(Minghui.org) Box Hill, the largest Chinese district in Melbourne, Australia, held its 31st Melbourne Moon Festival on September 30, 2023. Falun Dafa practitioners were once again invited to participate, to help celebrate the traditional festival and introduce Dafa to a wider audience.

The celebration was hosted by the Melbourne Taiwan Chamber of Commerce. Traditional food, and song and dance performances attracted many people who came to celebrate with their families. Amid the hustle and bustle of the festival, the Falun Dafa booth was a calm oasis. Practitioners demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises and distributed informational materials to passers-by, and told them how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) persecutes the spiritual discipline in the land of its origin.

Many people signed a petition calling for an end to the CCP’s brutality. 

Practitioners demonstrate the exercises and talk with visitors about Falun Dafa and the CCP’s persecution during the Melbourne Moon Festival on September 30, 2023. 

Doctor Strongly Agrees With Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance

Dr. Pemindra Gamage, a resident of Melbourne’s Ringwood East district, said this was the first time she’d heard about Falun Dafa. She strongly agreed with Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance, and said that these principles can benefit all mankind.

“I think if you are sincere and kind, that’s very important in your daily life,” Dr. Gamage said. She said that if people can follow these values in their lives, “They will become better people.”

Dr. Pemindra Gamage praised Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. 

She could not understand why the CCP persecutes Falun Dafa practitioners. “[The international community] should formulate strict codes and regulations to restrain this kind of persecution. People have the right to survive and the right to choose the lifestyle they like,” she said.

Small Business Owner: Practitioners Have Done a Great Job

Artist and small business owner Bruce said that he knows the CCP persecutes Falun Dafa and he’s always been concerned about it.

Bruce said that Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are universal values and were traditional values that people followed in the past. “We have been taught since childhood to be sincere and tolerant, to respect others and to be polite. Because of the decline of society’s morals and the influence of the media, people are increasingly deviating from these moral values. 

“I believe that the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance are good. But just because Falun Dafa practitioners want to find their own spiritual journey (and follow Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance), they been the target of the CCP’s persecution. It is sad and obviously very outrageous. I am aware of the persecution that is happening in China and how cruel the persecution is.

“Although I do not practice [Falun Dafa], I fully support Falun Dafa practitioners’ beliefs,” Bruce said. “Because many Chinese people are brainwashed by the CCP, and the Chinese media has been instilling negative propaganda into them, I noticed that many Chinese people have negative reactions to Falun Dafa. I often post articles about Falun Dafa on social media.”

Bruce added, “Practitioners have made people change their minds through their unremitting efforts, so they have done a great job.”

More People Should Learn About the CCP’s Crime Against Humanity

John supports practitioners’ efforts to expose the persecution. 

John, 66, is a care worker for the disabled and once lived under the rule of the Vietnamese Communist Party. He said, “I experienced the brutal war. When I was born, Vietnam was still a democratic country. Later it was ruled by the communist party. When the CCP army invaded Vietnam, they put me in a brainwashing camp, and then in a labor camp. I was lucky to survive, and then I came to Australia. I know what the CCP does to cruelly persecute people, because I have personal experience.”

John said, “Falun Dafa practitioners are my friends, and they are good people. I respect everything they do. I support them because I have seen too many bad things done by the Chinese Communist Party.

“I respect the beliefs of Falun Dafa practitioners very much. More people need to learn about the CCP’s persecution. Everything the CCP does is against humanity.”