At the premiere of the Divine Performing Arts Chinese Spectacular at Bratislava's Slovak National Theater on the evening of Sunday March 9th, the audience honoured the performers with an enthusiastic standing ovation. Slovakia was the first stop on Divine Performing Arts' tour of post-communist countries, and it was a complete success.

After departing from Vienna, the Divine Performing Arts stopped for one performance in Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia. A few hours before the show, all of the dancers, singers and musicians were working hard in preparation. Nonetheless, the atmosphere in the Slovak National Theater was calm and unbelievably harmonious.

A Member of the Bundestag from the Green Party, Cornelia Behm, was quite impressed with the Chinese Gala Spectacular", performed at The International Congress Centre in Berlin. After seeing the show on Sunday March 15th, she explained that she had to reflect on what she had seen. The show was "something special and very moving" said the politician.

When practitioners refused to wear the camp uniforms, they were beaten, cursed at, kicked, and hung up by handcuffs during the day. Their hands were handcuffed to the headboards at night, which meant that they couldn't turn over or move freely. After only a month in Masanjia they became very weak from being tortured. From April through May, practitioner Ms. Yuan Shuzhe was hung up for the entire two months, which caused compression of her lower spine. This can lead to paralysis.

Shijiazhuang Women's Prison in Hebei Province detains about 80 to 90 Falun Gong practitioners. The oldest is 70 years old. The longest term is 14 years. Falun Gong practitioners Miss Wang Bo and her mother, Liu Shuqin, are detained and persecuted in the Shijiazhuang Women's Prison after they were sentenced. The long-term excessive work causes more than half the detainees to develop diseases such as tuberculosis. The Falun Gong practitioners are forced to work overtime. Every night they cannot go to sleep until 11 PM or 12 AM. Every job has a quota. If they cannot finish the quota, if they talk when lining-up, or if the work quality is not good enough, they are punished.

Ms. Lv Huiwen, 57 years old, was transferred from Wanjia Forced Labour Camp to Qianjin Women's Forced Labour Camp, in May 2007, where she was forced to do hard labour from 7:30 a.m. until 8 p.m., seven days a week for a long time.. She was beaten, hung up while handcuffed, and personally insulted by the camp guards. As a result, she suffered heart disease, blurry vision, and became very weak. Just before her daughter came to visit her, Division Head Chen Lihua had threatened Lv Huiwen, saying, "Tomorrow, if you tell your daughter what happened here, we will use all the regulations at hand to punish you later." In order to avoid any further persecution, Lv Huiwen chose not to say anything to her daughter.

On August 16th, 2007, Ms. Ding Zhengfang from Dalian City, Liaoning Province was taken into custody at her mother's home by police officers. Ms. Ding has since been detained at the Yaojia Detention Centre. About two weeks ago, the Zhongshan District Court secretly tried her in a closed court. During her detention, she was put into handcuffs and shackles, which were nailed to a bed. To protest the persecution, she held a hunger strike. Consequently, she was brutally beaten and force-fed by the guards. Because of the beatings, her health severely deteriorated.

On March 16th, 2008, Falun Gong practitioners from Vancouver, Canada participated in the 5th St Patrick's Day parade. The Divine Land Marching Band, "celestial maidens" in traditional costumes, drummers and a beautiful float attracted the attention of the spectators. Over 100,000 people attended this event.