Scotland: Falun Gong Presentations in Two Scottish Schools

At a Modern Studies Teachers’ Conference in Glasgow, Scottish practitioners set up a stall to raise awareness of the persecution of Falun Gong. Many of the teachers were interested in human rights in China and were teaching this as part of the Modern Studies curriculum. So they were keen to invite practitioners to come and talk to classes in their schools.

Following on from this, two practitioners, one Western and the other Chinese, visited two schools to give a talk on Thursday December 1st. The Chinese practitioner travelled especially up to Scotland from England to visit the schools.

A practitioner talks to students about Falun Gong

The first school they visited was a secondary school in Glasgow, to a fifth year class studying moral philosophy and how governments in other countries use punishment. The Western practitioner first introduced Falun Gong, explaining how it was a discipline of mind and body based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. She told them about how when people followed these principles in their lives and regularly did the Falun Gong gentle exercises and meditation, their illnesses were healed, their relationships with others drastically improved, they felt more at peace within themselves and could achieve more in their lives. She spoke about one lady in China who had been bed-ridden for sixteen years and the doctors could not help her. She was introduced to the Falun Gong book “Zhuan Falun” and after reading it her energy improved, she could get out of bed and be pushed in her wheel-chair to the park to meet others to practise the exercises. After some time she was able to walk there by herself, unaided, without a stick, because she followed the principles of Falun Gong. One boy in the class asked how many have been cured of illness. The Chinese practitioner told them that a government survey had been done in China before the persecution had started and 95 per cent of people had reported that their illnesses had been healed through practising.

The practitioner then told them how Falun Gong had grown very popular in a short space of time and when it was more popular than membership of the Communist Party, Jiang Zemin, the former leader of China banned Falun Gong in July 1999. He over-rode the Chinese Constitution, which allows the Chinese people to practise their beliefs, gather together peacefully and prohibits torture and made Falun Gong illegal; he initiated, with the backing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) a vicious and systematic campaign against Falun Gong to ruin their Falun Gong reputation, bankrupt them financially and destroy them physically. This had the effect of destroying the lives of the seventy to a hundred million practitioners of Falun Gong in China and turning the rest of the population against the practice.

She spoke about how people were tortured in inhuman ways to force them to renounce their belief

Then they showed a DVD called “Rescue the Children of Falun Gong practitioners persecuted in China”. The class were shocked and moved by the poignant stories of children orphaned because their parents had been tortured to death, some children themselves dying from shock and fear.

Next the Chinese practitioner spoke about how he had spent two years in a re-education through labour camp in China, tortured with sleep deprivation and beatings so as to break his spirit and forced to do hard labour making jumpers and cigarette lighters. Many times, he said he felt like committing suicide, but he knew that he should not because he followed the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance, which prohibit killing of any kind. He also said one of the saddest consequences of his incarceration was that his three year old daughter had been only one year-old when he was imprisoned and so when he was released she did not know her father. Since he has been in the UK for the last year and a half his daughter has not wanted to talk to him on the phone as she considers him a stranger.

The class warmly applauded his talk

After his talk the pupils asked some questions such as: “Can they (practitioners) practise at home? In answering this question the practitioners said that even if people practise at home, often the neighbours know that they practise and could report them to the police, so it is still very dangerous. Another girl asked “How do the police know that they practise Falun Gong in China?” They answered this by explaining that because practitioners felt that they had done nothing wrong and Falun Gong had given them a new life they would openly appeal in Chinese towns and cities for the right to practise and hand out leaflets to the Chinese people who had been deceived by the propaganda to tell them the facts of Falun Gong. This meant that often the police would arrest and beat practitioners.

The class all signed the petition to help rescue children orphaned in China and took leaflets and VCDs detailing the persecution. The teachers thanked the practitioners and said it had really given them a lot to think about and discuss.

Next the practitioners went to an Academy in Ayr to speak to a fourth year Modern Studies class. The teacher had previously shown the class an article written in the Glasgow Herald about the Chinese practitioner’s horrific experiences in a labour camp, so they had some background knowledge about the persecution.

The class listened very intently. One boy asked the Chinese practitioner how he got out of China. Another question a girl asked was, “will Falun Gong be banned in China forever?” The practitioners replied that as more people learned the truth and stood up for justice for Falun Gong in China and around the world it was their belief that the CCP would not be able to sustain the persecution. Also, six million Chinese people had now renounced their membership of the CCP in the last year since they had found out about the history of its crimes after reading The Epoch Times publication the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.”

At the end of the class one teacher said she had thoroughly enjoyed the presentation and would ask the class to write a letter to the practitioners giving their comments about it.