(Minghui.org) I began practicing Falun Gong in 1997. I’m now over 60 years old. People tell me that I look a lot younger than my age. I thank Master from the bottom of my heart for giving me a second chance in life.
After July 20, 1999, when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began their persecution of Falun Gong, I made a firm, conscientious decision to continue to practice. I have been arrested and persecuted multiple times, but I have never once announced that I would stop practicing. Instead, I have continued to validate the Fa, clarify the facts, and hand out Master's Fa lectures and other truth-clarification materials.
I had a variety of illnesses before I started practicing, including stomach problems, hepatitis, cholecystitis, rhinitis, bronchitis and arthritis. I was so loaded with medicine that I became sick and tired of all the Chinese herbs and Western drugs that I had to take. I was unable to do any manual labor or eat any cold food.
Once I began practicing Falun Gong, Master started to cleanse my body. I felt better and better each day, as my various illnesses gradually disappeared and my spirits lifted. My body became stronger and I was once again able to work in the fields. I also looked and felt significantly younger.
When others saw the changes in me, some of them also came to learn Falun Gong. My courtyard was constantly filled with people studying the Fa and doing the exercises.
Getting Out to Validate the Fa
From 1999 to 2001, I had been arrested and held in the local detention center multiple times. I was once held for three months and had the New Year pass while I was in detention. On New Year’s Eve, there were seven of us there; six of us were Falun Gong practitioners. We made plans to write out some customary New Year couplets, but with Dafa messages written on them instead. We wanted to place them on both sides of the door frames. On the top of the door we put the words, “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is the Law.” The next day, when the guards came to check on us and discovered what we did, they immediately reported it to their superiors and the police department.
The police took some pictures and interrogated us. They threatened to put handcuffs on all of us. I stood up and asked, “If someone admits to writing these, then you won’t handcuff anybody else, right?” One of them said, “Yes.” So, I replied: “I did it. I wrote them.”
They didn’t believe me. They handcuffed all of the others, except for me. They had their hands and feet shackled together and were left out in the yard to freeze for a long time.
All of the guards were celebrating the New Year, but they wouldn’t even give us a bite to eat. We were handcuffed for six days, so we went on a hunger strike to protest the persecution. Each time they checked on us, we all called out “Falun Dafa is good!” Whenever we were told to memorize the detention center rules, we recited verses from Hong Yin. When they made us watch videos slandering Dafa, we would tell them that these were false, fabricated lies. No matter what they did to torture us, we still would not give in or cooperate with them.
The guards finally stopped the torture in frustration. One of them declared, “You Falun Gong people are simply tougher than a whole load of heroes!”
After we were released from the detention center, we continued doing what we needed to do: hand out Master’s recent lectures, clarify the facts, distribute truth-clarification materials and go out to validate the Fa.
Two practitioners and I later made plans to go to Beijing to appeal, and boarded a train to Beijing the next day. The people assigned to keep an eye on us reported that we were missing. The report went from the local village cadre to the police department. They believed that we were on our way to Beijing, so they traveled by plane to wait for us at the Appeals Office.
As the train was slow, we got news from our fellow practitioners that the police would be waiting for us in Beijing. We decided to go straight to Tiananmen Square to check things out. There were plainclothes police, uniformed police and police vans all over the square. We had a discussion and decided that it was probably better to return to our respective hometowns to validate the Fa there.
When I got back to my hometown, I first paid a visit to my mother, who was in her 80s. I told her about Falun Gong and the persecution, and said that if she recites, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good,” it would bring her good fortune.
I then began to contact former Falun Gong practitioners in nearby villages and counties who had stopped practicing when the persecution began. After several contacts, heart to heart sharings and Fa study sessions together, the majority of them returned to Dafa. We then got together to study the Fa, do the exercises and distribute truth-clarification materials.
The officers from the Xinjiang Police Department, who were sent to arrest us in Beijing, refused to let the matter drop. They contacted the police station in my hometown and told them to arrest me. It wasn’t long before I was picked up at my relatives’ home in another area and taken to the local police station. I was detained there for 11 days.
The police had me transferred to Xinjiang, and took me back on the train. I was handcuffed nearly all the time, except when I ate or had to use the toilet. I thought: “I can’t just let them take me back to Xinjiang, only to be detained there. I still have a lot of things to do. I have to help Master rectify the Fa. I have to think of a way to get rid of them.”
With that thought, Master made the necessary arrangements. When I saw that my custodian, a policewoman, had fallen asleep, I slowly removed my handcuffs, quietly got down from my bed, and got off the train at the next stop with the other passengers. There was nobody at the station to check our tickets, so I was able to walk out safely.
Once I was out of the train station, I followed the road in front of me. I walked for quite a distance with no idea where I was going. I was hungry and thirsty, and my clothes were drenched in sweat. There was nobody in sight, so I decided to turn around and walked back to the square outside the train station. I stayed there the rest of the night.
I realized I hadn’t any money on me. So I thought to hitch a ride back home. I walked around the station and along the railroad tracks, waiting for a vehicle to pass by.
Two elderly people were out taking a walk. The woman noticed me and asked, “What are you doing here?” I told her that I had been robbed and was hoping to hitch a ride back home. The old man exclaimed, “You can't do that! It's too dangerous! Here, I'll give you five yuan. Go buy yourself a train ticket.” I said to him, “Thank you so much. You’ll certainly be blessed.”
I took the five yuan and returned to the station. A train was coming, but I couldn’t find the ticket booth. Food venders all rushed over to await the passengers getting off the train. I noticed two pears drop off a vendor's cart. The owner took a look, found them bruised, and left them. I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink all day, so I went over to pick them up. I cleaned them as best I could and ate them. Then I went over to where they wash cars, got hold of some cold water and drank it.
As I was pondering what to do next, suddenly I remembered the phone number of someone back home. The phone call cost 4.80 yuan at the phone booth, but I managed to arrange for a relative living about 80 kilometers away to come to me.
My stomach was rumbling, and I had virtually no money left. I walked away from the phone booth and accidentally kicked something. I bent over to see what it was, and found it to be an unopened bag of bread! It was dark. Nobody was around. Where did the bag come from? It was truly a godsend!
At around noon the next day, my relative arrived, bought me a train ticket and saw me off home.
Posting Truth-clarification Materials
When I returned to my hometown, I got back to validating the Fa. One day, I went out to fetch a lot of truth-clarification materials. I made plans to put them up anywhere I could. A practitioner wanted to come along, but had to cancel at the last minute. So, I set out alone at night.
I went to four neighboring villages and put up these materials wherever I found a suitable spot, on the side of buildings and lampposts. Literally anywhere people could easily see them. After the job was done, the day was beginning to break.
The next day I heard that villagers were gossiping, stating that many people on motorcycles had descended on the villages the night before and posted Falun Gong materials all over.
I rode my bicycle to a relative’s house one day. It was 30 kilometers outside the neighboring county. The house is located in a large village. After dinner, I took out all the materials that I bought along and posted them along each street. I worked until almost daybreak. Then, I said my goodbyes, hopped on my bicycle and rode the 30 kilometers back home.
Wherever there are people, that’s where I will go. I’m always thinking of ways to help Master rectify the Fa and save more people.
My mother is very supportive of me, and often recites, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” When I have time, I’ll teach her the exercises and put Master’s lectures on the tape recorder for her to listen to. Mother began to benefit. She’s now over 90 years old. She can still help her daughter-in-law cook meals and do household chores.
My sister-in-law once remarked, “You’re really something. I’m convinced that Dafa is good.” I told her, “It’s Master who’s really remarkable. Let’s be grateful to Master and Dafa.”
Validating the Fa Even When Detained
After I managed to escape from the police on the train, the Xinjiang police kept trying to arrest me at my hometown, but with Master’s help, they failed to find me every time.
My son got married in the winter of 2002, but I couldn’t make it to the wedding. Then, my daughter was planning her wedding on the last lunar month. I thought that I should help out, and took a long distance bus to return home. I clarified the facts and distributed truth-clarification materials to every passenger on the bus.
Two days later, the local police arrested me and my husband at our home. They claimed that my husband was an “accomplice.” They ransacked our place and confiscated all of my Dafa materials. Officers from the Domestic Security Division then interrogated me at the police station under torture. They hung me up four times in one night. They punched and kicked me, poured boiling water over me and burned me with their cigarette butts. They stamped on my bare feet with their leather shoes and struck them with metal rods. They also deprived me of sleep.
When I was being tortured, my first thought was: “I’m a practitioner, I have Master and Dafa.” I asked Master for protection. When they poured boiling water over me and burned me with cigarette butts, I felt only warmth and didn’t suffer any pain.
After several days of interrogation and attempts to force a confession from me through torture, they still couldn’t get any “valuable” information. So, they had me and my husband taken to the detention center. We were still there when our daughter got married and for the New Year. Two months later, my husband was released, but I was sentenced to three years and taken to the Urumqi Women's Forced Labor Camp.
All of the practitioners in the camp refused to wear the labor camp uniform, nor would we participate in their flag-raising ceremony. During roll call, when we were supposed to call out our numbers, we would only shout out “Falun Dafa is good.” Whenever we could, we would put our minds together and write down whatever bits of Master's Fa we could remember and passed them around. Because we wouldn’t cooperate with the guards, we were repeatedly tortured and shocked with electric batons.
As soon as I stepped out of my cell on the day of my release, I called out “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good” non-stop until we reached the front gate of the labor camp. The female officer who was assigned to see me off tried holding on to me and putting her hand over my mouth, but she couldn’t stop me from shouting.
As we walked to the bus station, I called out a few more times, “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” The Party Secretary of the Town Discipline Inspection Committee and another official were there to escort me home. I clarified that facts to them on the journey. At first, they tried to answer back, but then they just listened to me without saying a word.
After I returned home, I was arrested once more and taken to a brainwashing center for 40 days. Twenty days later, they released me because I was not cooperative, and was, in their understanding, doing more harm than good.
The materials they handed out, the videos they fabricated, the fake interviews they tried to set up, I exposed them all. As a result, they found it impossible to continue with the brainwashing session. And so, they decided to have me sent home early.
Closely Following the Process of Fa-rectification to Save More People
In all the years of persecution and torture I suffered at the hands of the CCP, I have never once succumbed to their demands or cooperated with them. Instead, I have become more steadfast in my determination to cultivate Falun Dafa, and to assist Master in the Fa-rectification process in saving more sentient beings.
Three of my husband's acquaintances came to our house one day. All of them had been in the military and were Party members. I told them about Falun Gong and the persecution, and helped them quit the CCP. One of them said, “Aren’t we lucky to have paid you a visit. If it weren't for you, we would never have known the truth about Falun Gong. We’ll definitely withdraw our CCP membership!”
I returned home in 2010 to visit my aged mother. While I was there I saw my brother-in-law. He was the village accountant by the age of 16 and has been a branch secretary for 30 years. He is a provincial model worker. I had told him about Falun Gong before, but he wouldn’t believe me. Then, he got sick with uremia and had to stay in the hospital for treatment and dialysis. He ended up spending a lot of money for a kidney transplant.
My husband and I had been to see my brother-in-law a few times. Each time, I clarified the facts to him, and told him, “As long as you truly believe in Dafa, Master will cleanse your body.” He gradually started to listen me, and began to recite “Falun Dafa is good, Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good.” Then, he started reading Zhuan Falun. He read it three times in a row. He started saying to anyone who would listen, “There’s nothing wrong with Falun Gong. It’s all about teaching people to be good.”
Master cleansed my brother-in-law's body several times. Initially, he couldn’t walk by himself and used his bicycle as a walking stick. Then, slowly, he started walking unaided, and he soon had a healthy appetite. Now, he is fit and healthy.
My brother-in-law was one of nine people having kidney transplant surgery at that time. A year later, in 2011, six of them have died and two are still in the hospital. He is the only one who has recovered and is doing well. Now, he is beginning to clarify the facts to other people. He has four children, all of whom have withdrawn from the CCP and its affiliated organizations.
A fellow practitioner and I are always telling people about Falun Gong and the persecution, distributing truth-clarification materials and helping people to withdraw from the CCP. So whenever I show up in my hometown, the local government officials will make arrangements to have someone keep a close eye on me.
In May 2012, some people reported me to the authorities. That day, after lunch, I was just getting ready to work in the fields, but was stopped by people sent by the local police station. They entered my house and started searching it. I protested, saying, “You can’t search my home, you don’t have a search warrant.”
The head of the police station then made a phone call to the Domestic Security Division, and a search warrant was brought over. They confiscated all of my Dafa books, truth-clarification materials, several of my new phones and a bank card, claiming they needed to make sure there was no problem with these items. I was taken to the basement of the county police department to be interrogated.
As soon as I entered the basement, an officer pointed to a metal chair and told me to sit on it. When I sat down, I was handcuffed to the chair. They wanted to know where I got my Dafa books and materials from. I told them, “Some people brought them to me from Hong Kong. They didn’t tell me their names. I don’t know them.”
I was cuffed to the chair for six days and nights. They took shifts to interrogate me every four hours. I clarified the facts to everybody in every shift, no matter who they were. I said, “Every political movement, from the Cultural Revolution, to the June 4th Tiananmen Student Massacre, to the persecution of Falun Gong; each time the CCP targets good people. They will be held accountable for what they have done. You should read the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party, then you’ll understand everything, because you have personally experienced many of these atrocities.”
After talking with them, whenever they were free, some of them read the Nine Commentaries, some read Zhuan Falun and some read the other truth-clarification materials. These books and materials were readily available to them because they were all taken from my house to that basement.
I did not back down or give in during the six days I was held, but continually clarified the facts to my interrogators. They got nothing they wanted from me, and ended up admiring me. One of them said, “You’re really something. Sitting there for six days and nights, and you’re still fine. We wouldn’t have been able to withstand that.” I simply replied, “It’s because I practice Falun Gong and have Master here to protect me.”
I was freed from the metal chair that night and taken to the detention center. The following day, my family was allowed to take me home.
Having experienced all of what I have, I am deeply convinced that if I truly and firmly trust Master and Dafa, no evil can touch me.
These experiences are just some of the things that I have experienced and enlightened to. If any practitioner finds there’s anything inappropriate, kindly point it out to me.
