Houston: Falun Gong Practitioners Clarify the Truth at the Asian/Pacific American Heritage Festival (Photos)

By Shu Jiang, Minghui/Clearwisdom reporter in Houston

(Clearwisdom.net) The 12th annual Asia/Pacific American Heritage Festival in Houston opened on the first Sunday of May. The sponsor was the Asia/Pacific American Heritage Association (APAHA) of Houston. Falun Gong practitioners participated in the event for the sixth time. They prepared sufficient information and materials to clarify the truth about Falun Gong to the public.

Falun Gong attracts tourists

Falun Gong exercises are easy to learn, and suitable for people of all ages

I want to learn more about Falun Gong

From 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, May 6, 2007, the Asia/Pacific American Heritage Festival took place at famous Hermnn Park in downtown Houston. Houston is a multi-cultural city, and the annual Asia/Pacific American Heritage Festival has become a well-known festival there. Several dozen groups as well as business people from different countries participated in this celebration, including the Falun Gong group and NTDTV. The goal of the festival is to share and exchange diversified traditional cultures of different ethnic groups.

Falun Gong practitioners took full advantage of this opportunity to clarify the facts. They arrived early and carefully arranged their booth. The front and both sides of the booth displayed banners reading "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" in both Chinese and English. On the table were Dafa books in both Chinese and English and videotapes of the exercise instructions, along with "truth clarification" materials in both Chinese and English, including the English newspaper "Falun Gong Today," the newspaper Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party in both Chinese and English, and selected works from the "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance Photo Exhibition." They set up a TV where a video of the five sets of exercises played repeatedly. The newspaper, "Falun Gong Today" carried articles exposing the CCP's harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. The news was shocking to many people who read it.

Early summer in Houston is cool and comfortable. Citizens came to the park in a steady stream and walked around in high spirits. Among the numerous booths, the Falun Gong booth was especially appealing. One Falun Gong practitioner introduced a woman working in a nearby booth to the CCP harvesting of organs from living Falun Gong practitioners. The woman was startled upon hearing about it, and asked anxiously where and when it took place. The practitioner replied that it is happening in China right now. The woman said solemnly, "Too cruel!"

An older Chinese man read the truth clarification materials at the Falun Gong booth, started walking away, and then turned around and came back. "I have experienced all kinds of political movements that the CCP launched in China, and I have a deep understanding of the CCP's wicked nature. I want to bring a copy of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party back home to let my grandchildren learn about it," he said.

Some tourists showed great interest in Falun Gong, watching the video of exercise instructions for a long time. Some tourists asked where to learn Falun Gong; others looked at the words "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" on the banner and pondered it.

Practitioners tirelessly introduced the facts about Falun Gong to tourists despite the increasingly warm sun. Practitioners also informed workers at the police booth opposite their booth about the persecution of Falun Gong. Before leaving, a police officer especially came to ask for a copy of the Falun Gong Report, a truth-clarifying book. Some citizens told the practitioners that they had learned about the persecution of Falun Gong in China.

Asia/Pacific American Heritage Month has a long history in the United States. It began in the late 1970s to commemorate the contributions of immigrants from Asia/Pacific countries to the development of the United States. In 1978, President Carter signed the first proclamation of Asia/Pacific American Heritage Week. In 1990, the House of Representatives passed a motion, extending the traditional Asia/Pacific American Heritage Week in May to Asia/Pacific American Heritage Month. When Horton retired, a resolution was passed to designate Asia/Pacific American Heritage Month a permanent festival. President Bush signed the motion in 1992, symbolizing that the Unites States recognizes multiple cultures.

The United States is a country of immigrants. There are 13.9 million Asia/Pacific Americans, accounting for 5% of the total population in the US (there are three million Chinese Americans, the largest ethnic group within the Asia/Pacific category, accounting for 20% of the total.) Houston is the fourth largest city in the US, a large metropolis in the southern US. The celebration of Asia/Pacific American Heritage Month is a festival that cannot be ignored by Asia/Pacific Americans.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2007/5/7/154295.html

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