China News Special Topics Religious Freedom

Thousands Join New York Parade to Celebrate World Falun Dafa Day, Reject Communism

The CCP is ‘against everything good in this world ... so it has to do with all of us,’ one parade participant said.

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Thousands Join New York Parade to Celebrate World Falun Dafa Day, Reject Communism — Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end of the persecution in China, in New York City, on May 10, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

5/10/2024Updated: 5/17/2024

NEW YORK—Thousands of people in blue and yellow jackets popped up in the heart of the Big Apple for a parade on May 10 just after a misty rain.

It’s an annual tradition, featuring fairies holding lotus flowers, a float ferrying people in ancient Chinese attire, a Western-style marching band, and Chinese waist drummers. This year, they marched through the streets of Manhattan for about 1 1/2 hours, in step with sounds and melodies that drew inspiration from a China long past.

The New York parade is one of the largest commemorating World Falun Dafa Day, with an estimated 5,000 people taking part this year. It also marks the anniversary of the spiritual discipline’s introduction to the public 32 years ago.

It’s a day that arouses both joy and sorrow.

The practice of Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, drew an estimated 70 million to 100 million followers in China in the 1990s. Centered on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, the spiritual discipline incorporates meditation and slow-moving qigong exercises.

While practiced freely elsewhere around the world, Falun Gong has been severely persecuted in China by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since 1999.

During the nearly 25 years of brutal persecution, an untold number of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed through torture, slave labor, and forced organ harvesting. Survivors in China—and practitioners in more than 100 countries around the world—say the CCP’s persecution, aimed at making practitioners renounce their faith, can’t bend their will.

Wang Huijuan, a Chinese language teacher in New York, took part in the parade. Her sister-in-law, music teacher Li Chunyuan, has spent weeks in Chinese detention for her faith.

Her alleged wrongdoing was “singing at home.”

“It sounds ridiculous, right?” Ms. Wang told The Epoch Times. The police, while conducting a house raid, told Ms. Li’s husband: “Do you know that she sings at home every day? We’ve been monitoring her for a long time.”

Wang Huijuan, whose sister-in-law is unlawfully detained in China over her belief in Falun Gong, takes part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) — Wang Huijuan, whose sister-in-law is unlawfully detained in China over her belief in Falun Gong, takes part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Not that there was anything wrong with the songs, Ms. Wang said. Ms. Li, who has a sonorous voice, sings lyrics that celebrate Chinese traditions, such as the Lunar New Year, that “bring people hope,” Ms. Wang said.

Ms. Li’s school also demoted her in 2022 to logistical work in a bid to force her to give up her belief.

“It’s really a shame,” she said, adding that the CCP’s ideology is the opposite of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

“The more you strive to be a good person, the more they go after you.”

People look on as Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) — People look on as Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Many others at the parade shared a similar sentiment.

Julia Baniasadi, who works at a medical center, began practicing Falun Gong in 1998, when she was 20. Her severe back pain has since disappeared. As a mother of three, she described the values that the practice teaches as an anchor that keeps her family grounded.

Children nowadays are always on their phones or playing video games, she said.

“They don’t know how to play outside. They don’t know how to interact with people,” she told The Epoch Times.

“When I see my children, I see a big difference. I raised them to be independent and to make the right decisions in life.”

Julia Baniasadi and her son Kian take part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) — Julia Baniasadi and her son Kian take part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

She teaches her children to “think of others first in whatever they do” and to “stand up for what’s right.”

Thanks to these values instilled in her 9-year-old son, Kian, he’s better able to handle bullying at school, she said. Instead of cursing, hitting back, or getting depressed, he stays calm while still standing his ground.

“The bully can only bully you if you’re afraid,” she said.

Ms. Baniasadi has participated in various demonstrations, including at the United Nations in Geneva, appealing for an end to the persecution in China.

The ongoing abuses in China, she said, have presented the free world with a choice.

“When the persecution started, a lot of people said, ‘Well, this has nothing to do with me, why should I care about this? Why don’t you look in our own country with all the issues we’re having?’” she said.

“But actually, the Chinese Communist Party is everywhere.”

She cited Beijing’s global campaign to disrupt New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts using a combination of diplomatic pressure, economic coercion, and physical attacks. Shen Yun’s tagline is “China before communism,” and a few of its dance pieces portray modern-day human rights abuses in China.

The CCP is “against everything good in this world, so actually, it has to do with all of us in this world,” Ms. Baniasadi said.

Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) — Falun Gong practitioners take part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Ben Smith, a real estate developer, echoed Ms. Baniasadi’s views.

In recent weeks, both Russian and Serbian authorities have rounded up and detained Falun Gong practitioners as their governments build closer ties with the Chinese regime. One Russian practitioner is currently being held in jail for two months.

Mr. Smith finds such actions hard to believe.

“Where does it stop?” he asked.

“[Communists] do anything to maintain their power, and they have no regard for human life,” he told The Epoch Times.

“They want to wipe out all the other faiths so all that’s left in people’s hearts and minds is communism, and that’s how they operate.”

Ben Smith takes part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. (Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times) — Ben Smith takes part in a parade to celebrate World Falun Dafa Day while calling for an end to the CCP's persecution in China, in New York City on May 10, 2024. Samira Bouaou/The Epoch Times

Mr. Smith credits the Falun Gong exercises and teachings for healing his immune system and giving him clarity of mind in a stressful job.

“It turned me into a better person and a healthier person with more energy,” he said.

He urged leaders of countries intending to court Beijing to “search within themselves and decide what’s right and wrong.”

The Chinese authorities may have economic levers, “but at the end of the day, it all comes down to something bigger than that,” he said.

What “really brings happiness,” he said, is inner strength.

Several former U.S. religious freedom officials have noted the resilient spirit of the faith group in marking the anniversary.

Katrina Lantos Swett, former chair of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and president of the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, said she “[stands] all amazed” at the endurance of Falun Gong practitioners despite the persecution, noting that the practitioners she has met are “people of enormous character, strength, and resilience.”

“They live what they believe,” she told NTD, a sister media outlet of The Epoch Times.

That resilience of spirit will eventually prevail, said Sam Brownback, former U.S. ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

“We’ve seen this play throughout the history of mankind: the kingdom of man oppressing the kingdom of the spiritual, the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of man will never win in this fight,” Mr. Brownback told NTD.

“Ultimately, they will never be able to subdue the human spirit.”