(Minghui.org) Since its public introduction in China in 1992, Falun Gong is now practiced in every corner of the world. Practitioners of this peaceful mind and body cultivation practice often hold events to introduce the benefits of Falun Gong to the public and to raise awareness of the brutal persecution that the practice has endured in China for the past 15 years.
Practitioners in New Zealand recently held such an introductory event on December 20 at Queen Elizabeth Square in the center of Auckland. They demonstrated the Falun Gong exercises, provided information about the persecution, and staged a lively waist drum performance–a style of traditional folk drumming in China.
Practitioners chat with pedestrians and share information about the practice of Falun Gong and the persecution in China.
Group exercise demonstration
Waist drum performance
Rohario Aretine recorded video footage of the exercise demonstration. She said, “What I can do is to tell as many people as I can. And I have a little video now so I will post it on Facebook. That’s the least I can do. ”
“He [a Falun Dafa practitioner] just told me what happens to the practitioners: they got locked up and tortured, killed pretty much; their organs are harvested. It sounds very sad,” she added.
A passerby learns the second exercise: Falun Standing Stance
Many people stopped to talk with practitioners over the course of the event, taking introductory materials and inquiring about the location of group exercise sites. A number of people offered their encouragement.
After talking with practitioners and learning about the Chinese Communist Party's atrocities in the persecution of Falun Gong, more than 10 students from China renounced their membership in the Party and its affiliated student organizations.
