UK: Promoting Falun Gong in London's Chinatown

On November 8th, a few Falun Dafa practitioners hosted a small-scale public exhibition to promote Falun Gong on the main street of London’s Chinatown. They managed to introduce Falun Dafa using banners and displays printed with “Global Lawsuit Against Jiang Zemin” and “Jiang Zemin and his Followers have been Charged in Many Nations for Persecuting Falun Gong.” The banners were successful in attracting the attention of many pedestrians, who stopped to look at the display and also asked for more information. During the exhibition, practitioners demonstrated the unique Falun Gong exercises accompanied by peaceful Dafa music.

There were two purposes for holding this exhibition. One was to introduce Falun Gong and the other was to educate the public about the ongoing persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. It is our hope that all Chinese people, as well as others who are aware of the problems faced by Falun Gong practitioners in China, will let others know the truth. The other purpose was to let people know about the lawsuits that have been filed in many countries against Jiang for his direct order to persecute Falun Gong. These lawsuits charge Jiang with Genocide, torture and crimes against humanity.

Some students from China who had just arrived in England, told practitioners that they could not understand why Falun Gong was treated so differently at home and overseas. Falun Gong is banned in Mainland China while practitioners in England are free to teach and practise as they wish. In fact, many Western people, as well as overseas Chinese, practise Falun Gong. One practitioner stated, “Being widely accepted by good and kind people worldwide, Falun Gong is popular in over sixty nations. But Jiang Zemin made the decision to persecute Falun Gong in China to maintain his dictatorship and has been violating the freedom of Chinese people and kind people around the world.”

One Chinese person doubted these words saying, “Is there any political reason for Falun Gong to be repressed in China?” The practitioner clearly stated that “Falun Gong practitioners have no political agenda, nor any pursuit of political struggle. Other than pushing governments to allow us to practise, we have no interest in politics. We believe in Zhen-Shan-Ren. We do not go after political power and will not lean on any political force either.”

Why do so many people regard Falun Gong as a “political group”? the practitioner explained. “All of the misunderstandings do not originate from Falun Gong, but from Jiang Zemin’s regime. Before it was persecuted, Falun Gong was widely welcomed by the Chinese public, with 100 million practitioners. To crack down on a 100-million strong group of cultivators, the authorities treated these 100 million practitioners as enemies of the Communist Party. It was claimed that these people were political opponents. When the issue became political, the authorities could persecute Falun Gong for their own reasons and motivations. Our request is to stop the persecution on the grounds of protecting human rights and does not relate to politics. Human rights are the fundamental rights of every human being. To protect human rights is absolutely not a political move; it’s to maintain the fundamental guidelines of human society."

Chinatown was crowded on that weekend and provided a wonderful opportunity to display vivid and dynamic photos and articles, which practitioners used as visual aids while patiently explaining and discussing Falun Gong with Chinese people who raised questions. Through events such as this, we are able to open the eyes of all the Chinese people so that they can see what Falun Gong is really about.