STUTTGART NEWS: Striving for Inner Harmony

[German newspaper]
October 29, 2001

Painter Zhang Cuiying wants to help Falun Gong Followers

The contrasts could not be more obvious: flute music and Chinese art on one side of the room and on the other side graphic portrayals of torture and persecution. Last Saturday, the Australian painter, Mrs. Zhang Cuiying presented a one-woman show of her paintings at the China Garden, where she also told of her incarceration experiences in a Chinese prison.

By Hendrik Krusch

Mrs. Zhang had to endure beatings, kicking, humiliation and insults for eight months. Her crime? Last year, by means of an open demonstration, she wanted to attempt to convince China’s national chief, Jiang Zemin, to stop the ban on and persecution of Falun Gong and its followers. She was caught, arrested and incarcerated for her efforts.

The now forty-year-old was one of the many beneficiaries of Master Li’s teachings. Mrs. Zhang suffered from a severe arthritic condition, which prevented her from painting. After studying and practising Falun Gong, her arthritis was cured. “The teachings emphasize living according to the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance and to become a morally upright person,” so says Walter Krickl who has been practising Falun Gong for four years. The exercises benefit both body and mind.

As many as sixty India ink paintings were on display at the picturesque China Garden.
Some of those were sold, all proceeds going to help those practitioners in China who are still incarcerated. Former director of the Lindenmuseum, Mr. Peter Thiele, gave the opening remarks, noting that these paintings demonstrate the richness of the artist’s inner harmony. He commented: “Sparseness and deliberate open areas in these scroll paintings represent the ‘art of leaving things out.’”

“Inner beauty is more valuable than any outward appearance,” said the artist, who had trained for ten years with various masters. She is now taking her exhibition on the road around the world to create an awareness of the dismal human rights situation in China.

The reason for the persecution of Falun Gong might be found in the fact that there are now more people practising this system than there are members in the Chinese ruling party, so thinks Mr. Krickl. Manyan Wu of the [German] national Falun Dafa Association adds that the persecution in China is escalating and all Internet websites in that country concerning Falun Gong are blocked. The latest Chinese government ruse blames Falun Gong for the anthrax incidents.