(Clearwisdom.net) To conclude a year of Chinese culture that has recently taken place in France, the city of Lons-Le-Saunier in Jura Province organized a Festival with the theme of China. A local Member of Parliament invited Falun Gong practitioners to join the festivities, in order to let more people know about Falun Gong and to talk about the persecution against the practice that has been happening for the last five years.

Many Falun Gong practitioners joined this activity. On the first day, some practitioners took part in the conference and talked about Falun Gong and the persecution. Meanwhile, other practitioners held a performance featuring Chinese waist drums and a traditional dance. Although it was raining during the performance, a lot people came to watch. They were really excited and happy when they saw the practitioners' performance.

Waist drum performance

Falun Gong exercise demonstration

A traditional Chinese dance performance

After the performance had finished, the practitioners went to the city center to demonstrate the five sets of Falun Gong exercises, which also attracted many passers-by. On the way back, the practitioners performed the Chinese drumming again because people kept requesting it.

At dusk, a stage was set up in the center of the Town Square where the celebration was held. Again, Falun Gong practitioners performed on the waist drums, and did the Lotus Dance and another dance called the Heavenly Beauty Dance. At that time, although the weather wasn't good, people gave a round of enthusiastic applause.

The next day, practitioners did the same performance again, along with a demonstration of the Falun Gong exercises. They also distributed Falun Gong informational leaflets and collected petition signatures calling for the instigator of the persecution, former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, to be brought to justice for his crime of genocide and crimes against humanity.

While practitioners distributed leaflets at the exhibition site, a gentleman stood nearby for nearly one hour and did not say anything. He was watching and enjoying the enthusiastic and solemn atmosphere. A practitioner approached him and talked to him. The man was very interested in the exercises; he said that he was very happy to see this kind of exercise spreading in his city. He also said, "This is the future. In the future more and more people will learn this practice." He started to learn Falun Gong the next day.

The MP who invited Falun Gong practitioners to participate came to the exhibition hall to see them. He said he was very happy to see their performance and hoped that Falun Gong practitioners will have the opportunity to join activities held in other cities. An article about the practitioners' performance, along with a photograph, was published in the local newspaper.

Source: http://clearharmony.net/articles/200410/22814.html