On October 9-13, 2013, Falun Gong practitioners in Germany participated in the 65 th annual "Frankfurter Buchmesse" (Frankfurt Book Fair), the largest book and media fair in the world.
Around 7,500 exhibitors from over 110 countries took part in the event, which was held at the Frankfurt Exhibition Centre and was attended by over 275,000 visitors.
For years, local practitioners have been granted proclamations from the Frankfurt Town Hall recognizing Falun Gong Information Day . As a result, the city officials knew about Falun Gong and supported the practitioners' efforts.
City Official: “You've Always Done Well with Your [Falun Gong] Activities”
“We’ve been in contact with Falun Gong for many years, and you've always done well with your activities,” said a city official to the practitioners. As a result, the book fair organizers assigned the practitioners an outside booth near the busy main entrance of the exhibition hall.
On the first day of the event, the person in charge of allocating booths objected to Falun Gong having one of the most coveted booth positions in the fair, as he had already promised it to another bookseller.
The practitioners patiently clarified the facts to him and introduced him to the Doctors Against Forced Organ Harvesting (DAFOH) global petition form. The booth coordinator then carefully observed the practitioners throughout the morning. Seeing how well conducted themselves and visitors' positive to response their sincere efforts, he finally agreed to let them keep the booth position for the duration of the fair.
Although the weather was a bit chilly with periods of light rain and wind, the practitioners who were in charge of the Falun Gong booth, continued to pass out informational materials and demonstrate the five Dafa exercises.
Westerner: “How Can Live Organ Harvesting Be Allowed to Exist?”
During the first two days of the event, a steady stream of visitors and exhibitors stopped by the practitioners' booth. After reading through a flier detailing the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) crime of organ harvesting from living Falun Gong practitioners, many people signed the DAFOH petition form. Some people said that they wished that the practitioners could quickly collect enough signatures to end the persecution of Falun Gong.
“How can live organ harvesting be allowed to exist, in today’s modern world?” exclaimed a woman after carefully reading a flier on live organ harvesting. She immediately asked to sign the practitioners' petition.
Two girls stopped by the practitioners' booth, dressed in thin dance costumes from a previous performance. After they read a flier on organ harvesting—while standing in the cold—one of the girls signed the petition, telling her friend about its importance. Her friend agreed with her, then signed the petition, as well.
Chinese Visitor: “Do You Have any Falun Gong Books that I Can Buy?”
A young Chinese woman working in Berlin asked a practitioner for a copy of The Truth newspaper and the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party. After the practitioner talked to her about quitting the Young Pioneers, one of the Chinese regime's political youth organizations that she had joined, she agreed.
She later asked, “Do you have any Falun Gong books that I can buy?” The practitioner told her that they didn't have any books with them to sell but suggested that she visit the Minghui.org website to read all Dafa books for free. She was very grateful for the information.
The Chinese people’s attitude toward Falun Gong at the book fair had been generally positive. Many of them accepted the practitioners' informational materials with some agreeing to quit the Party, right then and there. Others said that they could easily break through China's Internet blockade, so they already knew the facts about Falun Gong.
In order to let more Chinese people learn the truth about Falun Gong, some practitioners entered the fair's exhibition hall and began distributing informational materials and clarifying the facts near a book stand that was promoting Party ideology.
The Chinese person in charge stopped the practitioners and told them not to distribute anything about Falun Gong near his booth. A practitioner told him, “We will only distribute our materials during your break time, so it won’t affect your business.” The man did not object to the practitioner's proposal, nor did he agree.
A practitioner later talked to him about Falun Gong, but the man tried to cleverly sideline the conversation, with facts and figures that he learned from China's state-controlled media. The practitioner calmly and rationally explained each and every wrong understanding that he had about Falun Gong and eventually the man began to understand. Some of the Chinese people working at the booth agreed to quit the CCP.
Young German Man: “Falun Dafa Is Good!”
Over the course of the five-day event, practitioners distributed thousands of informational materials in German, English, and Chinese. Many people thanked the practitioners for informing them of the Party's persecution of Falun Gong.
After a young German man read one of the practitioners' fliers, he shouted, “Falun Dafa is good!” in Chinese.
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