TAIPEI, Taiwan—In a scene impossible to replicate in today’s China, practitioners of Falun Dafa arranged themselves in vibrant rows of color to form a giant image at Taipei’s iconic Liberty Square on Oct. 17.
About 5,000 practitioners from Taiwan and elsewhere formed the image, with the two traditional Chinese characters Da Fa—meaning “Great Law” or “Great Way”—at its center. Beneath the Chinese characters is a lotus flower, while yellow bands extending above them represent rays of light.
Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual discipline with gentle exercises and meditation based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. First introduced to the public in China in 1992, the practice quickly spread by word of mouth to reach an estimated 70 million to 100 million practitioners by 1999.
The Chinese Communist Party, fearing that Falun Gong’s popularity threatened the regime’s power, began a brutal campaign to eradicate the practice in July 1999. Since then, untold numbers of practitioners have suffered arbitrary detention, forced labor, torture, and forced organ harvesting.
Taiwan began holding the annual character formation event in December 2000, about 18 months after the Chinese Communist Party launched the persecution campaign. The gathering has since become an opportunity for Taiwanese practitioners to celebrate their faith and raise awareness of the serious human rights violations their fellow practitioners have endured across the Taiwan Strait. [delete]
Huang Chun-mei, the event organizer and deputy chairwoman of the Taiwan Dafa Association, said she hoped the image would bring a sense of joy to people who saw it in person during the event or viewed photographs of it online.
Ultimately, Huang hoped the event would inspire people to learn more.
“I certainly hope that Westerners will come to learn about Falun Dafa and understand why the Chinese Communist Party has been suppressing the practice for so many years. Falun Dafa teaches [the principles of] truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. No matter how you look at them, these are all good values,” Huang told The Epoch Times.
“If something good is being suppressed, then the side doing the suppressing must be in the wrong.”
Before the persecution began in China, large-scale group exercises and character formation events were regularly held in parks and other public spaces across the country. Today, similar gatherings take place regularly around the world, including in New York City, but Taiwan’s events often draw the largest numbers of practitioners.
The Saturday event was the culmination of three days of intensive preparation. Local practitioners carefully arranged color-coordinated mats to form the outline of the image, and then participants walked in an orderly manner to their designated positions and took their seats.
Wu Ching-hsiang, a retired architect who designed the image, told The Epoch Times that the rays of light symbolize the spread of Falun Dafa across five continents since the practice was first introduced to the public 34 years ago.
“We hope to convey the deeper meaning of Falun Dafa while also showing how it has spread throughout the world,” Wu said.
After the character formation ended at noon, practitioners stood in long lines to perform the meditative exercises of Falun Gong.
About 300 participants traveled from Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, Indonesia, the United States, Hong Kong, and Macau to take part in Saturday’s event.
Lem Zhe Hui, 27, an animator from Malaysia, said this was her second time participating in a character formation event in Taiwan, describing the experience as “very meaningful.”
“Although we hold character formation events in Malaysia too, ours are much smaller in scale,” Lem told The Epoch Times. “This is an opportunity for Falun Dafa practitioners from different countries to come together to organize such a large-scale event, which isn’t easy to do.”
Lem has practiced Falun Dafa since childhood, following in the footsteps of her parents. She said one of the greatest benefits of the practice has been gaining a “very clear sense of direction in life.”
“Unlike others who may feel lost or uncertain at times, I feel grounded and stable. In my work, I don’t worry about having to compete with others or fight for things. I believe that if I just let things happen naturally, I’ll receive what I’m meant to have. I’m also in good health, and overall, I feel that I’m in a very good place in life,” Lem said.
Another Malaysian practitioner, Elissa Cher, 58, who works in information security at an insurance company, said this was her fifth time attending the event in Taiwan.
Asked what drew her to Falun Dafa, Cher said she was captivated by the graceful movements and peaceful atmosphere when she came across practitioners doing the exercises in a park in 2014.
Months after she picked up the practice, her eyesight had improved to the point that she no longer needed glasses, and her cough had also disappeared, she said.
“Dafa has helped so many people around the world,” Cher told The Epoch Times.
A group came from Japan, including Ma Yuxi, 36, a designer at a construction company.
It was her second time in Taiwan for the character formation, Ma said, adding that being part of it made her feel a deep sense of sacredness.
Ma said China’s communist regime has disseminated propaganda about Falun Gong, shaping many people’s views of the practice. Seeing so many people practicing at an event like this, she said, might prompt them to reconsider those views.
In essence, practicing Falun Gong is about “elevating one’s moral character and becoming a better person,” Ma said.
As the event unfolded, many Taiwanese residents and foreign tourists gathered nearby to watch.
Chris Caldwell, 35, a British retail media manager visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had not heard of Falun Dafa before coming across the event but appreciated the participants’ efforts.
“So events like this, I think, are really good,” Caldwell said. “It’s important to be able to express your beliefs and things like that, and they have the kind of safety to be able to do it in a public space.”
Peaceful public expression is important, he said, saying, “I think it’s really important in every country to be able to do that.”
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