[Minghui] Based on the agreements between Zhaoxin's family and the college (Zhaoxin's employer, by translator), Zhaoxin's memorial ceremony would be held in memorial room #3 at Beijing Babaoshan Funeral Service on Dec. 13, 2000. Both the family and the college would give speeches during the service. In addition, the college would be responsible for writing a brief introduction about Zhao Xin, and distribute it to people coming to the funeral. Zhao Xin's family could also prepare a separate introduction according to their wishes, and were responsible for preparing elegiac couplets. Also the college would provide transportation for Zhao Xin's family and friends. Because Zhao Xin's family thought that there would be a lot of practitioners coming to extend their condolences, they asked the college to send more cars. The college promised to take care of all the requests made by Zhao Xin's family. They said there would be no problem because the college had enough cars. So, the representatives from the college said: " To be a good teacher, one must have expertise in the academic field, and also must be nice to the students. Zhao Xin had both qualities. She was an excellent teacher". It was agreed to leave the college for the cemetery at 2 pm, which was good.
So we wrote an introduction about Zhao Xin, which has briefly described her life and her cultivation story. We planned to give it out to the guests. We hoped that by doing this we could at least let kind-hearted people know the truth that she died during the brutal persecution. The elegiac couplets were mostly prepared and sent by practitioners and the contents were of course related to the cultivation. The lament was made aiming to further expose the truth behind her death to our guests. We made Zhao Xin very beautiful: putting on red clothes, red hat, and lying on a golden-yellow quilt. She looked alive. In her bed, and on the floor, her body was surrounded by flowers sent by her families, friends, colleagues, and students. Incense burned next to her head. There was no atmosphere of funeral in her room. When in and out, people all liked to take a couple of glimpses at her. Even on the third day after she passed away, her face was still white and clean, and her lips still red. She was only very thin, and her mouth was slightly open, as though she were trying to tell us something.
Zhao Xin's mother went to Zhao Xin's room to see her from time to time, feeling her face. Whenever there were guests to see Zhao Xin, her mother chatted to the guests: see how beautiful Zhao Xin was ...... Besides the practitioners, there were a lot of colleagues, students of hers and her teachers when she was a student in Beijing Commerce College. Some of them wept. One of her students said that he never met such a good teacher. An old lady was a teacher of Zhao Xin and lived in the same apartment as Zhao Xin. She had been accompanying Zhao Xins' parents, which gave a lot of comfort to them. Practitioners have also made a piece of yellow cloth that read "Suffering tribulations, appealing for justice and conscience" and put it on Zhao Xin's body. Everyone agreed that the purpose of the funeral was to reveal the evilness, to tell people the truth and to save people. Zhao Xin's family also thought that only doing so deserved Zhao Xin who suffered bitterly for 6 months and left in the end. Everyone made an effort and prepared everything well, waiting for the procession in the afternoon as planned.
Nevertheless, things changed in a way that outraged everybody.
In the morning, police officers from Beijing Public Security Bureau came to the college, and wanted "to talk" with Zhao Xin's mother and her younger sister. The college copied the contents of the elegiac couplets and sent them to the officers in Beijing Public Security Bureau. They said to Zhao Xin's family that there would be no Falun Dafa music in the funeral; no distribution of any introduction of Zhao Xin's life that included the word "Falun Gong"; no word related to Falun Dafa in the elegiac couplets; no words of Falun Gong in the lament, and not allowed to even tell people that Zhao Xin practiced Falun Dafa. In a word, the bottom line was that no words related to Falun Dafa were allowed, and even the single character "Fa" was not allowed. But these rules entirely exposed their own fears. They were afraid of Dafa and the truth. They also threatened Zhao Xin's family that anybody who violated these rules would be arrested immediately. Zhao Hong, Zhaoxin's younger sister, was so angry that she turned away before the police officer finished talking. After Zhaohong came back and told the story to us, everybody was angry. Zhao Hong said that we were too simple to believe them. The only reason to make these rules was that they were afraid of their own disgraceful behavior being exposed to the public. Therefore they wanted to get the funeral done quietly. Zhao Xin's mother came back a little later. Both of Zhao Xin's parents were very tired. On one hand, they were angry at the decisions from the police and the college, on the other hand, they would also like to see the funeral go peacefully. For more than half a year, they had been taking care of Zhao Xin and trying all ways to bring justice to the illegal and unfair treatment to their daughter. They were extremely tired. Zhaoxin's father was ill, and had to take a lot of medicine every day. All Zhaoxin's family tried to persuade him not to go to the funeral, but he insisted on going. For the justice of his daughter's case, he had fought through all legal channels. As a result, the attitudes of the local DA's office and Public Security Bureau in Haidiang District made him so angry that he became sick. Lately he became silent and often sat alone for long time with tears. Everybody felt sad for him. Zhao Xin's younger sister did not want to follow the unfair rules at the beginning, saying: "My sister has died already. What do they still want? They want to arrest someone, let them arrest me. I am not afraid of them". While at the same time she worried about the safety of Dafa practitioners around. We were all moved by her honesty.
Zhao Hong was not a Falun Dafa practitioner before. But since her sister was injured she started learning Dafa under the influence of her sister and other practitioners, and often used Teacher's language to comfort Zhao Xin. The night when Zhao Xin passed away, Zhao Hong sat next to her and grasped her by her hand for a long time, and told everybody that she could still feel her sister's pulse. Other people told her what she felt was her own pulse, but she didn't want to believe him, showing the intimacy between the sisters. Strongly persuaded by all families, Zhao Hong reluctantly agreed to revise her speech, and to change the elegiac couplet, although she would still want to tell people that her sister had been a Falun Dafa practitioner, and was killed by torture. Afterwards, we thought we should respect the opinions of Zhao Xin's family. We tried to persuade them not to worry about the practitioner's safety.
The college sent a notice around noon, and asked the families and all teachers from the college to take vans to go to the service. All other people had to take buses outside of the campus. We felt something was wrong, and asked: "yesterday we were told that there would be two buses for us, but now only one is available. How can we fit so many people? Why do you want to transport us separately"? The one who was in charge in the college left in a hurry with a couple of unclear replies to our questions. Obviously they did not want so many people to go to the funeral. One female practitioner sat there and cried: "I have been taking care of Zhao Xin for so long, but still not even allowed to keep her accompanied in her last minutes. What kind of human beings are they? We have backed off so much, but still not enough for them". The practitioner took care of Zhao Xin for a long time, and had a good relationship with her. She bought a wreath and tried to leave it downstairs. But the security at the college gate did not allow her to bring it in. She argued with them, and finally started shouting to them. She criticized them with many people around: "Do you still have a conscience? Are you still human beings? She has already died, but you are still making trouble even after her death". Finally with the help from Zhao Xin's cousin, she was allowed to bring the wreath in. But she was not allowed to leave the wreath outside of the building. So she started arguing again. Finally they asked her to call the authorities for permission. Once she left to make phone calls, they immediately moved the wreath inside.
The hearse finally came. Zhao Xin's family and we carefully put Zhao Xin into the coffin, carried her downstairs, and settled the coffin into the hearse. One of Zhao Xin's cousins and Zhaohong were in the hearse. Zhaoxin's parents, other employees of the college, and all of us took a bus. Security people still tried to check out who were not the family members at the bus door. About 2 pm we were on our way to the funeral. All the way from Zhao Xin's home to the front gate of the college there were people who came to bid farewell to her. Some of them brought flowers, some carried wreathes, some followed the hearse leaving the college, and some from outside tried to meet the hearse. Among them were teachers, students, and most, were Dafa practitioners. Some of them were very old people, and some of them were crying. The strange thing was that when we got to the front gate of the college, we did not see the bus that was supposed waiting for us. The bus had already left before we got there. Someone told us that the college bus would only transport college employees, and all other people had to find their own transportation. One funny thing happened at the front gate. A Western gentleman saw wreathes and that many people were waiting for the bus. He was curious and asked whom and what age was the person that died? Someone answered: Zhao Xin, 32 years old, a Falun Gong practitioner, killed under torture. A plain clothed police officer came immediately and dragged him away. The foreigner almost fell down. Leaving the front gate, we followed the hearse towards Babaoshan cemetery.
Down the road to Babaoshan cemetery, we found police vehicles parked on both sides of the street. Some police officers were watching us. It seemed like they had been there waiting for us. Later we found there were four police cars fully loaded with plain-clothes police and some in uniforms following us. Reaching Babaoshan, we saw police officers walking around inside and outside of the cemetery. From the entrance all the way to the funeral room we could see police officers standing by, walking, watching, or wandering with mean faces. Outside of the funeral room #3 there was already a long line of people. Everybody held a yellow chrysanthemum in hand, and with a white flower clipped on the chest, quietly and in order. The receptionists took Zhao Xin's parents to a waiting room, and we joined the line. Someone gave each of us a chrysanthemum and a white flower. I noticed that "thousand Buddhas consummation" were written on the backside of the white flower. More and more people came and joined the line. There were about three to four hundred people in the line. Most of them were Dafa practitioners, and many were teachers and students of the college. Helped by two people, Zhao Xin's mother came to the line with tears all over her face. She put her palms together and said: "Thank you. Thank you, and thanks to everybody". A few old ladies cried. It was very sad. We all patiently waited outside of the room, just to see Zhao Xin for the very last time, and to say good-bye to her.
But an argument happened at the door of funeral room #3. We heard Zhao Hong's worrisome voice: "What do you want"? "No, I don't want to give you. What are you doing"? "Let me go, let me go". We then saw a few big guys rush in and out. What happened was that they did not want Zhao Hong to make her lament, and even tried to take her speech from her. But they did not get it because Zhao Hong fought desperately. Then Zhao Xin's mother came out and said to us with a trembling voice: "Go in, please all go in. I know you all are here to say good-bye to Zhao Xin". Those guys were trying to prevent us from going in to the funeral room. We heard the people heading the line say: "Why don't you let us in? What do you want"? Later only a very small number of people were let in the room because they said the room was too small to let all of the people go in. But the room was able to contain a lot more people. They were just afraid of letting more people hear Zhao Hong's lament, and afraid that with a large number of people, we might do something together. We did not plan to do anything but just simply wanted to say good-bye to Zhao Xin. But they just feared! Yes, that's right, they feared. They have been afraid since the very beginning. The first night after Zhao Xin passed away, they wanted to take her body away because they were afraid. A lot of people came to express condolences so they closed the side gate of the college, and only let people come in to the college at night, they were afraid! They put security guards downstairs at Zhao Xin's home, and did not allow the wreath outside of the building. They did not want to offer transportation to us. They beat up the foreigner in front of the college. Police vehicles parked along the road. Police vehicles followed us. Police officers were all over the Babaoshan cemetery. They didn't allow the memorial speech. They didn't let us into the funeral room. They did not allow us to distribute any introduction of Zhao Xin's life and to put up the elegiac couplets with the word of Dafa. Yes, they were afraid of everything. They were afraid of the general public knowing Zhao Xin's death, knowing the truth behind her death, and knowing the truth of Dafa. Of course they feared. They already sensed their painful ending. They knew by the time the truth of Dafa was revealed to the world, they would have to pay for all they had done. Let them fear because they should fear when going to hell.
The memorial room was not as big as we heard from the college. Zhao Xin lay in the center of the room, with her picture on the wall over her head. She had a very sweet smile in the picture. Wreathes were all around the room. We stood next to the walls, and Zhao Hong gave the lament. It was quiet both inside and outside of the room except Zhao Hong's voice with very intense emotion. All people listened silently to that voice, the denouncement with blood and tears. The voice made everybody remember Zhao Xin's painful suffering in her last days. Zhao Xin's parents kept crying during lament, and so did many others. Although Zhao Hong did not say much in her lament, everybody there knew the truth, including all the families, friends, colleagues, whether people who knew her personally or not, whether practitioners or not, even the police officers and people working in the cemetery. Zhao Xin, lying there silently by herself, was the strongest denouncement. The college did not give a chance for the lament as they promised. No reason was given before and after. Then people started showing their last respect to Zhao Xin. They walked into the room in order, holding a chrysanthemum in hand. They left the flowers on Zhao Xin's body. Some saluted to her, some made bows, some close their palms together in front of their chests to her, some bent down and looked at her closely, and some turned around to comfort her families. Then they left silently. A middle age woman walked into the room and carefully put her flower onto Zhao Xin's body, silently looking at Zhao Xin for a moment, then put her palms together to Zhao Xin, turned around and walked out of the door upright and unafraid. Looking at her, I remembered Teacher's poem: "Arhat in the world, all god and ghosts fear". An old lady with all white hair walked slowly to Zhao Xin and put down the flower with her trembling hands. She put her palms together to Zhao Xin again and again, with tears all over her face. She cried not only for Zhao Xin, but also for the unfair treatment to Dafa in the human world. A teenage boy walked to Zhao Xin, left his flower and put his palms together to her. Zhaoxin's father grabbed the boy's hand, and kept padding his shoulder while choked with tears. More and more flowers piled on Zhao Xin's body, and finally no place was left for flowers. People coming later then put their flowers in front of Zhaoxin's picture. After all we and all Zhaoxin's families bent down to Zhao Xin three times. The cemetery staff then moved Zhao Xin's body away carefully.
Note:
A young male practitioner was arrested when leaving the cemetery for an unknown reason.
An American reporter was interfered with by a plainclothes police when taking pictures.
Some said a student of the college, responsible for getting in touch with French reporters, was followed. It was unknown if he was arrested.
