Germany: Clarifying the Truth to the Department of Chinese Literature at a German University

Gelchsheim is a small town in southern Germany. The translation department of the University is located here and it houses other Chinese speciality subjects. On the 18th of May, at the invitation of the college Christian society, two Falun Gong practitioners held a seminar, talking to students about the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong in China. The attendees of the seminar were mostly the students from the Chinese course who may be the future experts on China.

All participants had heard the news about Falun Gong being persecuted in China from the German media or from their friends. But none of them comprehended the reason behind Jiang regime’s persecution of Falun Gong. From his own personal experience of growing-up in China, a practitioner explained to the German students about the brainwashing political education forced upon the Chinese people throughout the whole education system by the Chinese Government. When the German students, who grow up under a completely different system, learned that the Falun Gong principle of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance was introduced to the public under this special background in China, they suddenly understood. A lady said, “I understand now. The Jiang regime is afraid of these Falun Gong practitioners thinking independently and the government losing control. These controls are the bases of the government’s existence. Therefore they need to persecute Falun Gong.”

The other German practitioner had appealed in Tiananmen Square in 2002, and was detained for four days in Beijing after being manhandled in the Square. A soon-to-be middle school teacher, he is a big, energetic and kind fellow. He talked about the time he spent with more than ten Chinese prisoners in China. At the beginning the prisoners were very afraid of him because of the government’s slanderous propaganda against Falun Gong. After a few days, they slowly realised that he is a normal person with a family, a degree and a kind heart. They also realised that this countrywide defamatory propaganda paved the way for the persecution of Falun Gong.

The pictures showing the Falun Gong practitioners being persecuted shocked every participant in the seminar. Even though they had heard of the persecution before, they could never have dreamt of the seriousness and brutality of the persecution.

From the cultural angle, the organiser of the seminar, a female priest, said that there are common grounds between the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance promoted by Falun Gong and the teachings in Christianity: they both teach people to be kind. She thanked the two practitioners for a wonderful information-packed night, and invited them to come back again at the same time next week to teach the five sets of Falun Gong exercises.