Scotland: Introducing Falun Dafa at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

On Sunday the 15th of August, Edinburgh's Fringe Festival Sunday dawned bright and sunny. A week of monsoon type weather had come to an end the day before, providing just enough time for the ground to soak up the last of the rain. The stall allotted for Falun Dafa was not available so practitioners set one up on the grass next to the path, in the shade of a beautiful avenue of trees. This turned out to be a positive change as this was a very busy area.

Traditional Chinese dancing

Demonstrating the Falun Gong exercises

As well as being able to see the five sets of Falun Gong exercises demonstrated throughout the day, passersby were treated to the elegance of traditional a Chinese Parasol Dance and Fan Dance. In stark contrast, a backdrop of banners, depicting not only the beauty of Falun Dafa but the horror and extent of the persecution by former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, drew a great deal of attention. Over 700 petition signatures were gathered calling for Jiang to be brought to justice for his terrible crimes. So shocking is the evidence that people found it hard to believe this was going on, almost completely unchecked, in today's world.

Of the many Chinese people who accepted leaflets and wanted to know more, one said she hoped that Falun Dafa would be made legal in China again soon and she invited western practitioners to come and visit her country. Some Taiwanese people said there are 400,000 Falun Gong students in their country now.

Many people signed a petition calling for Jiang to be brought to justice

After hearing about how Zhao Ming (a University student in Ireland, imprisoned for practising Falun Gong while visiting China and who suffered brutal torture in the hands of Jiang's thugs) was rescued, some visitors from Ireland came to understand how effective a petition can be and decided to support the "Bring Jiang to Justice" campaign. An entire family of three generations signed the petition.

Some were quite familiar and even touched by the regular appeals outside the Chinese Consulate that have been going on for two years now, come rain or shine, and some had even seen the constant twenty-four hour vigil outside the Chinese Embassy in London. A lot of people asked about the free exercise classes and said many wonderful things upon hearing about Falun Dafa.