By a Falun Gong practitioner from Argentina
From The Allow more people to learn about Falun The words “Falun Dafa” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance” The exhibit hall Many people also came to our practice sites. We constantly received Some sales representatives from Mexico, Colombia and Uruguay's Chinese Embassy interference is in vain After the book fair began, the Chinese Embassy found out that Falun Gong was Falun Gong An official from the Argentine People longing to learn about Falun Dafa Most people who passed Led by their Seeing A middle-aged woman came to buy a Practitioner Children would take their Argentina Posting
April 16 to May 9, 2004, the 13th Argentina International Book Fair
was held in the largest exhibit hall in the country's capital city, Buenos
Aires. Falun Gong practitioners participated in the book fair for the first time.
book fair lasted for more than three weeks. About 400 major publishers and bookstores
from all over the world participated in the fair. Each country had its own exhibit
booth. Mayors from different cities, members of the Congress and ambassadors from
different countries attended the opening ceremony. The President of Argentina
was also present. About 1.3 million people, 300,000 more than usual, came to visit
the book fair. The exhibit hall was a sea of people. Sometimes, the line up outside
the hall was as long as five blocks.
Dafa
were featured prominently on the Falun Gong booth in both Spanish and Chinese.
The main book of Falun Gong, Zhuan Falun, was recently published in Spanish
in Argentina. Many copies of it were displayed on the bookshelf in the middle
of the booth. Under them were copies of the book in different languages. Two 2-meter-long
and 1.5-meter-wide banners with Chinese and Spanish versions of “Lun Yu” (Master
Li's article) were hung on either side of the bookshelf. Practitioners also
displayed a big Falun emblem and an explanation of it, so as to eliminate some
people's possible misunderstanding of the symbol.
was filled every day, especially weekends. According to fair regulations, one
could only distribute flyers near their own booth. At the booth, practitioners
gave out 130,000 Falun Dafa introductory and truth-clarifying flyers. Sometimes,
when practitioners distributing flyers were busy in clarifying the facts and answering
questions, people then lined up to request flyers. Many people returned to ask
for flyers after they hastily passed by. Everyone who accepted the flyer would
say with a smile, “gracias” or “mucho gracias” (“Thank you” or “Thank you very
much)
phone calls asking for more information about Falun Dafa. Buenos Aires is a huge
city. Some people lived far away from the established practice sites. Therefore,
during the book fair, practitioners temporarily set up new practice sites. But
they were still not enough. Many people came from other cities to attend the book
fair. They were very anxious to find out if they could learn Falun Gong in their
hometowns.
bookstores came over to ask practitioners how to promote Zhuan Falun in
their own countries. The country of Uruguay is next to Argentina. Practitioners
from Argentina decided to travel to Uruguay to set up a practice site there and
hold some Falun Gong introductory seminars, so as to allow Uruguay people to have
the chance to learn about Dafa.
participating. They then immediately requested the Argentine Education Department
to ban Falun Dafa from attending. The Argentine Education Department replied that
the book fair was a private event and it was out of the scope of government's
control. The Chinese Embassy then exerted more pressure on the book fair organizer,
but their effort was in vain. Without any explanation, the Chinese Embassy cancelled
their scheduled seminar entitled, “China, Today and the Past” that they planned
to give during the book fair. According to the book fair regulations, programs
scheduled should not be casually cancelled. One must be responsible for agreeing
to hold any program. Over the three weeks, many seminars were held each day. Only
the Chinese Embassy did not hold the program that they promised.
practitioners held three introductory seminars. Each time, they introduced Falun
Gong and the brutal persecution in China in detail. After the meeting, many people
went to our booth to buy Falun Gong books. Some asked for more information. People
who had learned the facts all condemned the Embassy's attempts to stop Falun
Gong from participating in the book fair.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs told practitioners that when he met with officials
from the Chinese Embassy a few days prior, the Chinese officials were extremely
angry about Falun Gong's participation in the book fair. He said that the
Chinese officials said so many bad words, he could not believe it at all. That
was why he especially came over to find out what Falun Gong is all about.
by would loudly read the words written on the booth, “Falun Dafa” and “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance.
Some people asked practitioners to teach them to say “Falun Dafa” or “Falun Dafa
is great” in Chinese. These people wanted to know what Falun Dafa is. Voices repeating
“Falun Dafa”, “Falun Dafa is great” could be constantly heard.
teachers, middle-school and elementary-school students from all over the country
also came to visit the book fair. Some of the teachers learned about Dafa, and
gave assignments to their students to answer, “What is Falun Dafa”. Therefore,
constantly, some students went to our booth to ask questions or take notes.
practitioners busy folding flyers, some students took the initiative to help.
Some teachers even asked practitioners if they would like to go to their schools
to introduce Falun Dafa. They also said that their students are in great need
of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance”
copy of the book. She said that after she read the flyer at home, a strong wish
to read the book Zhuan Falun emerged. Although it was at the end of April,
and she did not have too much money, she still decided to buy a copy. She also
wanted to learn more about the reason why Falun Gong practitioners were being
persecuted in China. When practitioners detailed the facts to her, she suddenly
cried and kept crying. We asked her what she was feeling. She said that she did
not understand why she was crying. Sometimes, some people who wanted to learn
about Dafa, asked questions for about an hour. Some read the flyers immediately
after they received them. And once they read through the flyers, they started
asking questions. The question and answer part also lasted for an hour or so.
put a chair in front of the Spanish “Lun Yu” banner. On each day, when the fair
just started and there were not so many people, there was always someone who came
to sit down and read “Lun Yu”. Then they would read Zhuan Falun. A 16-year-old
boy sat there and read Zhuan Falun for nearly one hour. When he was asked
whether he wanted to buy a copy of the book, he said that he could not afford
it. Practitioners then lent the book to him. He was so touched and said that he
would definitely return the book. Five days later, he indeed came back and returned
the book. He lived quite far away. But he particularly came back in the evening
to return the book and join the introductory seminar. Some nuns and priests also
sat down to read Lun Yu and Zhuan Falun.
initiative to request their parents to allow them to learn the exercises. Whenever
there was only one child learning the exercises, more children were attracted
and came over. A 3-year-old girl stayed for nearly one hour with a practitioner
who did the sitting meditation and she was reluctant to leave. She sat in the
middle of the walkway and also crossed her legs and meditated. In the end, her
mother was busy and needed to go some where else and had to take her away.
practitioners expressed that the book fair coincided with the occasion of World
Falun Dafa Day on May 13. The event also allowed more people to learn about Falun
Dafa and provided them opportunities to improve their moral standard.
date: 15/May/2004
Original article date: 13/May/2004
Category: World
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