United Kingdom: Seven Days of Successful Activities during Cambridge Falun Dafa Week

The annual October Falun Dafa Week in Cambridge attracted a lot of attention from the public. The week started with a performance of traditional Chinese dances and a parade with the theme of “The World Needs Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance” in Cambridge’s busiest street on Saturday the 23rd. This was then followed by a week-long anti-torture exhibition in the street in front of King’s College, a popular attraction for tourist. During the Falun Dafa week, practitioners gave out more than fifteen thousand leaflets explaining Falun Gong in detail and exposing the persecution. Over a thousand petition signatures were collected calling for the instigator of the persecution against Falun Gong, Jiang Zemin, to be brought to justice.

On Thursday, the non-profit organisation “Friends of Falun Gong” organised a special seminar in Trinity College of Cambridge University, discussing Jiang’s persecution of Falun Gong. The Falun Dafa Week was greatly supported by local people, the government and tourists, and it achieved a very good effect in promoting Falun Gong.

Prior to Dafa week, practitioners made a big effort to promote this activity by advertising on public notice boards and sending out invitations to various government officials and local dignitaries. Local MPs, MEPs, the Mayor of Cambridge and many city councillors wrote back to express their support and encouragement.

Despite the continuous rain on the Saturday, everyone felt good and did not notice the chilly weather. The peaceful and tranquil exercise demonstrations coupled with the bright red Chinese traditional clothes attracted much attention. Many people came to ask for information. Over six thousand leaflets were given out in one day.

The seven-day continuous anti-torture exhibition deeply touched people’s hearts. One morning when we were setting up the banners, a western gentleman approached us and said, “I read your leaflet yesterday. I cannot imagine how this stupid persecution could have happened. I felt very angry. That’s why I have come early to put my signature in your petition.” At noon, he brought his colleague to sign our petition and said this persecution must not be allowed to continue. A lady from outside Cambridge asked what else she could do to help us after signing the petition. She volunteered to apply for permission for practitioners to promote Falun Gong in her native city. After carefully reading our exhibition boards, a gentleman said to us: “I am a Christian. But I felt the persecution against Falun Gong is a persecution against the whole of humanity. The principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance are humankind’s universal moral standard. We all have a responsibility to maintain it.”

Cambridge attracts many tourists. Practitioners approached them and asked if they would like to take a leaflet instead of waiting for people to come to us. We also maintained calm and righteous thoughts when giving out information. Whether people accepted our leaflet or not, practitioners always smiled back politely.

Cambridge is also a city where many Chinese people live and there are also many Chinese tourists. In the Dafa week, there were over ten tourist groups from China passing us each day. A western practitioner shared her experience with other practitioners at the end of one day’s activity. In the past she thought that when we promoted Falun Gong to the westerners, our main purpose was to get their support and raise awareness of the persecution. Now she realised that the righteous field formed by people knowing the truth about Falun Gong also plays a big role in helping to clarify the facts to the Chinese people. The Chinese people have been deeply poisoned by the constant propaganda against Falun Gong that fills their state-controlled media. If every country in the world learned the truth about Falun Gong, then the evil behind the persecution of Falun Gong in China could not survive. When Chinese people walked by our exhibition, they were affected by our righteous field. They slowed down, carefully read our banners and listened to our explanation. Many of them also accepted our leaflets. Many others videoed the contents of our exhibition boards with their camcorders.

The Falun Dafa week also provided us with a good opportunity to further clarify the truth to the local Chinese. At the beginning, a number of Chinese people thought our activity made Chinese people lose face. After discussion, people realised that the ugly faces of people persecuting innocent citizens do not represent Chinese people in general, nor do they represent China. It is Jiang Zemin and his cronies Luo Gan, Liu Jing and Zhou Yongkang who are responsible for the persecution against Falun Gong, not China or the Chinese Government. Our anti-torture exhibition is against the persecution of Falun Gong practitioner, not against the Chinese Government.

Some Chinese people talked to practitioners for a long time to find answers to all the questions they had about Falun Gong. One man finished his conversation with practitioners by exclaiming, “I understand. It’s Jiang Zemin who is persecuting people.” A Chinese student in Cambridge University talked with practitioners for several hours before concluding, “It seems that in the not too distant future history will prove that what you are doing now is a great thing.”

People from all backgrounds in the world signed our petition forms. Many of them were university professors, lawyers, lectures and students. There was also a United States Government minister. A couple from New York said, “Falun Gong is so well known. In New York, Falun Gong practitioners are everywhere. We did not expect to see Falun Gong when we came here. It seems this persecution cannot last much longer.”