United Kingdom: Promoting Falun Gong and Exposing the Persecution by taking part in Leeds Chinese Cultural Week

On the 26th of September, a few UK Falun Gong practitioners gathered together in Leeds, a city in the north-east of England, to take part in the ‘Leeds Chinese Cultural Week’ celebration.

In the hustle and bustle of the city centre, practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun Gong exercises and did some traditional Chinese dancing performances. Although dancing is not part of Falun Gong, practitioners all over the world have found that it’s a great way to attract people to come and find out more and this has had a good effect on efforts to raise awareness of the persecution. Many people who came shopping were attracted by the practitioners’ performance and stopped to have a closer look. The gentle and peaceful exercises made people feel relaxed and happy. There were also those who were trying to follow the music tape and copy practitioners’ movements to learn the exercises. After the exercise demonstration, many people were interested in taking part in the local free exercise classes.

After the exercise demonstration, practitioners displayed some performances of traditional Chinese culture including the Fan Dance, Lotus Flower Dance, Parasol Dance and Waist Drum performance. The audience enjoyed the practitioners’ beautiful performance and many got the chance to find out more about Falun Gong.

During the performance, there were some local Chinese people and Chinese tourists passing by. Since launching the persecution against Falun Gong five years ago, former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin has constantly used the state-controlled media to churn out propaganda and turn the Chinese people against Falun Gong. For these tourists who have the chance to encounter Falun Gong outside of China, this is a precious opportunity to learn the truth. Practitioners chatted with them and corrected some of the lies and slander that they had encountered.