Canada: Falun Gong Photo Display at a Vancouver University captures the Attention of Chinese Students

On the top of the beautiful Burnaby Hill of Vancouver sits the famous Simon Fraser University. Looking down across the city of Vancouver from the campus, the city is nestled among the blue sky, green sea and evergreen forests.

After the 3-day Labour Day weekend, SFU began the Fall 2003 semester and the campus became crowded once again. From September 2 to 5, the university Falun Gong Club hosted a Falun Gong Picture Exhibit in the corridor of the main classroom building. Nine sets of pictures and a few truth-clarification video programmes vividly introduced the history of Falun Gong, including its being first introduced to public in 1992, its widespread popularity, the persecution by Jiang's regime, Falun Gong practitioners' peaceful appeal in the world, international lawsuits against Jiang and other high ranking officials and more and more governments and organisations calling to stop the persecution. Beautiful scenery and serene traditional Chinese music attracted many passersby. They stopped to see the pictures and learn more about the history of Falun Gong, although many of them were already familiar with Falun Gong.

For some young Chinese students, seeing a show like this at the beginning of the new semester made a deep impression. They looked as if they were truly re-thinking their impression of Falun Gong.

A female student from Beijing read through the display board then asked the practitioner who organised the show, "Is he really being sued? How will they try him?" She took away some Falun Gong materials and CDs.

A German student, who studied in China before, said that this was completely different from what he learned in China about Falun Gong. He carefully watched the "Tiananmen Staged Immolation Case" video programme and discussed a few questions with a practitioner. In the end, he said he wanted to read and watch the Falun Dafa materials.

A male Chinese student smiled and shook his head while watching the show. When a practitioner handed him some reading materials and video CD, he wanted to accept but then hesitated. The practitioner told him how the newspapers lied to the readers in China, and that the persecution was a political campaign, just like the Cultural Revolution. The practitioner asked him to judge what is true for himself. He thought about it and took the materials.

Once, a few Chinese students watched the show and took away several sets of materials and CDs. One male student who just came from China asked a practitioner, "What is this all about?" After he read all the display boards, he sighed and said, "We totally misunderstood Falun Gong."

When the practitioners were practising the exercises, two westerners quietly followed their movements. They are two visiting teachers and have been interested in Chinese Qigong for a long time. Many westerners showed great interest in Falun Gong and happily took with them literature and CDs.