A group of about 1,000 Falun Gong members wearing bright yellow T-shirts lined 7th Avenue, between 42nd and 39th streets on Saturday afternoon performing the exercises of Falun Dafa, and sharing their experiences since having learned the practice that is rooted in Buddhist teachings.
Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is a meditation practice of mind of body, and includes slow-moving exercises and meditation. The core teachings of the practice are Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance.
The events were part of an annual meeting in New York, part of which included large-scale public activities to help raise awareness of the practice and its suppression in China.
A parade that took one hour from start to finish wound through the streets of Chinatown fronted by a marching band of blue-clad Chinese people, the Divine Land Marching Band.
“We are very welcome here,” said Yi Rong, parade coordinator.
During the parade, beautifully dressed Chinese heavenly maidens waved at people on the street, while another group demonstrated the exercises, and a long array of colorful banners provided information about the practice in Chinese and English, as spirited Chinese dragon dancers entertained parade goers.
Bystander Kassandra Negron said that when she saw the parade everyone looked so peaceful. “When they started doing their routine that just kind of drew me into wanting to know more about it,” she said.
“I think it is very interesting, definitely something that I want to look into. It has definitely piqued my interest,” said spectator Tim Chang after witnessing the parade.
Falun Gong spread rapidly in China due to its health benefits and its teachings rooted in traditional Chinese culture, but when the practice became very popular, it raised the ire of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 1999 the CCP outlawed the practice and a systematic and brutal campaign to force practitioners to renounce their belief in Falun Gong ensued. According to an Amnesty International Annual Report published this year, the vilification of Falun Gong has become even worse this year.
“The government campaign against Falun Gong intensified, with sweeping detentions, unfair trials leading to long sentences, enforced disappearances, and deaths in detention following torture and ill-treatment,” said the report.
Over 3,000 lives have been lost due to systematic torture, forced labor, and organ harvesting of adherents while detained by Chinese authorities according to the Falun Dafa Information Center, Falun Gong’s official press office.
Rallies of this sort have been held globally since the Epoch Times published its award winning series, the “Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party” in 2004.
The “Nine Commentaries” presents an uncensored record of the brutal history of the CCP. A website maintained by the Chinese Epoch Times records the names of those that have been encouraged by the facts in these commentaries to withdraw from the Party. To date, 80 million people have withdrawn, many using aliases to protect themselves.
Speaking at the rally, Kaichen Zhang, a former Chinese Communist Propaganda officer from Shenyang, China, said he quit because “the Communist Party is evil and anti-democratic.”
“The Party is for the interests of a small number of people. It is not right to ride on the backs of the people,” he said, adding that understanding communism is a process that took him 25 years of membership to fully realize.
It helped that he was able to move to the United States.
“Only when I came to America did I feel safe,” said Zhang, smiling widely.
Jared Pearman, a Falun Gong practitioner speaking at the rally, said the persecution of Falun Gong is a persecution of innocent people, just like previous campaigns carried out by China’s communist regime.
“This is a party that has been carrying out nothing but persecution. Do you want to be a part of that? Or do you want to belong to your own self, to your own heart, to your own sense of justice and goodness?” said Pearman.
