(Clearwisdom.net) From April 16 to May 9, 2004, the 13th Argentina International Book Fair was held in the largest exhibit hall in the country's capital city, Buenos Aires. Falun Gong practitioners participated in the book fair for the first time.
The book fair lasted for more than three weeks. About 400 major publishers and bookstores from all over the world participated in the fair. Each country had its own exhibit booth. Mayors from different cities, members of the Congress and ambassadors from different countries attended the opening ceremony. The President of Argentina was also present. About 1.3 million people, 300,000 more than usual, came to visit the book fair. The exhibit hall was a sea of people. Sometimes, the line up outside the hall was as long as five blocks.
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Allow more people to learn about Falun Dafa
The words "Falun Dafa" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance" were featured prominently on the Falun Gong booth in both Spanish and Chinese. The main book of Falun Gong, Zhuan Falun, was recently published in Spanish in Argentina. Many copies of it were displayed on the bookshelf in the middle of the booth. Under them were copies of the book in different languages. Two 2-meter-long and 1.5-meter-wide banners with Chinese and Spanish versions of "Lun Yu" (Master Li's article) were hung on either side of the bookshelf. Practitioners also displayed a big Falun emblem and an explanation of it, so as to eliminate some people's possible misunderstanding of the symbol.
The exhibit hall was filled every day, especially weekends. According to fair regulations, one could only distribute flyers near their own booth. At the booth, practitioners gave out 130,000 Falun Dafa introductory and truth-clarifying flyers. Sometimes, when practitioners distributing flyers were busy in clarifying the facts and answering questions, people then lined up to request flyers. Many people returned to ask for flyers after they hastily passed by. Everyone who accepted the flyer would say with a smile, "gracias" or "mucho gracias" ("Thank you" or "Thank you very much)
Many people also came to our practice sites. We constantly received phone calls asking for more information about Falun Dafa. Buenos Aires is a huge city. Some people lived far away from the established practice sites. Therefore, during the book fair, practitioners temporarily set up new practice sites. But they were still not enough. Many people came from other cities to attend the book fair. They were very anxious to find out if they could learn Falun Gong in their hometowns.
Some sales representatives from Mexico, Colombia and Uruguay's bookstores came over to ask practitioners how to promote Zhuan Falun in their own countries. The country of Uruguay is next to Argentina. Practitioners from Argentina decided to travel to Uruguay to set up a practice site there and hold some Falun Gong introductory seminars, so as to allow Uruguay people to have the chance to learn about Dafa.
Chinese Embassy interference is in vain
After the book fair began, the Chinese Embassy found out that Falun Gong was participating. They then immediately requested the Argentine Education Department to ban Falun Dafa from attending. The Argentine Education Department replied that the book fair was a private event and it was out of the scope of government's control. The Chinese Embassy then exerted more pressure on the book fair organizer, but their effort was in vain. Without any explanation, the Chinese Embassy cancelled their scheduled seminar entitled, "China, Today and the Past" that they planned to give during the book fair. According to the book fair regulations, programs scheduled should not be casually cancelled. One must be responsible for agreeing to hold any program. Over the three weeks, many seminars were held each day. Only the Chinese Embassy did not hold the program that they promised.
Falun Gong practitioners held three introductory seminars. Each time, they introduced Falun Gong and the brutal persecution in China in detail. After the meeting, many people went to our booth to buy Falun Gong books. Some asked for more information. People who had learned the facts all condemned the Embassy's attempts to stop Falun Gong from participating in the book fair.
An official from the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs told practitioners that when he met with officials from the Chinese Embassy a few days prior, the Chinese officials were extremely angry about Falun Gong's participation in the book fair. He said that the Chinese officials said so many bad words, he could not believe it at all. That was why he especially came over to find out what Falun Gong is all about.
People longing to learn about Falun Dafa
Most people who passed by would loudly read the words written on the booth, "Falun Dafa" and "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. Some people asked practitioners to teach them to say "Falun Dafa" or "Falun Dafa is great" in Chinese. These people wanted to know what Falun Dafa is. Voices repeating "Falun Dafa", "Falun Dafa is great" could be constantly heard.
Led by their teachers, middle-school and elementary-school students from all over the country also came to visit the book fair. Some of the teachers learned about Dafa, and gave assignments to their students to answer, "What is Falun Dafa". Therefore, constantly, some students went to our booth to ask questions or take notes.
Seeing practitioners busy folding flyers, some students took the initiative to help. Some teachers even asked practitioners if they would like to go to their schools to introduce Falun Dafa. They also said that their students are in great need of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance"
A middle-aged woman came to buy a copy of the book. She said that after she read the flyer at home, a strong wish to read the book Zhuan Falun emerged. Although it was at the end of April, and she did not have too much money, she still decided to buy a copy. She also wanted to learn more about the reason why Falun Gong practitioners were being persecuted in China. When practitioners detailed the facts to her, she suddenly cried and kept crying. We asked her what she was feeling. She said that she did not understand why she was crying. Sometimes, some people who wanted to learn about Dafa, asked questions for about an hour. Some read the flyers immediately after they received them. And once they read through the flyers, they started asking questions. The question and answer part also lasted for an hour or so.
Practitioner put a chair in front of the Spanish "Lun Yu" banner. On each day, when the fair just started and there were not so many people, there was always someone who came to sit down and read "Lun Yu". Then they would read Zhuan Falun. A 16-year-old boy sat there and read Zhuan Falun for nearly one hour. When he was asked whether he wanted to buy a copy of the book, he said that he could not afford it. Practitioners then lent the book to him. He was so touched and said that he would definitely return the book. Five days later, he indeed came back and returned the book. He lived quite far away. But he particularly came back in the evening to return the book and join the introductory seminar. Some nuns and priests also sat down to read Lun Yu and Zhuan Falun.
Children would take their initiative to request their parents to allow them to learn the exercises. Whenever there was only one child learning the exercises, more children were attracted and came over. A 3-year-old girl stayed for nearly one hour with a practitioner who did the sitting meditation and she was reluctant to leave. She sat in the middle of the walkway and also crossed her legs and meditated. In the end, her mother was busy and needed to go some where else and had to take her away.
Argentina practitioners expressed that the book fair coincided with the occasion of World Falun Dafa Day on May 13, many practitioners participating in this event removed many attachments to themselves. The event also allowed more people to learn about Dafa and provided them opportunities to improve their moral standard. All of these are what Teacher has been concerned for. This is also a special gift that Argentina practitioners could present to our great Master on His birthday.
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