UK: Promoting Falun Dafa in Cardiff, the Capital City of Wales

On June the 8th, UK practitioners promoted Falun Dafa and collected petition signatures in the most crowded street in Cardiff after being given approval by the Cardiff City authorities. We set up a stand on the street and demonstrated the exercises, which attracted a lot of people’s attention. We introduced Falun Dafa to the people of Cardiff and told them about the persecution of practitioners in China. A lot of people expressed their support immediately and signed their names on a petition calling for the rescue of UK practitioners’ family members who are imprisoned in China.

According to the weather report, there was supposed be strong winds and rain on that day. We were well prepared for this. We strengthened our stand with cement blocks and safely anchored our leaflets to the table. It was sunny in the morning. But soon the wind blew strongly and rain came as expected. Our stand was in danger of being blown away! However, the bad weather did not shake our confidence and we did not yield to the wind and rain but continued to tell people about Falun Dafa. We demonstrated the 5 exercises and talked to the people of Cardiff. In the afternoon, the bad weather stopped and it became sunny again.

Each pactitioner wore a yellow T-shirt reading “Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance” and “Falun Dafa is good” in both Chinese and English. Many Chinese people live in Cardiff. It was quite a surprise for them to see the Falun Dafa stand when they walked through the city. We hope that they will tell their friends and family in China how Falun Dafa is being widely spread in the UK and is supported by the international community.

The Welsh people are very friendly and accepted our flyers with pleasure. Some families walked by and their children gazed attentively at the Falun Gong exercise demonstration. A couple of female students felt that our exercises are very good and they started to learn them. One of them picked up a bunch of leaflets and began to give them out to passers by. Sometimes, when we demonstrated the exercises and distributed the flyers, no one was at the stand. But people would still go and sign their name on the petition after reading the display board. Some took Dafa leaflets and left but, after reading the materials, they came back and signed the petition. We were deeply moved by the general public’s support for Falun Dafa during this signature collection.

Two students studying Journalism in Cardiff University came to our stand and were interested in Falun Dafa. After asking our permission, they came back with a camera and some sound recording equipment and started to make a film of us for their thesis. After they finished shooting both the signature collection and the Falun Gong exercise demonstration by both Chinese and Western practitioners, they interviewed a couple of practitioners and some passers by who had signed the petition. We thoroughly introduced Falun Dafa to them, including the characteristics, benefits, and the current persecution in China, in addition to talking about Falun Dafa practitioners’ activities to reveal the truth to the people of the world. The filming of this activity meant that the stand caught many more people’s attention.

Translated from Chinese at http://yuanming.net/articles/200306/21465.html