cheung said more people were joining because they now had a better idea of what the spiritual group was really about, and a promotional drive would be launched.

''Recently, we have had more people joining us and we have also received a lot of requests about wanting to learn more about Falun Gong,'' he said. ''At present, there are about 500 practitioners in Hong Kong, and the number is increasing every month.''

Mr Kan said the group would offer evening practice classes at Kowloon Park for the public every Wednesday, starting this week.

Up to 100 overseas [group] followers had been banned from entering Hong Kong last week during the three-day Fortune Global Forum, he said.

He denied members had adopted high-profile tactics to spread their message. ''I don't think we are high-profile. A lot of organisations hold parades or activities if they want to celebrate a special day. We are no different,'' he said.

[...]

Mr Kan said there were originally about 1,000 followers in Hong Kong but the number had fallen by about half after the crackdown. He denied claims [group] founder Li Hongzhi, reportedly living in New York, controlled the worldwide movement. Local activities were initiated in the SAR.

Yesterday, practitioners handed out plastic flowers and leaflets about alleged persecution of [group] members on the mainland.