European Falun Gong Practitioners Join the Activities in Manhattan

The nature of revealing conscience and justice in Manhattan

On October the 24th, when it was nearly time to pack up several anti-torture exhibitions in Wall Street in the lower end of Manhattan, a posh car approached from which a thirty year old gentleman in a business suit got out of the car quickly. He ran straight to the petition, and took out a camera to take photos from different angles after signing the petition. He carried on taking photos until he felt satisfied. One of the Falun Gong practitioners who speaks a little English went up to talk to him, then was told that he was a reporter of a technology institution magazine in New York. Having read about the newspaper taken from here yesterday, he felt that the content was great and thus he decided to write an article introducing what Falun Gong is and what the persecution is about.

On the same day in mid- Manhattan a practitioner who can hard speak English was walking down seventh avenue on 34th street whilst holding up a picture highlighting the torture that is being used in China against those who practise Falun Gong. A lady who seemed to be looking for quite a while and asked: can I take a photo? I am editing a magazine. Therefore the practitioner was still holding the picture and let her take photos from the angles she requested. In the process the practitioners had the chance to talk to her about Falun Gong, and told her that the Chinese dictator Jiang Zemin was persecuting these three words everyday (pointing at the English “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance”). Those who practise Falun Gong follow these principles as closely as possible in everyday life. She replied: “I know, I know.” Before she left, she asked: “can I take some photos of you distributing leaflets?”, to which the practitioners agreed, and at the same time a middle aged passer-by in a smart dress happened to accept a leaflet, the editor was satisfied and left. During the annual conference of the UN in the middle of September, since all countries’ TV stations and big newspaper reporters focused on Falun Gong’s persecution state in China, in New York alone there were many newspaper used one or two full pages to introduce Falun Gong. Also an Australian newspaper used the entire front page to introduce the persecution.

Through the telephone numbers listed in the Falun Gong newspapers and leaflets, some radio stations and newspaper reporters also booked appointment with practitioners for interviews. At times when the Falun Gong practitioners who live in New York were short-handed, European practitioners had to go and take part in the interview on their behalf.

People’s outcry:“stop the persecution immediately!”

It has been three months since the anti-torture exhibitions started in Wall Street, a thirty year old white collar person requested to sign the petition everyday he passed by. He told practitioners,“ I will sign it once a day. I will come everyday and sign everyday. Stop the persecution immediately, we need to stop this persecution!

A gentleman who is desperate to know the truth

Wall Street is very narrow and the cars rarely ever stop. Despite this a middle aged person stopped in the road even though the traffic light had turned green and asked loudly: “What is going on, why does the Chinese government use torture to persecute those who practise Falun Gong?” After he had finished talking, the practitioner dashed back to the table to get some materials for this driver, who sent his greeting to us after hearing the truth, and then left with the material.

A child presses our materials tightly to his chest

A father read out a Falun Gong newspaper to his wife and son whilst riding the underground all the way from 110 street to 34th street. When getting out of the carriage his child held on to the newspaper on his chest. Practitioners quickly gave him a VCD, he also pressed the VCD tightly to his chest.

A little hand which could not wait

On the day a practitioner performed the singing of “Falun Dafa is good” at some Falun Gong activity sites in Wall Street, the number of people who accepted the material increased rapidly which exceeded the average number by several times. When the practitioner was busy distributing materials a little white hand suddenly appeared and could not wait to get some materials, he immediately handed out a newspaper and found it was a two-year old child who took the newspaper who was in a pushchair, the newspaper was back to front, unexpectedly he turned over the newspaper and started to read it like an adult. His parent was very surprised and laughed, how could a two-year old child act in such a mature way.

The questions being asked are more refined.

Three days ago, a thirty years old African American stopped a Falun Gong practitioner who was walking whilst holding a torture picture and asked: why does Falun Gong use our African good luck symbol? The practitioner smiled and said: "This is the symbol of Buddha, it is very ancient, in India and Tibet, it has been used for 5000 years. This person then grew very serious saying: "It is even more ancient in Africa, a history of ten thousand years. A practitioner told him to have a look at the Falun Gong books online, telling him that they are free to download, and also told him to talk to practitioners who speak fluent English. He therefore wrote down the telephone numbers carefully.

The music on 32nd Street disappears

It is hard to count how many Falun Gong practitioners have spoken about Faun Gong to Mexican busker's. On the first day they kept the music down a bit and finished early, then they did not appear for a week. The day before yesterday they came to 32nd Street again and stayed next to the anti-torture exhibition site, a practitioner told them that last month alone twenty six practitioners were tortured to death. See this Gao Yongtong, she was shocked in the face continuously for eight hours with electric batons. If your mother or your sister were persecuted like this everyday, would you still broadcast this happy music? The practitioner clapped his shoulder and said: we need your support, we need your help. He said: we are always here. The next day, he and his friends did not turn up.