(Minghui.org) Creating a pseudonym hastily for use in withdrawing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can undermine the credibility of the registry of those who have withdrawn, thus negatively impacting their chance of being saved and practitioners' efforts to clarify the truth.
As early as 2011, the Minghui website published an editorial titled “Names Used for Withdrawing from the CCP Must Be Solemn and Serious.” In particular, it warned practitioners that,
“In order to preserve the solemn nature of withdrawing from the CCP, the website for recording withdrawals from the CCP will no longer accept names that are made up in a sloppy, haphazard fashion, and the consequences will be borne by the person withdrawing from the CCP and the responsible practitioner. Let this be a reminder for all.”
Despite the warning, some practitioners still fail to pay attention to the names they give to people who agree to sever ties with the CCP and its subordinate organizations. I'd like to share my understanding of the importance of using proper names while helping the public quit the CCP. In addition, I have a few pieces of advice on how to arrive at solemn and appropriate names.
In traditional Chinese culture, a person's name is generally given by the parents, grandparents, or fortune tellers. Each name has profound underlying meanings. It reflects the family history and culture. It also carries the family's expectations of the person.
Life is precious, and a good name, including an alias, shows respect to that person, thus encouraging him or her. When we help people withdraw from the CCP and its affiliates, we should give some serious thought to what alias to use. We should consider traditional culture when making up pseudonyms. A sincere attitude will help people understand the seriousness of this vital event and agree with you even though they may not understand the facts on a deeper level. The number of withdrawals may not be as high, but it is the quality that counts.
As a part of Chinese culture, a person must have a surname. We should try hard to include the surname when we help people do the withdrawals. A name without a surname will make people believe that it is not a real name, naturally affecting the credibility of the website that records people's withdrawals.
It is a serious matter if the name of a former CCP member were not recorded because of a practitioner's sloppy manner. As Master taught us in “Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference,” this sloppy way of doing things is mainly attributable to the chronic, poisonous influence of the CCP regime.
Master said:
“Over the last several decades, the gradual and at times imperceptible indoctrination and influence of the evil CCP’s Party culture has made the Chinese people’s disposition warped, including that of some Dafa disciples, making them think about things in extreme ways—to the point that their thinking is completely different from that of people abroad or of people in ancient, traditional China. Mainland China has well over a billion people, and through gradual indoctrination their minds have become deviant without their knowing it.” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference”)
A nickname is given by parents, and an alias is made up by a person for themselves. Both names, to that person, involve a strong sense of identity and can be easily remembered. A name made up by someone else may not suit that person's psychological make-up and can be easily forgotten.
When we help people renounce their party membership, we should let them make up their own alias if they don't already have a nickname or pseudonym. I once came across a middle-aged CCP cadre on a bus. He declared his withdrawal from the CCP with an alias “Yifan,” which he'd made up himself. I could clearly see the expression of satisfaction on his face.
If we have to make up a name for people, we can select one from a list generated by a computerized pseudonym generation tool to avoid name duplication. This software can generate as many as 50,000 non-repetitive names at once, including surnames.
The desire for quick success, a popular sentiment in China today, is a result of the vicious party's culture. Although Dafa practitioners feel the urgency to save people, they should avoid taking shortcuts to obtain a quick outcome. In order to quickly convince people to renounce the CCP, some practitioners become unscrupulous and might take any means they feel necessary.
Under the ruling CCP regime, people are reluctant to give out their names because of concern for security, even if they agree with you. To avoid this difficulty, some practitioners bypassed the step of asking for their names and instead, directly make one up for them without giving them a chance to do it themselves. Since this seems like the easiest approach, many practitioners thus followed suit without taking a person's background into account. The consequences of this practice are serious.
“Taking the path of least resistance” is a typical outcome of people having been poisoned by CCP culture. People are essentially afraid of trouble and of falling behind. They do not want to take risks and just follow the current trends to protect themselves. Unfortunately, many practitioners also have this state of mind.
The problem of duplicate names has recently gotten worse. To collect names for the official record, some practitioners use common aliases such as Ping'an 1 (meaning Peace and Safety) and Ping'an 2, etc., when they advise people to withdraw from the CCP. A list created like this may contain many repetitive names, which cannot be recorded. It makes it difficult for fellow practitioners who register the names on the website, because they have to locate and leave out those names.
Dafa practitioners should always be considerate of others when doing anything. A sloppy and opportunistic approach in collecting names is the result of an irresponsible attitude. As Master warned us, some practitioners in China have become overly cunning and thus complicate things due to the insidious instillation of CCP culture for so many years. They even feel that fellow practitioners abroad are too simpleminded.
Master said:
“Sometimes when a media outlet utilizes you or when a project lets you participate, your ways of thinking, those extreme ways of doing things that come from Party culture, your lying, and your halfhearted way of working really exasperate [others].” (“Fa Teaching Given at the 2014 San Francisco Fa Conference”)
Many things take a deviant course once we start down a certain path. In the beginning of the withdrawal movement, we specified that people could use their own nicknames and pseudonyms. They could use aliases if other names were not available. We later told the declarants that we would make up a name for them, and lately, some practitioners do not even tell people this at all. While doing it this way seems simple enough, it actually complicates the whole procedure. An extreme example involved a practitioner who made up aliases for people without their knowledge after she clarified the facts to them.
Many Falun Gong practitioners are now exercising their legal rights to file criminal complaints against the former dictator Jiang Zemin for launching the persecution of Falun Gong. The momentum of this new wave of lawsuits is on the rise. More and more Chinese are awakening and are less fearful of using their real names when they announce their withdrawal from CCP organizations. We should take advantage of this trend and use aliases as little as possible.
In summary, I suggest the following practices in helping people renounce their membership in the CCP.
1. Use real name of declarants if possible.2. Let declarants make up pseudonyms themselves if possible.3. Generate a normal-sounding pseudonym for them as a last resort.