The Celestial Band Performs to Cheers from the Audience

"The Falun Gong marching band is so powerful! I feel so inspired!" said one friend who watched the Celestial Band perform.

The Celestial Band, a marching band consisting of 200 members, was a most striking surprise in the January 28, 2006, New York Chinese New Year Parade. They later participated in the rally and parade in Los Angeles celebrating 8 million Chinese quitting the Chinese Communist Party in late February. Practitioners showed their solidarity with fellow practitioners persecuted in China, letting the world see that the Chinese Communist regime cannot suppress them. They will not cower in front of the CCP, nor will they react with hatred. The band members demonstrated joy and festiveness in order to validate the beauty of the Falun Gong principles of "Truth-Compassion-Forbearance."

The band performed "Falun Dafa is good," "Drums and Trumpets Shake the World in Ten Directions" and other musical presentations. Their performance was moving, not only because of the great exuberance and the pleasant melodies but more importantly, the beauty and power of truth reflected by the practitioners.

Who would have expected that practitioners of Falun Gong, which was first introduced as a form of qigong for health and fitness, would end up proudly walking through the streets of New York, a world financial centre, to counter the persecution they face from the CCP?

Who would have expected that Falun Gong practitioners could in a short time bring together such a large band and dispel people's misunderstandings about Falun Gong with majestic music? They are the same people who often distribute truth clarification materials on street corners, who testify in congressional hearings about the atrocities against Falun Gong, who give personal testimony of the diabolic deeds of the CCP through anti-torture exhibitions?

Who might have expected this group of men and women of all ages, whom the CCP labels an "anti-China force," to bestow blessings with this extraordinary band as well as through song and dance?

As we appreciate and praise the band consisting of persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and we witness their talents, it is natural to ask why the CCP is persecuting Falun Gong. Isn't Falun Gong great?

Many Falun Gong practitioners have sacrificed their lives when answering this seemingly simple question. In an effort to prevent people from learning the truth, the Chinese Communist regime has tried to prevent Falun Gong practitioners around the world from clarifying the truth. The CCP did so by mobilizing their vast resources inside and outside of China.

One such example is this: On June 23, 2003, Liang Guanjun and several others with close ties to the Chinese Consulate attacked Falun Gong practitioners that were clarifying the truth in streets of New York. U.S. Congressional Resolution 304 documents this assault as evidence of the CCP's persecution in the U.S. The resolution passed on October 4, 2004.

Even though the Celestial Band was a success in New York's parade, the Chinese consulate in San Francisco is trying its best to prevent Falun Gong practitioners from participating in similar activities.

Rose Pak is a personal friend of former CCP head Jiang Zemin. She is the head of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco. In the CCP-controlled Asia Week magazine, she blatantly challenged American principles of justice by openly discriminating against Falun Gong practitioners and denigrating Chris Daly, the District 6 Supervisor who supports Falun Gong. The City Council of San Francisco, a city that once denied a proclamation for Falun Gong under pressure from the CCP, passed a resolution on January 31, 2006 to condemn the persecution of Falun Gong. SF seems to be a focal point for the CCP.

In order to prevent people from learning the truth about Falun Gong, the CCP desperately deceives, intimidates and suppresses people around the world, especially Chinese people. Human rights lawyers who speak up for Falun Gong are deprived of personal freedom. Several have narrowly escaped assassination attempts. The CCP labels people who condemn the persecution as being "anti-China" and openly threatened a Chinese-American senator who supports Falun Gong.

For the past six years, the CCP's genocidal policy of "ruining their reputation, bankrupting them financially, and destroying them physically" has not shaken the Falun Gong practitioners' determination in following the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. It has by no means changed in the least the blessings and happiness Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance have brought to people. Because of the persecution, the CCP itself is now struggling to survive. The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party has exposed the Party's sinister motives, and people now understand the CCP's debased nature. Over eight million people have quit the CCP and the number is rising rapidly. The CCP has no choice but to accept its inevitable doom.

The marching band has been an inspiration to many during their first-ever public performance. The name "Celestial Band" suggests that it was established in accordance with the will of heaven and is endowed with the responsibility of spreading light, suffocating evil and bringing blessings to kind-hearted people.

So I said to my friend, "Please indeed cherish this inspiring feeling."