With the help of Sydney practitioners, the art exhibition titled “Truth,
Compassion and Forbearance” was on its way to Wollongong.
Firstly, the
venue was chosen, being proposed as the “Wollongong Old Court House”,
at the popular harbourside of Wollongong. After presenting to the Old Court House
Committee the reason, history and the presentation of the art exhibition, they
were very happy to allow us to hold the exhibition in such a historic building,
and wished us a successful event.
Next, in order to promote the exhibition,
and to give as many people as possible the opportunity to attend the exhibition,
which was to be only two weeks away, local practitioners adapted the recommendation
of a city council friend and joined the “What’s on in Wollongong” list
which would allow a large group of organisations and media to know about the exhibition.
Immediately after the event was listed, we had different community groups contacting
us about the exhibition and wanting us to keep them posted about Falun Gong future
events. The local ABC radio station also interviewed one of our local practitioners
on the morning radio program, where he had a good chance to clarify the truth
to more people and to promote the art exhibition. Practitioners also contacted
the local newspaper who interviewed practitioners and ran an article in the weekend
edition on the same day of the art exhibition opening. The reporter was told about
the story of Jane Dai and her daughter Fadu who were left without a husband and
a father when Jane’s husband was persecuted to death in China for his belief in
Truth, Compassion and Forbearance of Falun Dafa. After learning the story, the
reporter was amazed by the beautiful paintings which tells her story.
On
the Friday night, despite the pouring rain, practitioners worked very hard until
around midnight to bring the paintings down from Sydney and set up the artworks
in the Old Court House for the exhibition opening the next morning. There was
much talk among the practitioners about the bad weather, but with all the practitioners
righteous hearts, by the Saturday morning when the art exhibition was due to open,
the skies were clear and it turned out a beautiful sunny day.
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Many
people started coming in as soon as the doors were opened. They expressed their
amazement and shock at how such a brutal persecution could still be happening
in China in this modern day, and yet were touched by the beautiful and meaningful
way the paintings portrayed the uncompromising courage of Falun Dafa practitioners
to uphold the principles of Truth, Compassion and Forbearance. Visitors including
young and old, families with children, all looked at the paintings and read the
stories about the paintings carefully. They left their remarks in the guest book
voluntarily with their touched hearts. Some children also left their comments
in our guest book. A young girl around 5, insisting on the help of her older sister,
left her comments by writing down something as simple as “I like it”.
A girl about 10, after taking photos of almost every painting, wrote down “This
exhibition shows love and passion, the artist has obviously been through a lot”.
A young couple came in without knowing anything about Falun Dafa and the persecution.
After one of the practitioners clarified the truth to the lady, she said that
she felt so naïve that she didn’t know anything about this cruelty in China,
and then she went back and looked at all the paintings again for another half
an hour, before thanking us for setting up such meaningful exhibition for people.
An old Chinese couple who were visiting Australia also came in and looked at the
exhibition. The man said that although he was not a practitioner, he encouraged
Falun Dafa practitioners effort of bringing the truth to the public, and left
comments in the book to salute all the Dafa practitioners.
There were many
other remarks: ” It’s hard to believe that this is possible in a free world?
I hope this can end soon.”
“What is the Chinese government afraid
of? Very enlightening exhibition.”
“What a fascinating and interesting
exhibition. Truly inspiring.”
“Fantastic exhibition. I really enjoyed
it, at the same time saddened by it”.
“It is so hard to understand
why humans can act like this to one another – except that absolute power corrupts,
absolutely.”
“The power of Art. Invite the Chinese Embassy Staff
!”
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During
the exhibition, practitioners also travelled from far away to perform songs of
Dafa on the lawn in front of the Old Court House, and their touching and beautiful
songs attracted many passers by, including people driving past who shouted out
their support to the practitioners. Even when it was time to close the exhibition
for the day people were still wanting to come in to look at the paintings and
learn more about Falun Dafa. On Sunday, the weather was quite windy, but unexpectedly
this didn’t stop people coming in to look at the paintings. When the Old Court
House people saw this, they told us that they never saw so many people in other
events like Falun Dafa’s. They were very happy to wait for our next event there.
Many
many touching stories were told during the whole exhibition, many many people
are so kindly offer their support and encouragement to practitioners after learning
about the brutal persecution towards Falun Dafa practitioners which is happening
in China. All this is simply because the Chinese communist regime is crushing
the basic human values of Truth, Compassion and Forbearance of the beings on this
earth. The persecution will end in no time and the truth of Falun Dafa will soon
prevail in the world .
Posting date: 31/Jul/2005
Original article
date: 30/Jul/2005
Category: Australian News
