(Minghui.org) Falun Dafa practitioners introduced the practice at a market in Cagnes-sur-Mer in southeastern France on February 25, 2023. They demonstrated the Falun Dafa exercises and talked to people about this traditional cultivation practice from China (also called Falun Gong). Many people tried the exercises.

People learn the Falun Gong exercises from practitioners at a market in Cagnes-sur-Mer.

The market had booths for health consultations, organic produce, and many other products and services that day. Many market visitors stopped at the Falun Dafa booth to hear an introduction to the practice. Most people were not familiar with this traditional spiritual practice that is based on the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Practitioners distributed fliers that contained information about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) bloody persecution of Falun Dafa practitioners in China that has been ongoing since 1999, including the CCP’s crimes of organ harvesting. Many people signed a petition to stop the persecution after hearing about the atrocities. They were happy to accept little paper lotus flowers with the words “Falun Dafa is good” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” Some people bought a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Dafa. 

“I like these meaningful gestures [exercise movements], and I will learn more about it,” a woman told practitioners after trying the exercises. She thanked them for the pink lotus flower and hung it in her car.

Film Screening Exposes the Persecution in China

Practitioners frequently host various activities to introduce Falun Dafa on the French Riviera. They recently screened the documentary “Letter from Masanjia” in La Turbie of les Alpes-Maritimes près de la Méditerranée on December 10, 2022. The documentary was shown again on February 4 of this year.

The documentary tells the story of a handwritten letter found in a box of Halloween decorations purchased at a department store in the United States by Julie Keith, a woman from Oregon. The letter was a plea for help from a prisoner of conscience at the notorious Masanjia Forced Labor Camp in Shenyang, China. Ms. Keith posted the letter on social media, which soon led to worldwide media exposure of the story and set off a chain reaction that led to China’s re-education through forced labor system being abolished, at least in name, in 2013.

The letter’s author, Mr. Sun Yi, risked his life to write the secret letter while detained at Masanjia Labor Camp for his belief in Falun Gong. The Chinese Communist Party has violently persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and slandered Falun Gong’s beliefs throughout China since July 1999. Millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested, imprisoned, and tortured, and, despite the severe information censorship in China, several thousand deaths have been documented.

Dafa practitioners also hosted an exercise demonstration event in a pine grove in La Turbie the day after the documentary screening in February. A number of people who had watched the documentary the evening before came out to learn the exercises.