(Minghui.org) The following is the story about a Falun Gong practitioner and her daughter—a Gold Award winner in a dance competition.
I became a Falun Dafa practitioner before 1999, the year in which the evil Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched a nationwide persecution against the practice. This persecution is still ongoing and has expanded into the international community.
During the persecution, I was illegally arrested and detained seven times. In 2017, I fled to the U.S. with my daughter.
Before I began practicing Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong) I suffered from all kinds of health problems. However, shortly after starting the practice, I found myself free from all of them and regained my health. I was overwhelmed with happiness for having obtained Dafa, which is rooted in the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. At that time, many people around me were wearing Falun Dafa badges, and Dafa exercise practice sites were common throughout China.
The CCP governs through lies, cruelty, and oppression, and cannot tolerate the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance nor the immense popularity of Falun Gong. On July 20, 1999, it formally launched the persecution against Falun Gong practitioners with a genocidal policy aimed at, “defaming their reputations, financially bankrupting them, and destroying them physically.”
My family suffered a lot during the persecution. Because I refused to abandon my practice, my parents faced constant harassment by the CCP police, who extorted money from them and threatened to dismiss them from their employment. The pain and distress became too much for my parents, and both passed away due to illness in their early 60s.
Due to my repeated detentions for refusing to give up my faith in Falun Dafa, my only daughter was unable to enjoy a normal childhood from a very young age. When she was just over a year old, I was taken away to a brainwashing center. My husband had to work to support the family, and I couldn’t bear to tell my parents about my situation to avoid adding to their worry, especially since my father was already quite ill. So my husband enrolled our daughter at a nearby kindergarten and sought assistance from a neighbor.
After I was released, a kindergarten teacher asked me where I had been, because my daughter’s clothes smelled bad every day. Even though she asked the person who picked up my daughter to change her clothes, she was still wearing the same smelly outfit the next day.
During my detention, my husband would bring our daughter to visit me on weekends. Each time when they had to leave after one hour, my daughter would start crying and screaming, which echoed through the facility. It was heartbreaking to witness. Every time I was taken away or detained, it caused unimaginable harm to her young and fragile mind.
In addition to my many arrests and detention, I was sometimes forced to leave home to avoid further persecution, and had to leave my daughter in the care of my neighbor. As she grew older, there were occasions when she would stay home and look after herself. She missed me greatly and became timid and easily frightened.
The day I was arrested for the seventh time happened to be the first day of my daughter’s summer vacation during middle school. Seven or eight police officers forced their way into my home, placed me in handcuffs, and said I was on an online wanted list and had to be arrested immediately. They then proceeded to illegally search my house and planned to take me away.
My daughter was the only other person at home and became very scared and started crying. The police asked if she also practiced Falun Gong. She didn’t answer but kept saying, “My mom is a good person.”
“Don’t be afraid,” I encouraged her, “Mom didn’t do anything wrong by striving to be a good person.”
That was the most harrowing experience I faced during the persecution. I was taken out of town and labeled as a “major case” by the local police. While I was locked up, waiting for my trial, I held strong righteous thoughts and silently asked Master for help. At the same time, I completely denied the evil persecution.
Meanwhile, fellow practitioners sent the message about my arrest overseas. The police said their phones had been bombarded with calls from practitioners abroad. They became very frightened. A month later, I was released from prison.
The day I got back home, my daughter held me close and said, “Mom, the day you were taken away, I went to beg Master in front of his portrait to help you come back home soon.” She also had two dreams, in which Master told her, “Your mom will be back soon.”
I was released on bail, and the police said they could put me back in jail any time.
Both my parents had passed away by then, and due to lack of care from me, plus the harsh social environment and deteriorated social norms, my daughter became rebellious and her academic performance declined rapidly. I decided to leave China with her.
We successfully moved to the U.S. and my daughter was fortunate enough to start learning classical Chinese dance at the Fei Tian Academy of the Arts in New York. She was already 14 years old and was considered a bit old for a beginner in dance as she’d had no basic dance training.
Thanks to the exceptional learning and training environment at the academy, my daughter made rapid progress both in academic studies and dance training. She began to seriously cultivate Dafa and studied diligently, constantly rectifying her wrong way of thinking to improve her xinxing (character). Once, she said to me, “Mom, if we had stayed in China, I would have been ruined.”
My daughter has become very thoughtful. Each time she comes home during school vacation, she insists on helping me with household chores. She is very self-disciplined, stays on top of everything, and never slacks off. Like many other Fei Tian students, she has become increasingly outstanding. Through her cultivation, she has learned to look inward when encountering issues and has transformed her previously bad temper.
Some of our relatives suggested she change professions after she graduates from Fei Tian College. However, she told me, “Mom, I’ve received a very good education here. I’m determined to excel in dance. I would like to pursue a master’s degree in dance when I finish the college course. I also hope to tour with Shen Yun to clarify the truth to people.”
She shared with me that she had a dream, in which she was asked whether she wanted to be a dance star amongst everyday people or a Shen Yun performer. She firmly answered she wanted to be a Shen Yun performer. My daughter is excited and grateful for being a student at Fei Tian College.
My daughter has also experienced pain and injury during her dance training, but she always looked at such issues from the perspective of a Dafa cultivator. In the end, she was able to overcome them, and is now very healthy. As her mom, I also reflect on myself and rectify my loopholes in cultivation and we work together to strengthen our righteous thoughts.
I feel immensely proud and grateful that my daughter has chosen a wonderful path at this critical moment when human morality is declining so rapidly. She is currently receiving an excellent education at Fei Tian College, which is based on the true traditional culture of China’s 5,000-year civilization.
I often think about a fellow practitioner back in China. In 2001, her husband, who was also a Dafa practitioner, attended a press conference with me with overseas media, where we aimed to clarify the truth about Falun Dafa and expose the cruel persecution of practitioners by the CCP. Shortly after that, he was arrested by police and later died due to torture. He was only 38, leaving behind his wife and their 10-year-old son. I often think of her and wonder how she is coping in such a hostile and dangerous environment, and I quietly pray for them in my heart.
Shortly after arriving in the U.S., I came across a report by NTDTV featuring U.S. journalist Philip Pan interviewing a group of Falun Gong practitioners who had been persecuted in a mental hospital in 2001. I was shocked, as that was the time that we were validating the Fa at the risk of losing our lives. I felt very grateful to this journalist from The Washington Post.
Amongst the practitioners who were interviewed, everyone used their real names except for me. To my knowledge, the journalist did not reveal their names in his report to protect their identities. I remember him as a very kind young man, bright and upright.
I wish I could see him again and tell him about my daughter and me, our new life in the U.S., and tell him that all kindhearted people will have a bright future.
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