San Diego, California: Raising Awareness of the Persecution Through the Art of Zhen Shan Ren International Exhibition

Compassion and Courage

The exhibition featured artworks created by practitioners around the world. They showed practitioners’ determination to uphold the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance despite the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 24-year-long persecution.

Practitioners guided people through the artworks, explaining the different themes and giving background information. For those who were interested in learning more about Falun Dafa, practitioners gave them pamphlets about the practice, and answered their questions.

Many people said they were impressed by practitioners’ compassion and courage. They said it was amazing practitioners continued striving to better people despite the adversities. They were thankful to see such high quality artworks, and some people were interested in learning how to practice Falun Dafa.

Lawyer: When Not Everyone Has Human Rights, No One Has Human Rights

Human rights lawyer Jessica Flavius said that, when she was studying for her law degree in Boston, Massachusetts, she heard about the persecution of Falun Dafa in China during a human rights forum, but this exhibition helped her to understand the situation more.

As a lawyer she said she often sees people doing bad things and harming others. But what’s happening in China is different because the resources of the state are being used to suppress a group by wielding its power to generate massive propaganda campaigns. She thought it was terrible that the CCP detained practitioners, used them for slave labor, and even killed them for their organs for profit.

Ms. Flavius noted that, while the CCP is persecuting Falun Dafa practitioners today, it could target another group tomorrow if its ideology is different from the regime’s. Few people realize the consequences because that’s how one group after another can lose their human rights. What’s most concerning is that, when not everyone has human rights, it means no one has human rights.

As she thanked practitioners for holding the event to raise awareness, she complimented them on their sincerity and agreed that more people need to pay attention to this serious issue. She thought the artworks would help people better understand the situation.

Her son Joe learned about Falun Dafa and the suppression in China by seeing the exhibition. He was impressed by how the artworks vividly depicted what is going on in China and remarked that he saw a direct connection to our lives here.