Thoughts After a Visit to France: The Falun Gong Practitioners That I Met

Accompanied by my five-year-old son and my mother, I arrived in Paris on Friday, February 11th, 2005. My mother, who is a Falun Gong practitioner, took the trip because she wanted to participate in a parade on Saturday and the associated activities for promoting Falun Gong on Sunday. As someone who doesn’t practise Falun Gong, I simply wanted to go sightseeing in this famous city with my son.

On the same evening as our arrival in Paris, we took dinner together with three Swedish Falun Gong practitioners of the same family in China Town to celebrate the Chinese New Year. As the dinner came to an end, there was still some rice left in the bowls of my son and mine. The mother of the second family asked her daughter if she could finish the rice left by my son. The daughter, who was in her twenties and grew up in a foreign country, said yes gladly. The mother then asked her husband, a senior engineer, if he could eat up the leftovers of mine. The husband also agreed. I felt ill at ease about it and tried to take back the leftovers. The three practitioners and my mother said, “Don’t worry. Falun Gong practitioners just don’t want to waste food. Our respectful teacher, Master Li, has also taken the leftover of practitioners in some occasions.” This was the first event that moved me on the trip.

As a young lady who grew up in a foreign country, she certainly hasn’t experienced too many hardships. Most women of her age care only about beautiful clothes, cosmetics, boy friends and how to enjoy their lives. In a significant contrast, this beautiful lady was willing to eat the leftover of my son simply because she didn’t want to waste food. Quite honestly, even my husband and myself wouldn’t ever touch it. To a certain extent, eating the leftovers of their own children is understandable for some people. However, it amazed me a lot that Falun Gong practitioners didn’t turn away from the leftovers of the adults that they had never met before.

In the early morning of Saturday, February 12th, we set off from the hotel, located a long way from the urban area of Paris. The hotel was so humble that I wouldn’t have chosen to stay in it if my mother hadn’t travelled with us. As soon as we arrived in China town, Falun Gong practitioners became busy with the preparation work for the parade. It could be easily seen that everyone carried out their work with a sincere heart. Those practitioners who didn’t participate in specific performances of the parade started distributing flyers to passers-by along the roadside. Affected by them, my son and myself also participated in distributing the materials. A while later, we volunteered to look after a nine-month-old baby, who came here from Switzerland with its parents, since its father and mother needed to join in the performances of a waist-drum band and fan dance, respectively.

Right before the parade set off, I took my son and the baby, who was in a sound sleep, to buy hamburgers. While we were enjoying the hamburgers in the store, a young Danish Falun Gong practitioner came in. He asked me about the price of the hamburger first and then left, saying it was too expensive. The news media in China and some people I met often said Falun Gong practitioners were paid for the activities they participated in. As an independent outsider, I can tell you this is simply a lie. My mother, for example, has been trying to save money on food bit by bit to support her belief. Today, I witnessed other Falun Gong practitioners were doing the same thing.

The grand parade went on in a well-regulated manner and it lasted for more than three hours. Every practitioner acted sincerely. Even for the nine-month-old baby, it seemed to know something important was going on such that it sat in the stroller and watched quietly. Not until in the last stage of the parade did it cry for a short time. However, it fell into asleep soon after I flattened the bed and rocked the stroller for a while. This was the second matter that moved me. For a baby as young as nine-month-old, it already knew to support its parents in pursuing what they believed was right. Who can say Falun Gong practitioners don’t love their family members? Just looking at the loving manner the Swiss mother held her baby after the completion of the parade, you would know how she cherished her baby. To bring peacefulness and well-being to more people, however, the parents elected to sacrifice some opportunities that they could hold the baby in their arms. The nine-month-old baby appeared to have a sense about this such that it instinctively supported its parents accordingly.

On Sunday, February 13th, Falun Gong practitioners arrived at the Eiffel Tower in the early morning and started setting up the information boards and distributing flyers. I took advantage of the spare time and took several photos with my son as a souvenir. It turned out that the Eiffel Tower was the only tourist spot that my son and I visited in the entire trip to Paris.

I joined in the performance of the waist drum band in person on this day. My mother’s age was over sixty, but she didn’t feel tired at all after playing the waist drum for seven hours throughout the parade and the practise beforehand yesterday. She said it was because she was a Falun Gong practitioner. As a non-practitioner, I felt sceptical about her explanation. However, I had to believe it, I played the waist drum for only an hour on Sunday, but I ached all over my body on Monday. I told my mother I really admired Falun Gong practitioners.

The weather on Sunday was quite bizarre in Paris. Hailstones fell in February! However, none of the Falun Gong practitioners was shattered. Instead, they continued to send forth the righteous thoughts, demonstrate Falun Gong exercises, distribute flyers or play the waist drum. They were not intimidated by the bad weather. A practitioner had already led my son to find shelter against the rain such that I didn’t need to worry about him. As I was soaked through by the rain, I shivered with cold in the rest time amid the waist-drum performance. While I approached a food stand hastily to buy a hot dog, the young lady who finished my son’s leftover the other day asked me how much they cost. Three and a half Euros. She shook head and said it was too expensive. In fact, her family members had decent jobs in Sweden. She was attending an university and North European governments provided monthly subsidy to each university student with an amount equivalent to 4,000~5,000 RMB. However, she was so frugal that she could save money to sponsor the promotion of Falun Gong and activities to revel the persecution taking place. Once again, this young lady moved me.

While I was frozen to the degree that I was about to shed tears, Falun Gong practitioners still carried out their tasks according to their original plan. I asked my mother to spend forty Euro hiring a taxi to the airport. My mother refused because it was too costly. Right at that moment, a Chinese couple who practise Falun Gong and who live in France, offered help to us voluntarily. They were originally from Shanghai but we never met them before. The wife took me to change my clothing first, and then the husband drove us to a subway station where direct trains to the airport were available. Not until I sat in his car did I have a chance to take a glance around Paris. Paris was truly beautiful. While part of my mind was occupied by my admiration for Falun Gong practitioners, I made up my mind that I would surely visit this romantic city and spend enough time to tour around it again.

The above is an account of my trip to Paris. Many of the Falun Gong practitioners I met deeply touched me. The practitioners mentioned in this article represent only a small group. Although I, like most people, still don’t quite understand something about them, yet I have been amazed by the excellence of these people. If every Chinese person can possess similar enlightenment, compassion, team spirit, sense of justice and willingness for making self-sacrifice like Falun Gong practitioners, China will certainly have a very bright future!