Belgium: Four-Day Activity in the City of Hasselt Reaches Thousands of People

From the 8th to the 11th of November, the annual Art & Crafts Expo took place in the Flemish city of Hasselt. During this event a large number of workshops, demonstrations and exhibitions related to painting, sculpture, flower decoration, paper craft, etc., took place and people of all ages could participate in them. Each year this expo attracts around 30,000 people.

For the second time, Falun Dafa practitioners participated in this event. The organisers are very supportive of Falun Dafa; they gave practitioners several bonuses, one of those being a generous stand space which allowed for different activities to take place at the stand. The practitioners demonstrated the five sets of Falun gong exercises, exhibited reprints of paintings from the Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance International Art Exhibition, exhibited photos, taught people how to fold paper lotus flowers and did Chinese calligraphy. The Falun Dafa stand looked very nice and attracted many people. Practitioners also had the opportunity to demonstrate the exercises at the main demonstration podium of the venue.

Demonstrating the exercises on the main podium and at the Falun Dafa stand

It also happened that Jane Dai and her daughter Fadu were in Belgium, so they also took part in this event. Jane Dai’s husband was killed at the hands of the Chinese Communist regime because he practised Falun Gong and Jane has travelled the world to raise awareness about the human rights abuses he and other Falun Gong practitioners have suffered. Jane gave talks on the main podium on how her husband was murdered. She said “We are not the only ones in this situation. Thousands and thousands of families like mine have either lost one of their parents or both. Many children are orphans, all because we follow Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. We travel around the world to appeal for help to end this inhumane and irrational persecution.” After that, Jane and Fadu invited the public to come to the Falun Gong stand to fold a lotus flower as a gesture of hope that the unjust persecution will soon come to an end.

Jane Dai talked about the persecution of her husband	Learning more from the Falun Dafa exhibition

In general, after finding out about the human rights abuses against Falun Gong, visitors were very supportive and asked how they could help to put an end to this tyranny. Several people were interested in how they can learn the exercises so practitioners told them about the free classes.

One visitor, who learned how to fold a paper lotus flower at last year’s event, visited the Falun Dafa stall again this year bringing along a beautiful large lotus flower that he had made especially. Practitioners were touched by this gesture and hung the flower on the stand as an appreciation to this kind action. Another visitor said that the flower he received last year was still hanging from the mirror of his car. A girl, whose parents had a stand at the expo, learned how to fold paper lotus flowers and went to the Falun Dafa stall every day to help the practitioners.

Teaching people the Falun Dafa exercises and how to fold paper lotus flowers

Some practitioners also took the task of informing visitors to the expo about the coming Shen Yun Chinese Spectacular next year; many expressed their wish to attend the show and some even wanted to buy the entrance tickets on the spot.