UK: Introducing Falun Dafa in Leeds

On June the 19th 2004, a group of Falun Gong practitioners held activities in Leeds city centre to introduce Falun Dafa and tell people about the campaign of genocide that is being waged against practitioners in China.

Practitioners hung up banners in Chinese and English reading “Falun Dafa”, and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance”. The peaceful group exercise demonstration attracted lots of passersby. Many people enquired about Falun Gong, immediately wrote down the details of local practice sites and expressed an interest in coming to learn the exercises. Lots of people signed the petition condemning the persecution of Falun Dafa in mainland China after learning the truth. Some people even left their addresses for practitioners to post them more detailed information.

During the few short hours of the activity in Leeds, practitioners ceaselessly took turns to perform the exercises. The tranquil atmosphere touched a lot of pedestrians. An elderly lady stopped to watch practitioners doing the exercises, seemingly without blinking. Even when she was handed a leaflet, her eyes never left the demonstration. She finally left after a very long period of time. There was also a boy in his teens who watched the exercises for a while then looked at the material on the stand and didn’t want to leave.

In the past, because there were not many activities in Leeds to let people know about Falun Gong, pedestrians were not very willing to accept information, especially Chinese people. This time, even Chinese people accepted the materials we distributed and some even asked for information about the free practice sites as they wanting to come and learn the exercises. Practitioners also collected almost two hundred signatures. Because in this activity everyone cooperated very well, there was a breakthrough compared to similar previous activities.