(Clearwisdom.net) Since August 2004, on almost every weekend, people have
seen a cheerful, middle-aged woman dressed in a yellow T-shirt distributing
flyers and introducing Falun Gong to passers-by in Union Square, in New York
City's Manhattan. Sometimes she carries a display board showing pictures of how
Falun Gong practitioners are being persecuted in China. The woman is Ms. Li, a
pharmaceutical technician from central Ohio. Like the one hundred-plus other
Falun Gong practitioners from America's Midwest, she has spent most of her
weekends on the streets of Manhattan. Most often she can be found at the busy
gathering place, Union Square.
Ms. Li showing a display board of Falun Gong practitioners being tortured Rose demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises to tourists. On her right is a
Peruvian who woman found the answer to one of her dreams that day Professor Lucia distributing Falun Gong newspapers that reveal facts about
the persecution People watching the torture exhibit at Union Square Park
Falun Gong practitioners talking with tourists
Situated in the center of Manhattan, at the intersection of 14th Street and Broadway, Union Square Park area is one of the places most-loved by the people of Manhattan. At this location you will find gourmet restaurants, antique shops, bookstores, shops selling all kinds of electronics items, and theaters offering a variety of films and plays. Also, there are first-class medical centers, universities, and design schools. This area is known as the "Creative Corridor" of New York, with more than a thousand photographers, architects, publishers, graphic arts designers, countless Internet companies, government offices, and advertising companies. Union Square possesses the historical significance of being the location where many non-mainstream organizations go to advocate for their causes.
Compared with some of the other groups on the square who are deliberately provocative and loudly proclaim their agenda, Falun Gong practitioners have established themselves as peaceful and well-behaved people. Practitioners quietly distribute flyers that introduce the practice of Falun Gong to passers-by, and patiently clarify the facts about the persecution of practitioners in China to those who want to know more about the situation.
Last Saturday, Ms. Li met a Native American who was living in New York. She told this person about the Falun Gong practitioners in China being beaten and sent to forced labor camps by the Chinese police. This daughter of a former Native American Tribal leader immediately took a stack of flyers from Ms. Li and said, "Let me assist you in distributing these!"
Rose, a high school teacher from Ohio, was teaching a group of tourists the five sets of Falun Gong exercises. Among them was a woman from Peru who excitedly said, "I have found it! I have found it!" She then told Rose about a dream she had. One night, about two weeks ago, she dreamt that her niece told her she was ill and needed to practice the "five sets of exercises." The woman thought for some time but could not understand what the five sets of exercises were. The next day, she phoned her niece to discover that her niece was seriously ill. She asked her niece what "five sets of exercises" meant but her niece did not know either. A few days after she arrived in New York, as she was walking along 42nd Street, a Falun Gong practitioner handed her a Falun Gong newspaper and said to her in limited English, "five sets of exercises." The lady was amazed and delighted; amazed that such a miracle had happened, and delighted because she had finally found the five sets of exercises that she had heard about in her dream.
Some Westerners were surprised to see fellow westerners wearing yellow T-shirts handing out flyers alongside the Chinese practitioners. Professor Lucia of Ohio State University has met people who have asked her in astonishment, "Why are there Caucasian Falun Gong practitioners?" Lucia was very happy to have the opportunity to tell people about how practicing Falun Gong had healed the back pain that had plagued her for many years, and how Falun Gong has fundamentally changed her. Not only has the practice spread all over the world and people outside of China been practicing Falun Gong for some time, but the persecution of Falun Gong by the Jiang administration has also been revealed to the rest of the world, including how it affects every nation worldwide.
Practitioners have experienced the intense heat of summer and
the pleasant coolness of the autumn in Union Square. The people in Manhattan
have become used to seeing Falun Gong practitioners in their yellow T-shirts,
clarifying the truth. After seeing practitioners many times, receiving flyers,
and having many conversations with them, the beauty of Falun Gong and the
horrible persecution of practitioners in China have been conveyed to the people
of Manhattan. They in turn are passing this information on to the rest of the
world.
Manhattan is Changing, the People of New York are Awakening
By a Chinese practitioner from Holland
One week before leaving for official business, a fellow practitioner from Germany and I took the opportunity to visit Manhattan, New York City to clarify the facts about the true nature of Falun Gong and the persecution in China.
This was my fourth visit to New York. My previous impressions of Manhattan had been that it was a jungle of high-rise buildings, with a high-rhythm pulse of unending business transactions, full of tourists and residents who were unfeeling and unfriendly. However, due to the presence of great numbers of Falun Gong practitioners on the streets clarifying the facts, the city's residents seemed to have changed a great deal. Manhattan has awakened from its slumber. The people were shocked and moved by the anti-torture exhibits and the informational display boards erected or carried by practitioners. People are asking questions as they begin to comprehend and condemn this most evil persecution, and people have begun to show support for our righteous and just actions. A few brief examples follow.
During our "Great Wall of Courage" event, an American stopped in front of our truth clarification boards and looked at a banner for some time. The banner said, "Please Help Stop the Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in China." Finally he said to us, "I would like to have this banner as I will be going to Beijing. I want to show it to the people there." We told him that it would be a dangerous thing to do. However, he was determined to have the banner. After some discussion, we gave him the banner.
One time, as we were buying fruit in a small shop, we saw the proprietor making a phone call. When she saw us wearing yellow T-shirts and holding Falun Gong newspapers in our hands, she immediately said to her Asian employee, "Do you know they are Falun Gong practitioners? Do you know that Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted in China?" The employee answered in the negative. So she started to talk to her employee about the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China. We quickly gave some materials to the employee. A lady waiting behind us immediately stretched out her hand and asked, "May I have a copy too?" We gave her the information too. At that moment, we were greatly inspired by the fact that so many people in New York already knew the facts, and they are in turn telling the facts to other people. That made us very happy deep in our hearts.
Many practitioners stayed in a hotel near Times Square. At the street corner were a number of street vendors, one of whom was a Chinese person drawing people's names with colored inks. After listening to practitioners clarifying the facts, he understood the truth about the goodness of Falun Gong, and he started to write in both Chinese and English, "Falun Dafa is Good." He hung it on the front of his drawing board. Everyone who walked by that day could see what he had written.
One day, as we walked past a stall on 42nd Street (we were not wearing Dafa shirts at that time), the stall owner asked, "Are you Chinese?" We said, "Yes." He said, "For your own sakes, don't go back to China. Please look at the persecution happening in China." Having said that, he gave us some fact-clarification newspapers that had been given to him by Falun Gong practitioners.
On another occasion, as were walking close to the park near City Hall, we were holding up a display board that said, "Please Help Stop the Persecution in China." At that moment a few people came up behind us. One of them was a woman who said to the fellow practitioner from Germany, "May I ask if you speak English?" The practitioner pointed at me and said, "She can." The woman turned to me and asked, "You know English?" I replied, "Just a little." She continued, "I have read your fact-clarification materials. How can we help stop the persecution?" Using my limited English I replied, "Please tell everyone. Let them understand the persecution. You can also write letters to people you know." As she nodded her head, she said, "Good. Now I know. I will do it."
There are many Korean and Japanese people along Broadway near 32nd Street. Initially, most of these people just walked past the anti-torture exhibit without any expression on their faces. They were not willing to accept any Falun Gong materials. However, on the day before we left New York, we saw that more and more Koreans and Japanese people stopped and looked at our simulation of the tortures, read the information on the display boards, and accepted our fact-clarification materials. On one occasion two Koreans, dressed like business people, saw us distributing fact-clarification materials. One of them pointed at me and said to the other, "Look, Falun Gong." Then he walked towards me and said in English, "I support Falun Gong." I replied, "Thank you."
