Report in Dutch Newspaper: The other images from Chinese art: arrests, torture and murder

Het Parool, Kees Keyer.
Saturday, November 5th 2005.

Last month the Amsterdam China Festival did not make any reference to the human rights situation in China. An exhibition in the city hall now puts a finger on this sore spot.

Yesterday afternoon an exhibition was opened in the Amsterdam city hall under the title Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance, which exposes China's human rights situation. People are injected with drugs, cigarette butts are pressed out on their bodies, dogs are unleashed at meditating people and innocent women are whipped.

The artists at this exhibition all practice Falun Dafa, also called Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese exercise method for refinement of both mind and body. It is a movement under heavy fire in China. After Falun Dafa was introduced in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, the teachings became immensely popular with tens of millions of practitioners.

When the movement threatened to become bigger than the Chinese Communist Party in 1999, the government took measures. Quick and cruel, just like after the massive student protests of 1989. Since then the followers of Falun Gong are systematically persecuted, tortured and even murdered.

The exhibition is organised by the Falun Gong movement itself. Both the timing and the location of this exhibition are remarkable. Last month dozens of sites in Amsterdam were all dedicated to the Amsterdam China Festival.

The festival, supported by Embassies and Ministries of China and The Netherlands, had to be mainly a cultural event. Almost no criticism was expressed of the Chinese political situation and the place where the persecution of Falun Gong is happening. It was mostly about the rulers of the past. The notorious student demonstration from 1989 was also not addressed.

At the Falun Gong exhibition there was explicit attention to the human rights situation in China. Some of the artists have personally experienced the persecution.

Their experiences and scores of reports of arrests, torture and murder are the subjects for the paintings. "They embody a triumphal spirit of compassion, forbearance and the upholding of universal principle amidst pain and suffering", according to the organisation.

http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200512/30282.html

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