Falun Gong and Traditional Chinese Culture Highly Welcomed in a German High School

From the 11th to the 13th of October a special project day was held at Winfried High School. The activity is held once every two years and is popular among the students. I learnt from a fellow student that seniors can also apply for a project and so it immediately occurred to me that I could introduce Chinese culture and Falun Gong to my classmates.

The next day I found the school teachers who were responsible for the organising the activity and told them about my idea. They felt very interested and encouraged me to present the plan as soon as possible.

The news that I would conduct a project travelled around the 12th grade quickly and was well received and supported by fellow students. Every student could choose any project as one pleased. To my surprise, half of the students attending the 12th grade chose my project. Since each project could accept at most twenty students, additional students had to be assigned to other projects. The school assigned a teacher as the manager.

In order for my classmates to gain a clearer understanding with regards to traditional Chinese culture, I did a lot of research and found many pictures on the Internet for my classmates. On the first day I mainly introduced Chinese myths and legends, such as how Pangu created the world and Nuwa patched up the holes in the sky. I also told the story of Journey to the West, which recounts the introduction of Buddhism from India to China and showed an episode of a TV series based on the story. Everybody was very interested.

The next day I started with the history of cultivation and culture in China and touched upon Taoism, Buddhism, Sakyamuni (The historical Buddha, Guatama Siddhartha), qigong, and Taiji. Then I concentrated on Falun Gong. I told students that Falun Gong teaches one to cultivate their character, so as to be a good person and assimilating to truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.

I used the projector to show a collection of photos so that they could gain a clearer understanding about Falun Gong, the persecution and what practitioners of Falun Gong are doing to help stop the persecution as soon as possible. When the screen showed the photos of the persecution, everybody felt shocked that such an atrocity is taking place in China. I also showed the short film, "Falun Gong--the road for people to return to their true self", which had a very good effect. Everybody watched with attention and the atmosphere was very auspicious.

Next I showed them the videotape of the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi, teaching the exercises so that they could have a go at learning them. I was quite surprised how fast some of the students learnt the exercises. Later, we went to a park near the school to practise the five Falun Gong exercises along with the music. After the exercises some students told me that they felt energetic and comfortable when they practised. As we were practising a lady was watching us. She told us that she felt the exercises were very harmonious and commented that she would like to participate, enquiring when we would practise the exercises again.

Time passed without our knowledge. Before the end of this day's class, I gave everyone a bookmark on which was printed the phrase "Falun Gong is good" and hoped that each one of them would cherish it.

On the third day, the arrangement was to conclude the activities of the past two days. Each project had to present its achievements to other students and teachers. We prepared two big exhibition boards and conducted the introduction by means of photos. I printed out some photos of us practising the exercises in the park. I also researched the history of the srivasta or swastika symbol and some photos about the spread of Falun Gong around the world. Our exhibition attracted a lot of people who stopped to find out more. In particular, the exhibition of the historical background of the srivasta symbol was very eye-catching and a lot of people felt really interested and read the information carefully.

Three days passed-by quite quickly. It was an unforgettable experience for me to introduce Falun Gong and traditional Chinese culture to my classmates and teachers and I truly felt that the students and teachers who took part in the project felt very satisfied.