07/02/2004

Rima Shah

Express-News Staff Writer

Chinese tradition holds that the lotus has mythical qualities.

"There is a saying that the lotus flower comes from the mud but it is not polluted," said Hyongji Pan, a San Antonio Falun Gong practitioner.

It is that ability to stay pristine and beautiful despite being surrounded by impurities that led the Falun Gong to choose it as a symbol of hope, especially for the children of Falun Gong practitioners.

The children, according to the group, number in the millions and often are orphaned because of persecution of practitioners, coerced and humiliated in schools, forced to renounce their practice or die in the hands of Chinese authorities.

That's why children of practitioners in San Antonio and Austin are participating in "Petals of Peace," a program started by Jane and Fadu Dai of Australia in October.

The program encourages children worldwide to fold an origami lotus to give hope and serve as a symbol for the peaceful future of children.

The group claims Jane Dai's husband, Fadu's father, was tortured to death in a Chinese prison for practicing Falun Gong.

Children here fold origami lotuses not just for their spiritual statement but because many, such as Emily Pan, 5, enjoy the craft itself.

Dressed in a soft-blue, traditional Chinese dress known as a qipao, Emily said she makes origami lotuses because "they are red, yellow" and because "Falun Gong is good."

Her father, Hyongji Pan, said that without his telling her, she folded a lotus and presented it to her pre-kindergarten teacher so "my teacher would know what (Falun Gong) is."

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Estimates of its following vary from 10 million to 100 million. In China, about 1,000 people have died and hundreds of thousands have been arrested and illegally detained, according to Falun Gong devotees.

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Jenny Yang, a 10-year-old [practitioner] from Austin, enthuses about the lotus project and Falun Gong because, she says, the practice has helped with her diabetes.

Since she started performing Falun Gong exercises a year ago at the suggestion of her mother, Yang said her blood sugar level has stabilized within a healthy range, though she still is diabetic.

The lotus petals folded by children like Yang and Emily are sometimes sent to children in China. The program tries to ensure, Hyongji Pan said, that the sufferings of the Dai family won't happen to other people.

1. Falun Gong was made to public in China by Master Li Hongzhi. It has no political agenda and is only classified as a self-improvement system. Practitioners follow the principle of Truth, Compassion, Tolerance and practice five-sets of gentle exercises. Because of its tremendous beneficial effects on peoples' health, it was quickly spread in China and beyond. The former head of the Chinese Ruling Party, Jiang Zemin could not tolerate that Falun Gong practitioners outnumbered china party members. Jiang initiated the persecution against Falun Gong and used lies and violence to force the practitioners to renounce the practice. He manipulated the totalitarian government and its entire media to demonize Falun Gong and incite hatred towards Falun Gong practitioners. During the last five years, at least 997 practitioners were tortured to death due to police's violence in forcing them to give up the practice. Many practitioners are still being tortured by police in jails and labor camps.