Media Reports:

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: Falun Gong events planned : Asian [group] finding home here

Outlawed in China, followers now have 'Falun Dafa Week'

By Matthew Daneman

Democrat and Chronicle

(December 5, 2000) -- Her back constantly gave her problems, until Lukun Huang took up Falun Gong. Then everything changed.

The movement -- a combination of spirituality and slow-motion exercises -- is perhaps best known as a target of sometimes-brutal crackdowns by the Chinese government. For the 33-year-old Fairport woman, however, it meant an end to chronic pain and spiritual emptiness.

Local practitioners of the movement are planning a series of events this week to spread the word about Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa. To that end, numerous communities around the area -- including the village of East Rochester, the town of Brighton and Monroe County -- have proclaimed this week "Falun Dafa Week."

The Chinese government has derided Falun Gong as a [], and outlawed it in the summer of 1999.

"I don't know how anyone can relate us to a []," said Helen Chou, 35, of Penfield.Practitioners of Falun Gong do not live together in a compound, cut off from the outside world. Nor do they hand over all their income to leaders, Chou said. They are normal people with jobs and lives, like she and Huang, both employees at the Xerox Corp. facility in East Rochester.

Both women learned about Falun Gong through Huang's husband, Weidong Huang.

He, in turn, learned about it from his sister while she was still living in China. She moved to the United States after having been arrested and beaten by police in China for practicing Falun Gong, Lukun Huang said.

Falun Gong followers have a series of events scheduled for this week.

A reception by local Falun Gong practitioners will be held from 4 to 5:30p.m. Tuesday in the Barnstormers Pub at the Ramada Inn Rochester, 800 Jefferson Road.

And the University of Rochester's Wilson Commons will host an exhibit Wednesday and Thursday, as well as a workshop on the movement from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. Thursday.

Adopting the practice of Falun Gong might be a little more difficult for Westerners, since it is steeped in Eastern precepts, Chou said. But, she added, "It transcends all racial, ethnic and cultural boundaries."

For more information on Falun Dafa and this week's events: www.falundafa-rochester.org.

http://www.rochesternews.com/1205falungong.html

---

Irish Times: TCD [Trinity College Dublin] protests for Chinese dissident

Publication date: 2000-11-28

More than 200 students from Trinity College Dublin converged on the Chinese embassy in Dublin last week to protest at the imprisonment in Beijing and alleged torture of a former classmate.

Zhao Ming (30), a postgrad computer-science student and former tutor, was arrested on a visit home last Christmas because of his membership of the outlawed spiritual movement, Falun Gong. He was since sentenced to two years at the Tuan He Farm labour camp.

Protesters at Wednesday's demonstration, organised by Trinity's Graduate Students' Union, occupied the embassy grounds before being expelled by gardai. They also removed the embassy flag from its pole and handed in a letter of protest to embassy staff.

Publication date: 2000-11-28

(c) 2000, YellowBrix, Inc.

http://beta.yellowbrix.com/pages/newsreal/Story.nsp?story_id=16119198