Large crowds gathered on the sidewalks in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City on Feb. 1, braving the chilly weather to celebrate Chinese New Year with a massive parade featuring more than 30 floats and 60 organizations.
One of the largest groups in the parade was made up of local Falun Gong practitioners. Some of them performed as a large, uniformed marching band; some performed dragon and lion dances; one group played the Chinese waist drums; an all-female group dressed like heavenly maidens; and some carried banners with such phrases as “Happy New Year” and “Falun Dafa Spreads Worldwide.”
Zhang Ren, a former human rights lawyer in China, was among those who came to see the parade. He told The Epoch Times that he was deeply moved and stunned to see Falun Gong practitioners participating in the event amid the communist regime’s severe persecution of the group in China….