Taiwan: In Celebration of World Falun Dafa Day, Three Thousand Practitioners Stage a Grand Parade in Southern Taiwan (Photos)
(Clearwisdom.net, May 12, 2004) (Comprehensive report by reporter Zhou
Rong in Taiwan) On May 9, 2004, to celebrate the 12th anniversary of
Falun Dafa's wide spread throughout the world, Falun Gong practitioners from
every corner of Taiwan gathered in Kaohsiung City in Southern Taiwan, and held a
series of celebratory events such as a sightseeing event, photo exhibition,
group exercises demonstration, dance performance and concert. A grand parade
consisting of three thousand people peaked the series of celebrations with its
great momentum and splendid content.
Different from past years, this year's
celebration of the World Falun Dafa Day was moved to
Kaohsiung City for the first time. And sixteen
well-designed elements were added in the parade to display
the wonderfulness of Falun Dafa. They were, a waist
drum team, float, big model of Falun Gong book Zhuan
Falun, lotus dance, colored ribbon dance,
flag squad, fan dance, group picture of Falun Dafa's
wide spread to the world, picking tea dance, lion
dance, balloon squad, pinwheel squad, huge model of
a peach to symbolize longevity, sword squad, angel
team and a display showing that Falun Gong has received 1223 proclamations
from around the world. Some of those marching in the parade were holding
pictures illustrating all the variety of torture
methods that Jiang's political group has been using
to maltreat and kill Falun Gong practitioners in
China, and pictures of some of the victims such asa
picture of a Chinese Bride, and Ms. Zhangqiong's
family picture. In addition, banners reading,
"Bring Jiang Zemin to Justice," were also
displayed and Falun Gong practitioners appealed to
the world's people to pay attention to the inhumane
treatment that Falun Gong practitioners in China are
now suffering, hoping to end this brutal suppression
and persecution soon. I asked an elderly gentleman in the audience if
he was aware of the persecution against Falun Gong
in China. He said that he was a veteran and visited
China often, he knew very well about Jiang's
political group's tricks of persecuting people on
purpose without any reason at all. Another gentleman
joined the conversation and said that after he
watched Falun Gong's truth-clarification VCD, he has
come to understand this was an unreasonable
persecution, and he has recommended his father to
learn Falun Gong. The grand parade took the main road in the center
of the city, and spanned a few kilometers. Many
civilians watched and applauded. A lady in the audience said, "I only heard
about Falun Gong before, but I didn't realize there
were so many people practicing it." Since Jiang's regime started the persecution on
July 20, 1999, the number of practitioners of Falun
Gong in Taiwan has been constantly growing.
According to conservative estimate, there are nearly
1000 practice sites all over Taiwan, and the number
of practitioners is over 300,000. They come from
every level and every corner of the society. For
instance, more than twenty state-run organizations
in Taiwan have legal organizations for Falun Gong,
including many departments, ministries and
committees, for example, the Agricultural Committee
in the Executive Department, Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the International Trading Bureau of the
Economics Department, the Meteorological Bureau of
the Ministry of Transportations, and Tax Department
of Ministry of Finance. Many three-generation families participated in
the parade. In the parade, there were elderly
people, lovely young children, infants , and mothers
who held a banner reading, "Children know how
to behave after learning Falun Gong." Despite
the burning sun, they chose to share the
wonderfulness of Falun Dafa to the society on
Mother's Day. A mother in the parade who came from Taipei said,
"Falun Gong's principles of 'Truthfulness,
Compassion and Tolerance," are the hope for the
world peace and the improvement of the human moral
standard. To help my children grow up properly, I
chose Falun Gong." There were many parents, schoolteachers, school
principals as well the Taiwan Education System who
recognize Falun Gong's principles
"Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance"
and their benefits to education, therefore, in many
areas "Falun Gong seminars for
schoolteachers" have been held in succession to
help schoolteachers better understand Falun Gong.
Many kindergartens, elementary schools, middle
schools and colleges have begun to teach students
Falun Gong. To date, more than thirty universities
including Taiwan University, Tsinghua University,
Transportation University, Central University,
Politics University and Normal University have Falun
Gong Associations with members from faculty,
graduate and undergraduate students. Many
schoolteachers and students became healthy both
mentally and physically from practicing Falun Gong. Falun Gong practitioners did not mind holding the
activity under the burning Sun, they kept everything
orderly and waved to audiences warmly, wishing all,
"Happy Mother's Day! Falun Dafa is good!"
the audiences returned with warm applause. The whole
site was peaceful and joyous. Some civilians said, "Walking so long under
such high temperatures and under the burning sun
without getting sick, this practice must be
great." And started to ask about where they
could learn Falun Gong. According to a investigatory report published on
December 28, 2002 conducted by Hu Yu-Whuei,
Assistant Professor in Economics Department of
Taiwan University, after beginning to practice Falun
Gong, 72% used their health card only once in a
whole year, which was almost half of the frequency
than before. In addition, practicing Falun Gong has
remarkable effects in helping people to quit
unhealthy habits and release stress. Therefore,
Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan have often been
invited to many prisons to use Falun Gong's
principles "Truthfulness, Compassion and
Forbearance" to educate the prisoners, and the
effects have been remarkable. Because Falun Gong is very popular in Taiwan, the
Taiwan government and every political party
recognized the achievements of Falun Gong in
purifying people's hearts and improving people's
health. President Chen Shui-bian, Vice President
Annette Lu, Secretary General of Executive Yuan, You
Xikun, President of the Legislature Yuan Wang Jin-pyng,
Kuomintang President Lien Chan, Taipei Mayor Ma
Ying-jeou, Kaohsiung Mayor Frank Hsieh and Deputy
Mayor Lin Yun-chien, many county executives and
mayors as well as many county and city legislators
have been very supportive to Falun Gong. Besides
expressing their sincere appreciation, Falun Gong
practitioners returned the benefits of cultivation
practice to society. In contrast, the former Chinese
President Jiang Zemin has launched a brutal
persecution since July 1999. against good people who
believe in "Truthfulness, Compassion and
Forbearance". This celebration event in Southern Taiwan in
honor of the annual "World Falun Dafa Day"
on May 13th is to thank the Founder of
Falun Gong, Master. Li Hongzhi, for introducing
Falun Gong to the public for free since May 1992.
Since then, Master Li has helped over 100 million
people in over 60 countries to attain a new life. The event organizers originally applied for a
parade permit for 1000 people from the city police
department, however, the number of people registered
for participation later amounted to 3000. The
organizers then reapplied for another permit. To
everyone's surprise, the city police department
approved it without hesitation and said, "There
is no problem for any activities held by Falun
Gong." Just like what the Deputy Mayor of Kaohsiung
City, Mr. Lin Yun-chien, has said, "The
persecution against Falun Gong by the former leader
of China is a misunderstanding of human nature's
pursuit of 'Truthfulness, Compassion and
Forbearance," it is also to slander people who
seek the Tao [or way]. We believe that
parades like this will help more people understand
the true beautiful nature of Falun Gong." The Director of the Taiwan Falun Gong Association
expressed his regret to the fact that the former
leader of China Jiang Zemin orchestrated the
persecution of Falun Gong in 1999 out of jealousy
over its huge popularity and consequently many Falun
Gong practitioners have died as a result of torture
while in police custody. The Director also appealed
to all circles of the society to support Falun Gong
practitioners' basic human rights, bring the
perpetrators to justice and end the persecution
immediately.
Fan dance
Greetings from the audience
The Deputy Mayor of Kaohsiung addresses speech
Exposing torture methods
Innocent and lovely young practitioners
Falun Dafa has received 1223
proclamations/awards from around the world
Book Zhuan Falun
Falun Dafa's wide spread to the world
Falun Gong exercise demo on the
float
Waist Drum Team
Audience holding a balloon
Chorus
"Coming for you"
Chinese version available at
http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2004/5/12/74404.html
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