PureInsight | May 17, 2004
[PureInsight.org] On April 25, 1999, over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners went to the State Council Appeals Office in Beijing to peacefully appeal for the release of the 45 Falun Gong practitioners detained in Tianjin. It was then that Falun Gong became an international topic, and raised the profile of Falun Gong in Taiwan. There weren't many Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan prior to the April 25th Appeal. Thanks to the media's intense coverage of the Appeal, a huge number of Taiwanese people immediately took interest in Falun Gong and the number of Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan skyrocketed. Like baby bamboo shoots popping up all over the place after a spring rain, new Falun Gong exercise practice sites were set up all over Taiwan to meet the ever-increasing demand. As of April 2004, there are more than 1000 Falun Gong practice sites all over Taiwan and the number of Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan is estimated to be around 300,000. Here are some of Taiwanese Falun Gong practitioners' memories of the April 25th Appeal and its impact on the growth of Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan.
[Note: Except for the city names of Taipei and Kaohsiung, all the Taiwanese names are spelled according to Mainland Chinese pinyin and not the Taiwanese Phonetic Symbols.]
Mr. Lu Qihong of Taipei
I started to cultivate in Falun Gong in 1997. I remember the media's report on the April 25th Appeal in 1999 when Falun Gong practitioners in China peacefully appealed in Beijing. According to the media, the Falun Gong practitioners joining the appeal were very peaceful and well behaved. They appealed to the State Council Appeals Office because the Tianjin police had illegally detained 45 Falun Gong practitioners. Over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners stood up for them and appealed peacefully and rationally for their release. They were so well mannered that there was no litter on the ground after they left. They even picked up all the cigarette butts that the police had littered the ground with. We truly admired their altruism and outstanding manners. It never occurred to me that Jiang Zemin would launch the persecution against Falun Gong on the 20th of July. We were completely shocked and jolted. But we still saw through his lies about Falun Gong, and continue to practice Falun Gong and study Falun Dafa books as usual. In fact, Taiwanese practitioners had only one change after April 25th and July 20th of 1999: We now cherish all the more our freedom of practicing Falun Gong in Taiwan. Moreover, Falun Gong attained instant and tremendous popularity after April 25, 1999. A large number of new exercise practice sites were established to meet increasing demands to learn and practice Falun Gong. All the practice sites and each monthly 9-day videotape lecture and exercise classes were completely packed with new students who had watched the news about the April 25th Appeal. Within five months, from April 25th to September of 1999, the number of people coming to the Falun Gong practice site that I go to grew from only two to more than forty. Shortly after learning Falun Gong, many people quickly improved their health and morality, and thus witnessed Falun Gong's miraculous power of improving health and elevating moral character. [Perhaps to the horror of Jiang Zemin,] the media's coverage of the April 25th Appeal truly became a free promotion for Falun Gong in Taiwan. I heard someone say, "Falun Gong is really something! Something really divine!"
Mr. Yu Zhirong of Kaohsiung
I started to cultivate in Falun Gong in 1997, and I remember the Taiwanese media coverage of the April 25th Appeal in 1999. According to these media reports, more than ten thousand Chinese Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside the State Council Appeals Office to appeal for their fellow Falun Gong practitioners arrested in Tianjin. Those fellow Chinese practitioners were peaceful, rational, and quiet. Their lines were very orderly, displaying the good manners of Falun Dafa cultivators. The Chinese Premier at the time, Mr. Zhu Rongji, met with several representatives of Falun Gong practitioners, and commented that practicing Falun Gong was very good for one's health, and that Falun Gong had saved a large amount of medical expenses for the country. When these Falun Gong practitioners left, they also walked in an orderly and peaceful manner. Those of us who watched the footage were very impressed with their good manners. It was unthinkable at the time that in a few months Jiang Zemin would start arresting Falun Gong practitioners again on July 19, and would commence a full-scale persecution against Falun Gong practitioners. Yet the unexpected effect of the media's reports on the April 25th Appeal was that many Taiwanese people became curious about Falun Gong. They came to this practice site to find out about Falun Gong. When they found that Falun Gong was a great cultivation practice that would help improve their health and moral character, many of them immediately decided to cultivate in Falun Gong. As the persecution in China escalated, Taiwanese newspapers and televisions continuously covered the progression of the persecution. These reports immediately boosted the popularity of Falun Gong in Taiwan, and helped attract a large number of newcomers to learn Falun Gong. The 9-day videotape lectures and exercise classes here were bursting with new students each month. The number of Falun Gong practice sites in Taiwan was also growing rapidly. Since Taiwan and China share the same language and are of the same race, it is relatively easy for the Taiwanese people to understand and accept Falun Gong. I remember that in the Kaohsiung Falun Dafa cultivation experience sharing conference before the April 25th Appeal, there were only around forty attendees. After Jiang Zemin started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, the number of people attending each Kaohsiung Falun Dafa experience sharing conference grew exponentially and became many times more than the original 40 people.
Ms. Du Fuying
I lived in China for many years. I know it's perfectly legal in China to appeal to the State Council Appeals Office. In fact, it's one of the Constitutional rights of a Chinese citizen to do so. Besides, it's perfectly normal for Falun Gong practitioners to step out and clarify the truth about Falun Gong when the Tianjin police have misunderstood and even detained their fellow Falun Gong practitioners. I've seen the April 25th Appeal's footage and photographs on Taiwanese media. No one was chanting any slogans during the appeal. No one was running around. No one was trying to cause a riot. They just stood quietly in lines, waiting to appeal for Falun Gong at the Appeals Office. Some of them were reading as they were standing in line. They were so peaceful and rational. In escalating the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners, Jiang Zemin ordered his henchmen to increase the cruelty and savagery in their tortures of them. It's as if Jiang Zemin was revamping the Great Cultural Revolution and reenacting the repression against the June 4th Student Movement. It's a well-known fact that Falun Dafa has a magnificent power in treating illnesses and restoring health. Within a few years since its introduction in 1992, Falun Gong has attracted more than 100 million people in China to its practice because Falun Gong teaches its students to conduct themselves according to the cultivation principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance. As a result, over 100 million practitioners have been trying to restore and enhance their moral character. It's absurd that the Chinese government keeps reporting slanderous lies about Falun Gong in the Chinese media and keeps forbidding the Chinese people from cultivating in Falun Gong. Because Falun Gong is such a wonderful cultivation practice, those Chinese practitioners whose lives have been saved by Falun Gong naturally feel that they have to step out and speak for Falun Gong, even if it means sacrificing their own lives. This is the same reason why Falun Gong practitioners outside China also want to clarify the facts about Falun Gong to the world's people.
Ms. Xia Huixia of Taipei
I met Teacher Li Hongzhi on November 16, 1997 when he visited Taiwan to teach Falun Dafa. I was so glad and honored that I got to shake hands with Teacher. I also asked Teacher, "I am extremely frail. Can I cultivate in Falun Dafa?" Teacher said, "Yes" --- twice! Since then, I've been determined in cultivating in Falun Dafa. Prior to April 20, 1999, there weren't many Falun Gong practitioners in Taiwan. One time I went to Da'an Forest Park in Taipei to promote Falun Gong on a very hot weekend. After we demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises in the park, a fellow practitioner bought everyone Popsicles. I felt our fellow practitioners were so considerate and sweet. Both Teacher and my fellow practitioners have been so kind to me that their kindness has reinforced my faith in Falun Dafa. When I saw that fellow practitioners in China appealed on April 25, 1999 to help get the arrested Falun Gong practitioners in Tianjin released and that Jiang Zemin started to persecute Falun Gong on July 20, 1999, I was overcome with sadness. I cannot believe that they would want to repress such a wonderful cultivation practice. It's because of Falun Dafa that I've changed from an extremely sick and frail person into a happy healthy person. When I watched the Mainland Chinese media keep reporting lies about Falun Gong [that I knew from my own cultivation experiences were far from the truth,] when I saw the staged "Tiananmen Self-Immolation Act," and when I learned that these lies had deceived both [Mainland] Chinese and Taiwanese people, I discussed it with some fellow practitioners in my area. We decided to spend our weekends and holidays promoting Falun Dafa, distributing flyers containing the facts about Falun Dafa, and clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa based on our personal cultivation experiences.
Ms. Zhou Yiling
I'm a government employee in Taiwan. I saw Teacher Li Hongzhi's photograph for the first time on a Taiwanese news article reporting the April 25th Appeal. [Although I had not yet started to cultivate in Falun Gong,] I knew that the Chinese ruling party's government must have been repressing another spiritual belief. It is so typical of a totalitarian regime to deprive its people of all freedom of spiritual belief. A colleague of mine became curious about Falun Gong after she read the news about the April 25th Appeal, so she went to a bookstore, purchased a copy of Zhuan Falun, and immediately started to cultivate in Falun Gong. One year later, my health started to decline. Because I saw her health and moral character improve significantly since she began cultivation in Falun Gong, I became interested in Falun Gong as well and decided to give it a try. The teaching of the Falun Gong exercises is completely free of charge. There are no rituals or rules for Falun Gong practitioners, which makes it more appealing to me. After I read Zhuan Falun for the first time, I understood the true reasons why people suffer from sicknesses and tribulations. I also began to understand that it was only through cultivation that a person could become free of any sickness and tribulation. After I attended the 9-day videotape lectures and exercise class, my health took a miraculous upturn. All of my illnesses and pain disappeared on their own. I started to walk with new-found agility as if a breeze was sweeping me towards my destination. Each time a fellow practitioner shared an article describing the horrid tortures against our fellow practitioners in China, I felt so painfully sad as if a knife was piercing my heart. We are all cultivating Falun Gong under Teacher's guidance, but our lives are so different! Those Chinese practitioners across the Taiwan Strait are suffering the most inhuman treatment. According to the information published on Clearwisdom.net, as of May 1, 2004, 949 Falun Gong practitioners have been verified as being tortured to death, not to mention those practitioners whose names have not been verified. There are at least 6,000 Falun Gong practitioners who have been illegally sentenced to prison. Over 100,000 practitioners have been sentenced to forced labor camps. Thousands of practitioners have been forcefully sent to psychiatric hospitals to be tortured with injections that are damaging to the central nervous system. Large groups of Falun Gong practitioners have been forcefully sent to local brainwashing classes, where they have been subjected to both physical and mental torture. Countless Falun Gong practitioners have been forced to leave their homes, going into hiding to avoid further persecution. I earnestly hope that all the good Samaritans in the world will stand up and fight against the inhuman persecution against Falun Gong in China. With help from kindred spirits, we will eventually be able to end the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners in China.
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2004/4/27/26886.html
