It was a spontaneous idea, to go to the Sinological Institute in my city to post flyers saying "Hello! Two young German girls are trying to establish contact with Chinese students for the purpose of cultural and language exchange. We would appreciate a telephone call." We affixed detachable e-mail address and telephone number slips to the flyers. A week later the first young Chinese man called, and today we met downtown. We went to a cafe and sat together with three Chinese men: A Hong Kong Chinese who already spoke German fairly well and two other Chinese from areas near Shanghai. We spoke about China, Germany and culture. We were in a relaxed mood and laughed a lot.

It was actually not my intention to mention Falun Gong during this first meeting, but somehow we touched on the theme of Chinese calligraphy. The only Chinese calligraphy characters I knew how to write were "Zhen, Shan, Ren." (Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance) As soon as I had written them down, one of them said, "Oh, Falun Gong," and laughed at the two others. Our topic of conversation for the remainder of the evening was established. It was really a nice evening, everything relaxed, nothing contrived. Everything was natural, and we laughed a lot more. In this way we were able to clarify the truth in a friendly, cordial manner.

After a while the Hong Kong Chinese wanted to know whether we had an exercise group around here. He wanted to come to the park tomorrow to learn the exercises. He commented, "How funny, I come to Germany to learn Falun Gong!" The other two were at first more reserved. I think they were somewhat afraid, "because in China it is forbidden to practice Falun Gong." As we parted, those two also said, "Until tomorrow then!"

I think our honest conduct and sincere motivation will enable us here, speaking to Chinese in a foreign country, to prove to them that Falun Dafa and Dafa students are very good. Yes, we must make it clear to them: "De guo ren zhi dao -- Falun Dafa hao!" (Germans know that Falun Dafa is good)!

(Original text in German)

Category: Perspectives