Bucks County Courier Times: Falun Gong practitioners will march through Bucks

Sunday, July 8, 2001

When Marina Vassong marches across the "Trenton Makes" bridge to Morrisville tomorrow, it'll be with an enlightened mind but a heavy heart.

Vassong, a Northampton resident of the Holland section, practices Falun Gong, the meditation and exercise discipline outlawed last year in China. By marching across the bridge at 1:30 p.m. tomorrow and through Bucks County, Vassong said she hopes to enlighten others about what the Chinese government is doing to her fellow Falun Gong practitioners.

"It's awful - worse than awful," she said about the widespread internment of Falun Gong members in Chinese labor camps. "I want to tell people the truth, to raise awareness about what they're doing."

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of other marchers, will join Vassong in a trek along Old Route 13 to the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. At that monument to freedom, Falun Gong practitioners will hold a press conference before marching to Washington, D.C.

The march began last month in Boston. Because of her job, Vassong said she can join the walkers for only one leg of the trip. But that doesn't curb the Russian immigrant's enthusiasm for the cause or the practice.

"I was looking for a way to improve myself, to become a better person and religion didn't help," Vassong said about her decision three years ago to begin practicing Falun Gong. "With Falun Gong, I've improved my health. I communicate with my husband and relatives better. Everything is in harmony."

Falun Gong is not a religious practice, as is commonly believed in this country. It is a type of meditation and exercise that, with its slow, flowing movements, looks remarkably like Tai Chi. [...]

An ancient practice, it was re-introduced to China in 1992 and quickly gained a following of 70 million people. That explosive popularity is at the root of the movement's problems in China, say Falun Gong adherents in America.

"More people practice Falun Gong than belong to the [party name omitted] Party in China," said Terri Morse, a Delaware County resident and volunteer spokeswoman for the march. "The [party name omitted] Party feels threatened."

Morse said the aim of the Boston-to-Washington march is to rescue Falun Gong members who are in Chinese labor camps - many of them being tortured. By raising awareness in America and by eliciting outrage in the international community, she said, pressure can be put on the Chinese government to release Falun Gong members.

"Americans value human rights," she said. "There are things we can do."

Morse discovered Falun Gong after years of being ill with Lyme disease. She tried conventional medicine to no avail. But in April 1999, a friend introduced her to the Chinese discipline and the improvement to her health was dramatic, she said.

Today, Morse teaches Falun Gong in Chester County. She estimates there is a core group of 200 Falun Gong adherents in Southeast Pennsylvania and many more who practice it less rigidly.

The majority of followers are Chinese or Chinese-American, she said, but people of other races practice it, too.

"It's all about improving one's mind and body," Morse said. "The teachings are to guide one in truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. The exercises bring in the health benefits."