(Clearwisdom.net) I have benefited a lot from Falun Dafa. Since July 20th, 1999, when the persecution began, I felt that I should absolutely stand up to uphold the universal principle of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance." In January 2000, dozens of practitioners from our little town broke through multiple barriers to go to Beijing to safeguard the Fa. Among them were young children and senior citizens. A whole family also stepped forward together.
When we arrived in Beijing, some practitioners exercised their constitutional rights by delivering a letter of appeal to the Central Government Appeals Office, some unfurled the "Falun Dafa is Good" banner at Tiananmen Square, some practiced the Falun Dafa exercises under the flagpole. Before long, many police swarmed in, hitting and kicking us. They kidnapped us, pushing us into police cars. We faced the danger fearlessly. After being carried into the police car, I saw many tourists and foreigners, I thought, "Isn't this a great opportunity to clarify the true facts of Dafa?" I jumped out of the car and began demonstrating the exercises. Some tourists kindly surrounded me, giving me cover so that I could get away. However, I didn't realize at the time that being arrested and beaten were to be avoided. When the police saw me, they brutally kicked me in the abdomen and dragged me into the car. Later we were taken to the nearby police department. That afternoon, we were transferred to Guizhou Liaison Office in Beijing where we kept on practicing the exercises and clarifying the facts of Dafa to the staff of the liaison office and to the policemen. As we were taken back to our home town, we kept on practicing the exercises and clarifying the truth to the passengers and together recited Hong Yin [collection of Teacher's poems] loudly in the police car.
In the detention center, we kept on practicing. As a result, two fellow practitioners and I were cuffed on our hands and feet. It was winter. The handcuffs were chained to our leg shackles, so we could not even manage to eat, drink or go to the bathroom by ourselves. After the handcuffs and shackles were released, I kept on practicing, so the police used another type of cuff called "Ba Kao" that was intended for hardened criminals. The "Ba Kao" has a heavy steel plate chained in the middle between the two handcuffs. The weight of the plate makes the cuffs so tight that soon both my hands turned black and blue. I could hardly breathe. Later, seeing that the hard torture failed to work, they changed to some soft methods. On the National Women's Day of 2000, several people came to visit me. Among them were my relatives, friends and managers at the TV station. They took turns trying to persuade me, and said as long as I promise to give up the practice, that the police would "release me and resume my work," and would also take care of my son who was at the university. I refused them all. I told them, "Every one has different ideals. My ideal of cultivating Dafa will never change." Then they brought my family members in and tried to move me using sentiment and persuasion. I treated all those who could not understand me, including my relatives, policemen and criminals of the same cell, as an audience for clarifying the truth. Gradually, some police changed from being hostile to understanding, some common criminals in the same cell got to know that Falun Dafa was good. Some even practiced with us. One of the common criminals expressed her desire to introduce Dafa to her neighbors when she got out.
After being illegally detained in the detention center for three months, I was illegally sentenced to two years of forced labor in Guizhou Zhongba Forced Labor Camp because I was accused of "delivering an appeal letter to Jiang and Zhu, and going to Beijing to uphold Dafa." There were another four fellow practitioners who were illegally sentenced together with me. In the labor camp, there were many drug dealers, drug addicts and prostitutes. There were also Christians being detained-- some of them were only teenagers. According to the regulations of this labor camp, all newcomers must undertake intensive training for three months in the "newcomer's team" before going to the workshop to labor. However, only a few days later, I was sent to the "strict control team" of the strict control workshop. More than twenty people were assigned to take turns to watch me. I was monitored around the clock, including when I was eating, sleeping and going to the restroom. I had to get up at 5:30 a.m. and go to the workshop, coming back past midnight. Every day I was forced to clear out over 10,000 sticks and clean the workshop of dozens of square meters. I would be beaten or cursed whenever I slowed down even slightly and no time was allowed for me to have a rest. After one day's work, I felt pain all over my body and even in my bones, but had to suffer the swearing of the drug addicts and prostitutes. Moreover, every week we were forced to watch videos and TV programs that slandered Dafa. Every time on such occasions, I would recite Teacher's words. In the labor camp, I suffered all kinds of tortures, and was deeply hurt both physically and mentally. My weight dropped to 40 kilograms from 69 kilograms. However, I wasn't defeated. On the contrary, the righteous thoughts and righteous belief are indestructible. Over the past two years, I walked through my path of cultivation righteously, broke through the barriers and treated all the people and things around me with compassion. A young policeman resigned from the labor camp after learning the principles of Dafa. I told the common criminals, such as drug addicts, about the principle that good is rewarded with good and evil is met with evil, and about the transformation of Karma. I encouraged them to give up evil deeds and come back to goodness and to become assets to society. I also explained the meaning of Teacher's spreading Dafa and offering salvation to the Christians, wishing them not to miss such a precious chance. On May 13, 2001, the ninth anniversary of Falun Dafa's spreading around the world, several fellow practitioners and I practiced in the yard, despite the posted rule of "No practicing Falun Gong." We were roped tightly together by the cruel policemen, while many of the common criminals tearfully requested the authorities to let us loose.
In September 2000, the labor camp started to send practitioners group by group to the "newcomers' team" to brainwash them. Luring practitioners with "no work in the workshops," "reduced detention terms," "early release," "work outside the camp," while at the same time forcefully infusing practitioners with videos and TV programs that slandered Dafa, "law education classes," "dancing parties," "getting-together parties," they tried to brainwash Dafa practitioners. Some practitioners gave up practice and enlightened along the evil path. A few of them even helped the tyrant to do evil. I was in the last group sent to the "newcomers' team." Facing attacks and threats, all that was in my mind were the principles of Dafa, "Grand talk counts for naught when it comes to life and death, Actions reveal what is true." ("The Knowing Heart") With Teacher and the Fa in mind, I could face the evil straightly. I told them calmly, "I won't do anything that damages Dafa or the image of Teacher." Soon after, the criminal police sent me back to the workshop and, utterly discomfited, warned me, "If you don't give up, you will never be allowed to leave! Be ready to live here forever!" He also threatened to increase my sentence and to "focus" on me. They put poisoned water in my glass several times; called the TV station to video me in an attempt to get "criminal evidence"; invited an "expert psychologist", etc. They also applied the "implication policy" [In ancient Chinese feudal society, there was an "implication law," which meant that if one person violated the law, all of his family members and friends would be punished. The punishment ranged from exile to the execution of entire families] and stretched their influence to my son who was at university. Soon after, I heard that my son was forced to leave his university.
After the extended detention, I was secretly sent to the local "brainwashing class" for "soft brainwashing" [brainwashing with not too much physical torture] on the night of January 15. My former unit, the TV Station, was requested to hand in 5000 Yuan [average monthly income for an urban worker is about 500 Yuan] and sent a person to be the assistant brainwasher. They used up all the means and methods they could think of, seeing I was not shaken a little bit, they had to transfer me to my work unit, my street committee, and the local police station for the three of them to monitor me together. At that point the two years of persecution against me by the evil ended in failure. On February 4, the Falun Dafa Day in Guizhou Province, I left the den of monsters openly and with dignity.
Reviewing my journey in Fa-rectification over the past two years, only by my righteous belief in Teacher and Dafa in every moment was I able to steadily walk through each step and to get through each barrier; only by rectifying my thoughts and deeds according to "Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance" in every moment was I able to thoroughly abandon the principles and attachments of ordinary people. In the meantime, I also deeply felt that I was still far away from the requirement of Teacher, "Cultivating until no attachments are left" (unofficial translation"Cultivating in Maze"in Hong Yin) Only by studying the Fa, closely keeping up with the Fa-rectification process, diligently moving forward, could we live up to the mercy and salvation of Teacher.
September 19, 2002