(Minghui.org) I’m a 59-year-old woman from the countryside who began practicing Falun Gong in March 1999. Soon afterward, the persecution started and all the government-controlled media began attacking Falun Gong and its founder. Local police officers and government officials ransacked Falun Gong practitioners’ homes and confiscated Falun Gong books. They also demanded that the practitioners give up their belief. The situation was extremely harsh.
I decided to go to Tiananmen Square to peacefully protest in winter 2001, after realizing that normal channels for redress were blocked for Falun Gong practitioners.
Like many other practitioners, I was unlawfully arrested and taken to a detention center. Officers there struck me in the face when I was pulled out of the police van. I was then taken to an office, where four officers punched and kicked me. They then handcuffed my arms behind my back, knocked me to the ground, and shocked me with electric batons.
I kept sending righteous thoughts. Although I could see the blue flashes and hear the crackling from the electric batons, I felt no pain.
After they realized that the shocking was having no effect on me, a police officer told them to shock my chest and genital areas. I thought, “You absolutely cannot!” Indeed, they stopped and continued to shock my face.
They asked no questions, but tortured me for hours, deprived me of sleep, and denied my use of the toilet. I was tied to basketball goal post outside in the extremely cold weather.
I shouted “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” and recited Lunyu. A police officer then picked up a dirty rag and pushed it into my mouth. They took me inside and made me sit on the ground in the cold corridor.
Although my face and my body had turned dark purple from the shocks, I was feeling no pain. I was deeply grateful to Master for bearing all the pain and suffering for me.
After being transferred to another detention center, I met a female practitioner from Anhui, who seemed to be in her forties. She said that male police officers had stretched out her arms and hit them until they turned black and blue. Her legs were also beaten and the wounds were festering.
There was another female practitioner from the south with her two-year-old child. The police shocked her throat and it looked black and swollen. She could not talk and the child kept crying.
The police from my hometown returned me there. On the train they confiscated 300 yuan and discussed how to extort more money from my family.
I was taken to a detention facility, where I was hit with a white plastic tube. I was released after two months.
The local 610 Office and police arrested my second younger sister and me in 2002.
A few fellow practitioners and I went on a hunger strike to protest the illegal detention. The head of the detention center beat us and threatened to transfer us to a forced labor camp. I remained unmoved and told my husband to ignore the detention center’s extortion attempts.
I kept reciting the Fa and sending righteous thoughts to let go of my attachments. I talked about Falun Gong while being interrogated. Some left and others argued with me and called in “helpers” to “transform” me. I remained firm in my faith.
Worried about my condition in the detention center, my third younger sister went to the police station's domestic division to demand my release. The police threatened to arrest her. My sister showed no fear and continued to demand my release.
“If you give us 30,000 yuan,” said one of the officers, “we will release your elder sister. Otherwise we will send her to a forced labor camp.” My sister refused to cooperate.
My younger sister was released first, and I was released on the ninth day of my hunger strike.
The police tried to extort 3,000 yuan when my third sister came to pick me up. She told them that she only had 20 yuan with her, which was earmarked for our bus fare. The head of the domestic division grabbed the 20 yuan notes and put them into his pocket.
A police officer urged my sister to carry me on her back. My sister refused and accused them of torturing me to such a state. When an inmate carried me out, my younger sister pointed at me and said to the police, “Look at what you have done! My sister was well and healthy when you brought her here. Now she is like this. What’s wrong with practicing Falun Gong? How can you harm people this way!” The police remain silent.
The provincial 610 Office and the local police station arrested 20 practitioners, with my third younger sister and me among them, and took us to a brainwashing facility.
We were separated, and the brainwashing people demanded that we each write a guarantee statement renouncing Falun Gong, and watch DVDs that slandered Falun Gong.
All of the practitioners remained steadfast and clarified the facts to those who were trying to “transform” them.
“You are all very clear-headed and rational,” these people said, “and not like what they had told us.” Some said, “I thought we could transform you. Instead, you are transforming us! We have to follow orders from above.”
All these people left after a few days. The brainwashing officials forced my elderly father to come to the brainwashing center to persuade us to sign the “transformation” document. We refused, and my father started to hit us and bashed his head against the wall.
“Dafa disciples are saving sentient beings,” I thought. “I must not cooperate with the evil. Signing such statements is going against our conscience. All these people would be committing a crime, too.” I remained very firm, refused to sign the statements, and said, “I’ll be going home tomorrow.”
Since none of their tactics worked, the police took all three of us home in a police car. The next day, all of the other practitioners were released.
Having experienced repeated persecution, we looked within. We rectified ourselves and began to study the Fa more often. I believed that I was being persecuted because I wasn’t paying much attention to talking to people about Falun Gong, and that the persecution in our area was thus still worse than other areas.
We began distributing flyers in every town and village in our surrounding areas. After the publication of the Nine the Commentaries on the Communist Party, we also distributed DVDs and booklets on this subject. My younger sister and I talked about the cultivation practice to almost all of our customers.
When I helped my husband, he got worried whenever I talked about Falun Gong. I looked within for my attachments. I tended to rush for quick results and failed to keep a calm mind, and as a result I could not do things as wisely. When I improved, I did well in clarifying the facts, and my husband became more supportive.
While passing by a small shop in the countryside, I stopped and talked to some people about the staged self-immolation at Tiananmen Square, the CCP's forced organ harvesting for profit, and the quitting the CCP movement.
They argued that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was giving them money and subsidies. I explained that the money they got was earned through their hard work. I also talked about the importance of upholding morality and the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. They soon understood and quit the CCP.
When I tried to clarify the facts to another person, he refused to listen and even badmouthed Falun Gong. He said that he had heard about two sisters from a certain town who were arrested and tortured. He asked, “What good will it do to go against the CCP?”
I told him that I was one of the sisters he mentioned, and further explained that there was nothing wrong with being a good person.
“The CCP has committed endless crimes,” I said, “and it will certainly be punished. People must create their own safety net by breaking away from the CCP. For example, if the factory where you work is about to go bankrupt, wouldn’t you want to find a way out?” Ultimately he understood the points I was making, and quit the CCP. He also asked his son to quit.
One evening, my third younger sister and I distributed flyers in a village. A man started running after us and we tried to avoid him while sending righteous thoughts. When he came closer, we stopped and asked him why he was chasing us. He asked us why we were running, and if we were thieves.
We accompanied him to his home and talked to him and his family about Falun Gong. They all quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
I know the former head of our local police station, who had once arrested me. Each time I ran into him I clarified the facts to him, but he would not listen and tried to avoid me.
Not long ago, he went to a class reunion. I went there to clarify the facts and saw him. As he knew we had filed criminal complaints against Jiang Zemin, he asked me what crimes Jiang had committed. I said loudly, “Crimes of genocide.” He nodded his head and his attitude changed. He gratefully accepted everything I gave him that day, including booklets, software to circumvent the Internet blockade, and Falun Gong amulets. He also wanted to quit the CCP. Some of his former schoolmates said, “We are all Communist Party members. We all want to quit!”
Last winter, practitioners in our county clarified the facts door-to-door. During one such trip, a kind villager told us that we should leave quickly because someone had reported us to the police.
We kept our materials in a villager’s house and decided to walk in different directions. Soon a police car came. An officer arrested my fellow practitioner, and another officer told me to get in the car too.
The other practitioner kept clarifying the facts to them while I sent righteous thoughts. The practitioner’s mobile phone then rang. She removed the battery to protect other practitioners. When we arrived at the police station, she threw the battery away. An officer handed me the battery later and said not to waste it. I recognized two other officers there, to whom I had once clarified the facts. They had quit the CCP.
They wanted to release us, but the head of the station wanted to keep my fellow practitioner behind. After some back and forth, he also released her.
Over the years, fellow practitioners and I have talked with people on all the streets in all the villages of our county, and people have started to accept Falun Gong through our righteous thoughts and actions.
I feel that we have made it through to today thanks to our strong righteous thoughts and firm belief in Master and Dafa. We must always be steadfast in our cultivation and hold indestructible faith in Master and the Fa. The most important thing is to let go of human attachments.
Master said:
“Lay down your human, mundane mind,The Fa gained, you now stand divine,”(“Salvation Far and Wide” from Hong Yin)