Germany: Participating in the Vietnamese New Year Festival in Bremen

Many long discussions were held at the information stall with interested visitors

A short history of Falun Gong

On February 19th, Vietnamese residents from Bremen and the surrounding districts celebrated the Vietnamese New Year. Every year for fifteen years, Bremen’s Vietnamese community has come together for this event, which offers elaborate stage performances and tasty Vietnamese delicacies.

This year, north German Falun Gong practitioners were asked to participate in the activities. This event gave the practitioners the opportunity to display banners, distribute leaflets and show movies about Falun Gong cultivation practice and the inhuman persecution in China.

A small picture exhibition detailed the spiritual practice’s history. The pictures started in 1992, when the practice was first brought to the public, and went on to show the numerous awards and recognitions that reflected Falun Gong’s popularity among the Chinese people before the persecution began. The popularity of this practice was a thorn in the side of communist leader Jiang Zemin. He was jealous that Falun Gong had amassed 100 million practitioners in only seven years and was also afraid that such a massive group of people may be a threat to his power. In the summer of 1999, Jiang Zemin launched a vicious campaign of genocide and suppression that has already resulted in the deaths of over 1,400 innocent people.


Many children waited patiently in line to learn to fold lotus flowers. They watched and learned. Not surprisingly, many returned again and again.

The highlight for the visitors was the “Dunhuang dance,” performed on-stage by one of the Falun Gong practitioners. This dance goes back to the discovery of Dunhuang town in Northeastern China, located at the eastern end of the silk-road. During the 19th century, rock caverns with 30,000 scrolls from the fourth to the tenth century were found there. Several wall paintings in these rock caverns depict dancing Bodhisattvas.

Although the dance started amidst colourful stage programmes and lively goings on, once the first tones of the music for the “Dunhuang dance” were heard, the visitors gave the performer their undivided attention.
The onlookers found her enchanting. Her performance captured everyone’s hearts. Immediately following the performance, the President of the Vietnamese Association presented her with a bouquet of flowers. He expressed the wish for a long and happy association with the Falun Gong practitioners.