Chinese Spectacular in Berlin, "It was presented very well and especially how the others helped them"

A former x-ray technician assistant loved the gracefulness displayed by the male and female dancers, "I loved the male and female dancers very much. Besides, I also was quite impressed with the drummers in The Drummers of the Tang Court scene, as they were very powerful."

She felt that the music was too loud at times, and said, "I loved the Erhu solo music very much."

The music in the scene about Falun Gong [The Power of Awareness] was very good. She said, "It was presented very well and I especially liked how the others helped them."

She shared that the texts on the back drop and the back drop pictures were done very well.

"The ancient Chinese culture was manifested and allows a new perception of China"

Ms. Gabriela Morales-Nunez, a nurse, said, "It was a show where one wants to stay and not leave. I really liked the Victory Drums. The dances also caught my eye, especially as to the impression of effortlessness by the dancers. Also, the live orchestra was great. I seldom hear such classical music and found it calmed the nerves. It was very important that the text to the songs was shown. They gave the message very well. Though, the songs weren't something for me. She said, "The ancient Chinese culture is ancient and allows a new perception of China"

"The comperes were good and helped a lot"

Günter Unseld, a senior engineer, gave his impressions in a nutshell, "I expected something completely different. I expected more acrobatics. Yes, it was very good. I especially found the drummers great, splendid. The comperes were very good and helped a lot. The themes of the show were also very good. I wasn't used to this type of song and music, especially if one has to listen to it for a long time. The text, depicted on the back drop was very interesting. I was truly thrilled."

On the 15th of March 2008, the National St. Patrick’s Day Parade was held in Cashel Town in County Tipperary which is located in the south of Ireland. Falun Gong practitioners attended and were made very welcome at the activity.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in National St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Cashel

Although it was drizzling on and off, the happy atmosphere of the festival wasn’t affected. Up to 1000 people in colourful clothes watched the parade holding their umbrellas up against the rain. The only Chinese community group in the parade, a Falun Gong cultivation group performed the elegant and graceful Chinese traditional lotus dance and fan dance, as well as the Chinese drummers and won continuous applause from the audience.

A construction worker, Martin, expressed that the performances of dozens of performing groups made them feel that the parade was excellent; especially the dance and drum from the Falun Gong cultivation group, it has brought the whole small town some vivid colours. Martin said, “St Patrick’s Day is wonderful! I have been living in Cashel for 22 years. Every time of the year is wonderful. I feel the Falun Gong cultivation group’s dancing performance added more colour to the whole parade.

Retired school teacher Denny and his wife Carmo watched the parade together with their other family members. They expressed that, every year there is a St Patrick’s Day celebration activity, not just this year. But this year’s National Day was very special, since in each of the passed years, the fire works was bound to be held in the capital city Dublin, but today, it would be fortunately carried out in Cashel, it was really exciting. His wife Helen said with joy, my family all came from Dublin to watch the parade and fire works. Tonight we will celebrate the big occasion with good wine.

The local Falun Gong practitioner Tracy said, “Tonight’s fire works would start at 6:30pm. There would be 15,000 to 17,000 people from all over the world watching the fire works. That would be splendid. She also introduced the Falun Gong cultivation group who also participated in last year’s performance and won the prize. Today, we are not only being invited to Cashel’s National Day parade, but also going to take part in the National Day parade in Cork city, which is the second largest National Day parade after the one in the capital city Dublin.

St Patrick’s Day is on March the 17th and is the National Day of Ireland. Irish people celebrate it with fire works and the form of parade. The parade includes music display, performances on the street and dancing and so on.

In recent years, some Falun Gong practitioners from Beijing have been taken to the Inner Mongolian Autonomous Region Women's Forced Labour Camp in Huhhot City, where they are being imprisoned and brutally tortured.

When Ms. Wei Fengmin from Beijing was imprisoned in the Third Team, the guards did not allow her to sleep and tortured her for long periods of time. She would not give up her belief and was handed over to the First Team. Ms. Wei was locked up in a storage room and tortured. Drug addict inmates were allowed to bring her food until the persecution became more severe, and then they were no longer allowed to deliver food and water to her. Team chief Lu Junqing (female) did not allow practitioners to sit on their beds. She made them sit on the polished stone ground for long periods of time, threatened them with shocks from high voltage electric batons, and intimidated them to try to get them to "reform¹" and give up Falun Gong practice.

Some practitioners were tortured so severely that their menstruation would not stop. Guard Wu Jing (female) incited the criminals to poke a bundle of rough chopsticks into the mouth of practitioner Ms. Yu Haiyan. Ms. Yu's face and mouth were badly bruised, covered with blood, and appeared to be purple. Her swollen lips curled upwards. The guards continued to lock her in the storage room, hang her up in the air by handcuffs, and order the drug-addicts to pummel her. She was put down and then hung up again, causing her to faint many times. This kind of torture would be carried out once every few days and has become a routine.

Practitioner Ms. Lei Xiuhua was taken to the storage room many times. The guards incited the criminal inmates to pummel and kick her. Outside the room, the sounds of the beatings terrorized anyone who could hear. Like Ms. Yu Haiyan, Mr. Lei was beaten and hung up in the air by her handcuffs, causing her to faint many times. She would be taken down and, after regaining consciousness, be hung up again. The guards repeatedly tortured her like this in an attempt to achieve their goal of "reforming" her.

Ms. Zhang Xueqing was imprisoned and brutally treated inside the monitoring room for a long time. Because news leaving the camp is censored, the severity of her torture is unclear.

Huhhot City Women's Forced Labour Camp is located at the suburb of Huhhot. The entertainment and bathing facilities in the camp courtyard are not for inmates' use, but only for high ranking visitors. In fact, those in custody are only allowed to crowd into a rinsing room and take a shower with cold water. Even during the cold winter, they are only allowed to use cold water. The drill ground is used for the prison guards' physical training. Sometimes it is used to torture practitioners, such as forcing them to run around the drill ground dozens of times. The activity room is a place for forced labour, where the inmates have to work overtime in order to complete the extra-heavy work load the labour camp assigns. The labour camp inmates are only allowed five minutes to eat meals even though they were promised that they could eat until they were full. Because they are not given enough time to eat and are hungry, some try to conceal a steamed bun. If this is discovered, the person is punished by being forced to stand and having adding penalty points added, which means their term is lengthened.

Some of those responsible:
First Team Chief Lu Junqing (female)
Second Team Chief Liu Yan (female)
Third Team Chief Huang Xiuhong (female)
guard Wu Jing (female).

Note

1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/3/10/174033.html

On January 21st, 2008 at around 6:00 a.m., seventy-year-old retired senior engineer Xiao Feng, a practitioner who lived in a village inside Shenzhen City, was distributing leaflets exposing the persecution in his area when two local police and public security agents caught him. They tried to force him to lead the way to other practitioners' homes in order to confiscate a large number of fliers. He refused, so they arrested Xiao Feng's wife Qian Huarui (60 years old) in their home, and took both of them to the village police station. On the same night at around 8:00 p.m., the two were transferred to a detention centre and have been locked up there since.

Xiao Feng and Qian Huarui's son and daughter have not yet been able to obtain any information regarding their parents, so they decided to call upon an lawyer. Through the lawyer's efforts, they learned that the city would be calling them to a hearing regarding their parents' sentencing.

Xiao Feng and Qian Huarui's son, Xiao Lingyun and his elder sister have now found a reasonable lawyer, and are preparing the files for a lawsuit.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/3/9/173954.html

Several Falun Gong practitioners from Baoding City, Hebei Province were recently arrested. Police from the Dingxing County Police Station harassed Falun Gong practitioners one by one according to their black list.

1. Liu Lifang, female, 44 years old, works at the China Bank near Chaoyang Road. On the evening of March 11th, 2008, she went home after work. Four or five policemen from the National Security Team searched her home and took her away. The police confiscated her Falun Gong books and other personal property. Presumably she is detained by the National Security Team, although there is no real way of finding out. Her thirteen year-old daughter was left alone at home with no one to take care of her.

2. Kong Hongyun runs a clinic in the dormitory area of the cotton mill. On March 13th, she was arrested. It was said that she was turned in because she distributed leaflets at the clinic explaining the truth about Falun Gong so that the Chinese people could understand the unreasonable persecution and what Falun Gong is really about.

3. Ms. Chang Jinfu lives in Xidayuan, Baoding City. She was arrested in Beijing because she distributed leaflets. She is currently detained at the Xinshi District Police Department in Baoding City. Details are under investigation.

Additionally, a few days ago, police from the Dingxing County Police Department went from place to place harassing Falun Gong practitioners listed on their black list. Around March 12th-13th, two Falun Gong practitioners from Dingxing County were arrested. Details are under investigation.

It is said that Party officials just had a meeting in Shijiazhuang City. They plan to intensify their persecution of Falun Gong during the run-up to the Olympic Games in Beijing.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/3/18/174573.html

On January 28th, 2008, Mr. Zhai Mouchen, a Falun Gong practitioner from Zibo City, Shandong Province, was taken into custody from his workplace by officers of the State Security Division in the Zhangdian District. Afterwards, his home was searched without a warrant. Later, he was taken to the Zibo City Detention Centre and brutally tortured. Mr. Zhai was sentenced to one year of forced labour and taken to the notorious Shandong Province Forced Labour Camp.

Mr. Zhai is from Mazhuang Village, Nanding Town, Zibo City. He used to be the deputy director of a Chemical Plant in his village. After he began to practise Falun Gong, he conducted himself with more tolerance and honesty. After the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched the persecution of Falun Gong, Mr. Zhai was repeatedly ill treated. His family also suffered tribulations that most people would find hard to bear.

As early as 2000, Mr. Zhai was sentenced to three years of forced labour and detained in the Zibo Forced Labour Camp and then the Shandong Province Forced Labour Camp. During that time, he was shocked with electric batons many times. In Zibo Forced Labour Camp, his legs developed a deep ulceration due to electric shock injuries that didn't heal for a long time. Soon after he was released from his three-year sentence, he was taken to the brainwashing centre run by the local 610 Office¹. They attempted to force him to give up his belief. After this failed, he was taken to the "Transformation²" Centre, which is actually a brainwashing centre, located in the Shandong Province Forced Labour Camp. He was detained there for one and a half years.

Mr. Zhai has an 80-year-old mother and two school-age children. The mental and physical pressure brought to bear on this family by the CCP is unimaginably severe.

Note

1. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

2. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/3/9/173953.html

On March 17th, Falun Gong practitioners in Ohio and nearby states participated in the St Patrick's Day parade in Cleveland. The practitioners performed on traditional Chinese waist drums and demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises on a decorated float, receiving warm applause from spectators.

Falun Gong practitioners' waist drum troupe

Falun Gong float with posters of Chinese Spectacular

Pressing hands together: a spectator warmly greeted the Falun Gong procession

A spectator exclaims as Falun Gong procession passes by

To protest the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) escalation of the persecution of Falun Gong under the excuse of "preparation" for the Olympics, Falun Gong practitioners in Houston held a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate and stated that Olympics and crimes against humanity cannot coexist.

Falun Gong practitioners in Houston held a rally in front of the Chinese Consulate and protested the CCP's escalation of the persecution of Falun Gong under the excuse of "preparation" for the Olympics

From 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on March 21st, 2008, Falun Gong practitioners gathered in front of the Chinese Consulate and held banners worded, "Strongly protest the CCP's arrest of Falun Gong practitioners under the excuse of 'preparation' for the Olympics," "Demand that the CCP stop the persecution of Falun Gong," and, "Stop the CCP's persecution of Falun Gong." Practitioners also displayed posters exposing the persecution. The rally was held during consulate business hours. People coming for visas, including Chinese people, paid attention to the practitioners' protest. The practitioners distributed Falun Gong truth-clarification literature and copies of the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party.

At the same time as the Falun Gong practitioners' protest, another group of people also came to protest the CCP and held banners worded, "Freedom of Expression, or No Olympics," and, "Stop Oppression." One of them indicated that they know something about the persecution occurring in China. The protest caught the attention of passersby and motorists passing by.

The "Olympic Spirit" is "mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." But the CCP continues its violent persecution under various excuses. The Chinese Communist government promised to improve human rights in China, yet it perpetuates its violent regime. It arrests people at will to prevent exposure of its atrocities. On February 19th, 2008, the CCP's Political and Judicial Committee issued a secret order to initiate a new round of persecution of Falun Gong practitioners and those it perceives as dissidents.

Since the end of last year through March 11th, 2008, more than 1,878 Falun Gong practitioners have been arrested in 29 provinces, cities or autonomous regions.