Practitioners dressed in golden yellow Tang Dynasty costume performed flowing exercises as dozens of onlookers gathered to watch the Falun Dafa Day activities on Saturday May 10th on the North Terrace, Trafalgar Square, London. A rainbow of coloured balloons arched over a royal blue banner which read: “Celebrating the 16th anniversary of Falun Dafa”.

The 2008 Turkish Falun Gong cultivation experience sharing conference was held in the southern town of Mersin on the 3rd May 2008. Falun Gong practitioners from different cities met together and shared their personal experiences during cultivation practice.

Since July 1999, nearly all labour camps have participated in the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners. They not only beat the practitioners mercilessly, but also forced them to work in poisonous, harmful environments. Practitioners in Changlinzi Labour Camp work 16 ½ hours daily, from 6: 30 a.m. until 11 p.m. The work hours for the first and fourth ward also exceed 12 hours, seven days a week. The cafeteria meals served to the prisoners are substandard; the good food is eaten by the guards and chiefs. Ten yuan monthly is designated for the imprisoned Falun Gong practitioners for their expenses.. Although they never receive the money, they are forced to sign a statement claiming that it was given to them.

My name is Mrs. Wang Jiuchun. I was an assistant professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. In July 1999, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its head Jiang Zemin began brutally suppressing Falun Gong practitioners. About fifty practitioners at the Falun Gong Assistance Centre in Tsinghua University were arrested and later sentenced to prison or forced labour camp terms. Among them, one practitioner was beaten to death. Other practitioner professors at Tsinghua University were placed on long-term surveillance. I was taken to a brainwashing centre six times, detained at the police department twice, and imprisoned in a forced labour camp for a year and a half. My home was ransacked twice by the police. I was subjected to severe physical and mental tortures. I was ordered to give up my belief in "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance".

Ms. Shang Yuping was detained several times because she practises Falun Gong. In April 2005, she was sentenced to prison for three years. On April 6th, 2008, when she was scheduled to be released, authorities sent her to Erdaopeng brainwashing centre in Jianghan District instead of releasing her. In April 2005, she and five other practitioners were found producing Falun Gong material. They were arrested by police and were sent to Wuhan No. 1 Women's Detention Centre. Ms. Shang Yuping was sentenced to three years in Wuhan Women's Prison.

On the afternoon of September 27th, 2007, Ms. Qiu boarded a bus on her way to work. Policemen from the Sifang Police Station pulled her off the bus. On October 10th, she was sentenced to forced labour and detained in the Hebei Province Women's Forced Labour Camp. She filed an appeal to the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labour Committee seeking administrative reconsideration of her sentence. However, camp authorities refused to deliver her appeal, leading her to miss the two-month deadline to file appeals. To safeguard her legal rights, Ms. Qiu started a hunger strike to protest and demand for the right to hire a lawyer in her defence. By around January 10th, 2008, she had been on the hunger strike for over 20 days. She had become extremely frail and thin; emaciated. Since January 1st, 2008, the labour camp authorities have deprived her of any form of contact with the outside world.

here is another thing. Many practitioners view their local truth-clarification material centers and the Clearwisdom website as "volunteer work" contracted to certain practitioners, "work places," or "higher authorities." Instead of studying the Fa, looking inward, and coming up with different ways to solve the problems, they push all their problems onto others.

Think back. When practitioners in Tianjin were arrested in 1999, we went to Beijing. That was the April 25th spirit, which will never perish in the universe. But now, how many of us go to the local police stations, detention centers, and labor camps to request that practitioners be released. How many of us send righteous thoughts and put forth our efforts to help them after they are persecuted?

After Divine Performing Arts concluded its Chinese Spectacular performance in Jubilee Auditorium, Edmonton, Canada, many spectators were so touched that they were reluctant to leave. English teacher Gerard Liston was one of them. Mr. Liston came to see the performance at the invitation of a friend. He said he liked it very much and that the show had transported him to "an ancient and graceful China."

The little girl in the painting was calling people's attention in the rain, hoping more people would learn the truth and thereby raising people's consciences to help stop the persecution soon.