10/15/2002

BBC Monitoring

The government has granted permission for Falun Gong [practitioners] to hold a variety show at the Tsuen Wan and Tuen Mun town halls despite repeated applications from the group being rejected since last year. They have also been allowed to hold a photo exhibition at one of the venues. A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong Association of Falun Dafa, Sophie Xiao, said she was surprised and happy at the government's decision.

[Xiao] We were pretty happy about it and certainly welcome the decision from the government on this, finally letting us use the venues after like 70 frustrated applications over a period of time of 14 months, which is when our first application was sent in last June.