(Minghui.org) I am a 17-year-old Falun Gong practitioner. Although I had a wonderful very early childhood, I have suffered a lot because of the persecution.
My entire family practices Falun Gong. Several hours after I was born, my grandmother read to me from Zhuan Falun, the main book of Falun Gong. She noticed that I laughed. The adults were amazed—how could a newborn laugh? My grandmother said it might be because I listened to her read Zhuan Falun.
The Chinese communist regime launched the persecution against Falun Gong in July 1999.
When I was 15 months old, the police arrested my mom and me, and took us to a detention center. The damp and dirty cell held dozens of people. I soon came down with a high fever, vomited, and cried all the time.
After 10 days, my mom and I were released.
Several years later, the police broke into my home and talked my mom into going with them to the police station. At the police station, the officers beat her. I was scared and tried to defend her. They dragged me away and I kept crying for my mom.
I wondered where my grandparents had gone to. How come did they not protect me? My mom told me after I was older that my grandfather was in a forced labor camp and my grandmother was forced to leave our home—all because they refused to renounce Falun Gong.
I learned later that my grandmother had been beaten to death by officers at the Shulan Police Department on May 11, 2003.
Before I finished first grade, my parents and I became homeless. Since the onset of the persecution, we never stayed for long at any place, which meant that I could not go to school.
Once, when we lived in Changchun in 2006, I was awakened by the adults, who told me to keep silent because the police were outside our door. I put on my clothes and we went to an abandoned building. I was cold and tired, and I cried hard. My grandfather helped me remove my shoes so I could put my feet inside his clothes to get warm.
When I was nine years old, we had wandered about in Tongliao City for over a year. On the morning of May 7, 2008, while my mom was at work and Grandfather had also gone out, a group of police arrived. My Aunt Yan tried to defend me, so about six policemen beat her. They pushed Aunt Yan to the ground and handcuffed her. Then, the police ransacked our home, made a big mess, and confiscated many of our personal belongings.
The police arrested me and took me to a building. They threatened me and said that they would sell me for profit. Some even claimed that they could feed me to the dogs and wolves. I was very scared. They teased me with a knife and then one offered me some food. I said that I did not want to eat but that they should let me go.
They claimed that they would release me if I told them my mom and grandfather’s names. I believed them and told them their names, but they did not release me.
They called my grandfather’s brother-in-law to pick me up. Then, I realized that my grandparents had been arrested.
Grandfather was released from the Tongliao City Detention Center on August 2, 2008. He was skin and bones and appeared to be near death. He held my hands and I could hardly hear him when he spoke. We were held in a hotel room, and three plain-clothed officers monitored us.
My father and I went back to the Tongliao City Police Department on August 20, 2008, to look for my mom. Finally after two months, Wang Bo, the chief of the Domestic Security Division, demanded 5,000 yuan for my mom's release. We had only 3,000 yuan, which Wang Bo accepted before he released my mom.
We went to Changchun, where my grandfather rented a room. Wang Bo and a group of officers broke into our room on November 3, 2011, and confiscated everything we had, including my computer, a camera, our money, and bankbooks. They arrested my grandfather, and I jumped out of the third-floor window to escape. I was desperate to inform Mother, so she would not come home and get arrested.
A practitioner saw me and took me home.
When I saw that other kids could go to school and had friends to play with, I cried. Why was I not allowed to go to school? They just persecuted me because my family practiced Falun Gong.
After my grandfather was arrested and our home was searched in 2011, I was too traumatized to continue studying the Fa or doing the exercises.
However, things have turned around for me now, with the current surge of practitioners filing criminal complaints against former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin – the one person directly responsible for orchestrating and perpetrating the persecution. Fellow practitioners have encouraged me to understand the Fa better and have helped me once again understand the importance of practicing Falun Gong.
So, after many years of not practicing Falun Gong, I now vow to go forward and cultivate ever diligently.