Finland: Falun Gong Photo Exhibition Tours Lapland (Part II)

For part I of this series of articles, please see
http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200506/27060.html

During spring 2005, Finnish practitioners arranged to hold Falun Gong photo exhibitions in libraries in Lapland. The light summer nights (the night are very light in the North during the summer) made us able to drive until the late night hours before making any stop. In this way we could bring the exhibition to different libraries and the local people in the most rural areas in the north have now learned about Falun Gong and the brutal persecution.

Summer had arrived when we moved the exhibition to the city of Kittilä. The exhibition remained there for two weeks. The local people in Kittilä showed great interest in the exhibition.

The next place was Kemijärvi. We began to hang up the exhibition and put the pictures in a nice order. The first picture told how Falun Gong was spread in China and how in a short while it became the most popular qigong practice in China. In a few years millions of people practised it. The second picture showed different awards that Master Li and Falun Dafa had received from different local governments and organisations in China, Canada, US and other countries.

From this photo exhibition the viewer could learn about the history of Falun Gong and that it was the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin's communist regime that launched a persecution campaign against Falun Gong in China in July 1999. This is now six years ago. Under pressure from the international community, the malevolent party's persecution of Falun Gong has also changed its tactics from a large-scale public persecution, to one that appears relaxed on the surface, but that has actually intensified. This ongoing persecution has destroyed countless Chinese people’s lives.

We paid a visit to the local newspaper and told them about our photo exhibition. The newspapers’ main editor interviewed us briefly and an article was later published. The article revealed how Falun Gong is a practice for mind and body that improved many people’s health and well-being. The article went on to say that Falun Gong is a peaceful spiritual movement but suddenly in 1999, the Chinese regime prohibited this very popular practice method among the masses. The regime changed its mind and began to suppress this practice, when they realised that the numbers of practitioners had grown from 10 million to 70 million. But practitioners have continued to increase around the world.

When we come to pick up the exhibition, two ladies hurriedly came to take a look. One of the ladies wanted to show her friend how this peaceful practice is being persecuted for no reason in China. She tried to find the picture where the persecution was detailed but she couldn’t. So a practitioner told her how the former Chinese president Jiang Zemin couldn’t stand that something could reach so great a popularity among the masses so he became very jealous and in July 1999 he launched the persecution. Practitioner talked about the practice of Falun Gong and of its benefits. One of the ladies said she had read the Falun Gong book and now she had become interested in trying it. The ladies were grateful to have learned the truth and left the library satisfied.

Originally published in Finnish at http://fi.clearharmony.net/articles/200507/3022.html