FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UTAH ASIAN FESTIVAL DISCRIMINATES AGAINST FALUN DAFA DUE TO CHINESE INFLUENCE
When Patrice Loung a practitioner of an ancient self-cultivation practice out of China, called Falun Dafa, submitted an application to this years Utah Asian Festival, she foresaw no difficulties. She and other Falun Gong practitioners had been there two years ago, to demonstrate the five, meditative exercises and to introduce the practice which is based upon the belief in the principles of “Truth, Compassion and Tolerance”, and to teach people how to make oragami lotus flowers. She was surprised when not long after her application was accepted, she was sent a letter saying that Falun Gong was no longer welcome in the Festival due to some unspecified “incident”. When Patrice contacted Imanuel Aswandi, in charge a booths, she was told that the Festival staff had been contacted by some “Chinese people” (she wasn’t told who they were) and that they had expressed that they were offended by the presence of Falun Gong at the Festival and that the Falun Gong banners were political. In fact the only two banners shown said “Truth, Compassion, Tolerance” in Chinese characters and “Falun Dafa is Good” also in Chinese characters. Explaining this to the Festival Staff seemed to do no good. This incidence leads Falun Gong practitioners to believe that the Asian Festival, which is funded in part by the Salt Lake County ZAP program, is being influenced by either the Chinese Communist government, or by Chinese people who have been influenced by the CCP’s propaganda assault on Falun Gong.
Continue reading
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 