An English girl’s view on Divine Performing Arts

Well, this was not the night I was expecting. I was warned, more or less, in the opening number, in which pretty dancing ladies in traditional dress, buddhist monks, and Chinese warriors danced on stage in front of a video screen. Suddenly, a flying chariot shot down from the sky and the deity within it said, “All come together and live a thousand years!” or something like that, and the people on stage all turned and bowed to the video screen.

 

Oh my God, we had bought tickets to a Chinese religious “revival.” And this wasn’t some run of the mill religion: it was the heavily persecuted Falun Gongcult, for two and a half hours. Holy shades of Xenu, Batman!

To be clear, there was quite a bit of traditional Chinese dance, including a charming “Tibetan bowl dance,” a number in which whirled yellow handkerchiefs (which looked like dandelions) made a field of flowers (supposedly forsythias), and two different fan dances. But these were interspersed with the most heinous vocal performances I’ve seen since… well, I am thinking of Lyric Opera Northwest’s Carmen, but we weren’t really suffering from poor vocals. What we were presented was a culturally painful pastiche of anime style hooped ballgowns, a straight Western singing style, and lyrics… all about Falun Gong. Let me give you an example.

“So vast loomed this world/I knew not who I was/Oh how many lifetimes? The number was a blur.”

“Lost no help in sight/Only distress and pain/How weary, how heavy was this longing heart.”

“Until one day I finally came upon the truth/Until The Way (Da Fa, from Fa Lun Da Fa, the great path of Falun Gong) I had sought pierced the ear like thunder.” (Okay, that’s not as obvious as the one where the woman sang, “Falun Gong, it’ll make you feel better,” but this happens to be the one I had the pen out for.)

I was mortified. I had inadvertently fell into a cache of very sincere religious people singing and dancing their hearts out in support of their faith, and I had paid to be there.

To be fair, the artistry was quite good if you like Chinese dance, and the erhu (Chinese violin) performance was great, but I was crawling in my skin and rather angry with the promoters for hiding the true nature of this performance. I mean, I have no one to blame but myself for not realizing that the Bach “Saint John’s Passion” is basically a really long Bible reading, but the promotional material for this performance said it was a Chinese performing arts presentation, and indicated nowhere that it was a group of American Falun Gongbelievers on a tour of Europe to raise consciousness about their great religion and their persecution by the Chinese government.

That said, I was quite absorbed by the two pieces about how, well, let’s be clear, the Chinese authorities beat up, imprison, and sometimes kill people who practice Falun Gong. The piece set in the prison (with three women prisoner who clearly are being held because of their faith) may have been extremely corny insofar as it proposed that someone could see images of dancing Chinese fairies if they believed hard enough;

The two women who saw their friend joining the angels in heaven (albeit a Chinese/Buddhist heaven): totally outside of my belief system.

 (This was exactly the point made in the other religious dance piece, in which the mother and her daughter started out waving a Falun Gongbanner and were then forcibly separated by soldiers – the rather subtle message being that the world should not be a bystander to this abuse. They pointed this out to us before it started in case we might have missed the extremely heavy-handed symbolism.)

Falun Gong also seemed not so great, based on the dance piece in which the punk and the goth had goddesses and monks shaming them for their bad clothes (but then rewarding them with a religious text in a scene that had me thinking of Joseph Smith and the golden tablets) – is conformity really such a virtue for them?

While the religious element in general had me wishing for a much earlier end to the show, I also take issue with it being too long overall, using video screens in an imagination-inhibiting way, and…

well, the singers just shouldn’t have been there at all, because they were boring and they ruined the flow of the rest of the show. And how could they do a show about Chinese arts and culture that didn’t have even a nod to the Journey to the West? So while at the end we were exhorted to bring our friends and family, I will say to you instead: avoid, avoid, avoid this show, even if you really like Chinese culture (like I do) – it’s like watching a two and a half hour long religious infomercial.

 

 

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Reyes: CNMI, China not colluding against Falun Dafa

PRESS Secretary Charles P. Reyes described as “preposterous” the notion that the CNMI is in collusion with the Chinese government regarding the activities of Falun Dafa practitioners on Saipan, sources from Marianas Variety on March 17.

Reyes said this allegation is in violation of the Covenant.

“We are in compliance with Section 104 of the Covenant, which places foreign affairs under the responsibility of the U.S. government,” he said.

Falun Dafa is banned in China.

Mark B. Hanson, lawyer for the Falun Dafa Association of Saipan, said the Office of the Governor didn’ t response to his Open Government Act request inquiring whether the local and Chinese government had an agreement in dealing with Falun Dafa.

But Reyes said he didn’ t believe that such records exis.

The governor’ s office, he added, is not responsible for the records of every branch or agency of the CNMI government.

“I suggest that the request for such documents be directed to the other government agencies,” Reyes said.

The Falun Dafa Association of Saipan has been conducting its activities on Banzai Cliff in Marpi for many years now but recently the Department of Public Lands ordered the practitioners to stop using the public land in the area for their gatherings.

DPL refused to allow the Falun Dafa members to publicly display their posters and banners, and to hand out booklets and pamphlets in the Banzai Cliff area.

“This is an illegal content restriction,” Hanson said.

Reyes said that any individuals or private groups may use public lands according to CNMI law, rules, or regulations.

However, he added, there’ s no absolute right for any group to use public lands without restriction, regulation, or compensation to DPL.

“The freedom to peaceably assemble is covered under our Constitution and the U.S. Constitution. We are in compliance with this constitutional mandate and the Falun Dafa group often peacefully assembles at the Garapan Street market on Thursdays,”  he said.

Last week, local artist and Falun Dafa practitioner Chen Xiao Ping again applied for a DPL permit, but had not received a response as of press time yesterday.

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Crouching dancer, hidden jargon

At the food court in Vancouver’s Sinclair Centre, a young well-dressed Asian woman was last week handing out glossy leaflets promoting something called the Divine Performing Arts, or DPA.

She spoke softly, explaining to those who took her yellow pamphlets that the show, which is slated to hit a Vancouver stage next month, is about China’s culture and heritage.

The literature promoting the show is full of superlatives like gloriously colorful, exhilarating, elite, masterful choreography, gorgeously costumed, stunning and breathtaking.

But is this really a show about China’s traditional arts?

Look beyond the pamphlets and the website of the Divine Performing Arts Company, and it is quite evident that this spectacle is nothing more than a vehicle to showcase the beliefs of the Falun Gong movement and denigrate the Beijing regime.

Truth be told, Divine Propaganda Arts would be a better moniker for the show that has been panned by some big name critics in New York and Toronto.

Toronto Star theatre critic Susan Walker described the show as “spectacularly tacky” and heavily laden with “Falun Gong messages as to negate any pleasure the dancing and singing might have afforded.”

A scathing New York Times review said dozens of people walked out of the show because of the heavy Falun Gong propaganda underscoring the performances by the lackluster dancers, singers, drummers and flying angels.

To be fair, the show has also received its share of positive reviews as well – most of them collected by volunteers from audience members to divinely end up in The Epoch Times – a Falun Gong-friendly newspaper chain.

So what and who is the Divine Performing Arts?

For those answers one has to look at the Falun Gong movement, which portrays itself as non-hierarchical parallel units when facing problems and solidifies into a considerable structure when propagating the bizarre belief system that is focused on a mystery man called Li Hongzhi.

This self-styled prophet and possessor of unique supernormal abilities has claimed his teachings are at ” . . . a higher level than those of Buddha and Christ . . . .”

Li claims to have been found at age 12 by a “Taoist immortal” who then led him up the mountains to train him in the art of telekinetically implanting the falun, or law wheel, into the abdomens of his followers, where it absorbs and releases power as it spins.

The man – who has been variously described as an anti-Chinese doomsday cult leader, head of a sinister organization and a spiritual master – apparently also can fly, believes that Africa has a two billion-year- old nuclear reactor, and that aliens who look human, but have “a nose made of bone,” invaded Earth to introduce modern technology.

Chinese media have a different version of Li, portraying him as an unexceptional student with a flair for the trumpet who held jobs as a guesthouse attendant and a grain store clerk, who founded the Falun Gong movement before taking off to the United States, where he is reportedly somewhere in New York.

Take what you want from this man’s teachings, which are enshrined in the Falun Gong bible called Zhuan Falun, but the international Falun Gong movement now claims 100 million followers worldwide after China outlawed the group and cracked down on its members.

Today, this army of adherents, which is mainly ethnically Chinese, is quick to criticize China for using “fronts” to discredit the Falun Gong movement, while the group itself uses the same two-faced technique.

In the Falun Gong diaspora, followers run printing presses, newspapers, websites, TV stations and stage productions to highlight communist China’s alleged repression of their movement.

While maintaining a public distance, these businesses all acknowledge by word and deed a special relationship with the Falun Gong movement.

Readers of the Asian Pacific Post newspaper in Vancouver know this all too well. The award-winning paper was held hostage by Epoch Press, which is operated by Falun Gong followers, because the followers did not like the “balanced approach” to a story about the Divine Performing Arts show. (See ‘Hypocrisy in slow motion’ on http://www.asianpacificpost.com)

Maria Chang of the University of Nevada, who wrote a book about the Falun Gong, said the Falun Gong movement treats organizations it has created as front components to influence public opinion through propaganda campaigns.

Describing such strategies as counterproductive in democratic societies, Chang in a published interview said: “Being secretive and deceptive will just play into the image they’re a kooky group with something to hide.”

The Falun Gong movement also claims to be apolitical, which is as believable as having a spinning wheel in your tummy.

Much of their actions, from morbid street skits to silent demonstrations to noisy parades, are aimed at drawing attention to their plight and creating agitation against Beijing.

Similarly, the Divine Performing Arts show is nothing more than another theatre of the absurd in Falun Gong’s on-going proxy war against China.

It’s just crouching dancer, hidden jargon.

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Falun Gong’s influence ebbs away after 10 years

Ten years after China banned the Falun Gong, traumatic memories left by the illegal cult still linger in the minds of former practitioners and their relatives, as the self-proclaimed spiritual movement continues to wage a battle against China’s presence, especially in Western countries.

Thousands of supporters descended on Washington in yellow shirts to offer public speeches, prayers and vigils yesterday, ahead of the anniversary of Chinese government’s ban, which took place July 20, 1999. Falun Gong practitioners also gathered at a vigil in front of China’s Consulate General in San Francisco, protesting against the crackdown.

In support of them, 62 members of the US Congress signed a letter to President Barack Obama denouncing the so-called persecution against Falun Gong practitioners.

In contrast to the clamor it has caused abroad, the organization’s influence is almost indiscernible in China.

A director of kaiwind.com – a non-governmental website revealing facts about Falun Gong – who only gave his surname as Yang, told the Global Times yesterday that 98 percent of nearly 2 million practitioners of Falun Gong in China had extricated themselves from the spiritual control of the cult before the ban.

“The government believes that most practitioners were induced to be victims of the cult, and it tried every means to persuade and help them, and protect their human rights,” Yang told the Global Times.

Li Anping, deputy general secretary of the China Anti-cult Association, echoed Yang’s sentiments and noted that the campaign against Falun Gong has succeeded.

“As people have realized the true essence of the cult, it’s impossible for them to organize a massive activity, even a gathering of more than 50 people is very tough,” Li said.

Falun Gong, founded in 1992, was categorized as an illegal cult 10 years ago. Its founder, Li Hongzhi, who now lives in New York, has been accused of fabricating cultish heresies to exercise extreme spiritual control over his followers.

Several hundred practitioners committed suicide, most of whom set fire to themselves. And more than 30 innocent people were killed by Falun Gong fanatics, according to statistics released by the government. The practitioners also refused to take medicine or see a doctor when they were sick, a practice dictated by their master, Li Hongzhi, according to information on kaiwind.com.

Even though its influence has ebbed away in China, the organization is still using a number of methods to maintain its presence.

Wang Lu, 23, a college student in Hong Kong, complained to the Global Times that she always receives publicity e-mails and phone calls from Falun Gong members. The letters, Wang said, criticize the leadership of China and publicize the group’s cause endlessly.

“I won’t listen to them,” Wang said. “They are such a nuisance, calling me from time to time to preach their hatred.”

A media empire, including a pro-Falun Gong television network, New Tang Dynasty, broadcasts worldwide, and a newspaper, The Epoch Times, publishes in 17 languages to preach the group’s beliefs.

The organization uses other methods to propagandize their political ambitions, such as printing anti-Chinese Communist Party doggerels.

“I was given a 1-yuan note today for change and later found Falun Gong propaganda on it,” a student in Beijing surnamed Shi said yesterday.

A practitioner surnamed Zheng, from a county of Heilongjiang, still practices Falun Gong secretly. His nephew in Beijing told the Global Times on condition of anonymity that he has avoided him all these years since his behavior became abnormal after practicing Falun Gong.

“It seems that he has been brainwashed, and each time we met with him he accused us of being not clear-headed,” Zheng said. “I’m afraid he’ll kill us one day since he thought that we were not qualified to live in the world if we didn’t practice Falun Gong.”

Margaret Thaler Singer, former president of the American Psychological Association, deemed that Falun Gong meets the criteria of being a cult by American or world standards.

“The leader has people, instead of worshiping God or abstract principles, worshiping him,” she told kaiwind.com.

But Falun Gong is often considered a tool of anti-China propaganda, which brings a lot of money to the organization, Li Anping said.

In the fall of 2004, the US Congress funded Li Hongzhi and his followers to spread the so-called “Falun Gong doctrine” across the Chinese mainland by using a US broadcast network, according to a 2006 article that ran in Hong Kong-based Bauhinia Magazine. In 2005, funds from the US soared again. The United States Agency for International Development alone had granted $20 million to Falun Gong.

However, Yang argued that Falun Gong has actually been marginalized now in the West, with more and more people realizing its true essence.

“Falun Gong is going downhill in the West, that’s why their members are desperately fighting for attention,” Yang said.

Falun Gong’s relentless anti-government acts, regardless of occasion and timing, have disgusted many people.

During the Sichuan earthquake last year, Chinese all around New York and the world donated to disaster relief, while Falun Gong didn’t halt its gatherings, carrying large banners and playing drums on streets in to publicize their cause, while other Chinese communities were busy collecting donations for the victims in the quake.

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/China/200907/t95956.htm

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Falun Gong ruins my family

I’m Li Guanglian, 38 years old, primary school teacher in Yishui County, Shandong Province. I gave up Falun Gong six years ago, as for the miserable experience of practicing Falun Gong; I don’t want to recall it all these years. Finding so many practitioners without any knowledge about the truth and sticking to the old road I was on in the past, however, I feel uneasy and decide not to sit there doing nothing at all. With the help of Kaiwind.com, I want to tell those still being obsessed by Falun Gong the lessons I had learned and the stories on how Falun Gong cult ruined my family so as to give a warning to all practitioners.

Before I started to practice Falun Gong, I used to have a happy family. Both my husband and I had a good job. Although the family income was not very high, yet we lived a happy life, with a hardworking and caring husband and a lovely daughter, my family was in harmony, joy, and happiness.

Accordingly, after I gave birth to my daughter, I felt so carefree and started to gain weight.

But, everything changed gradually after I started to practice Falun Gong, and I destroyed my family due to being obsessed with the cult.

Back in 1998, since I’d always wanted to be beautiful, I tried all means to lose weight, but the results were unsatisfactory. Just at that time, one of my neighbors told me: “To practice Falun Gong can not only help you to lose weight, but also make you more beautiful and young forever.” So I decided to give it a try and started to learn the exercises of Falun Gong from several fellow practitioners. According to the rules of Falun Gong, I got up early in the morning and stayed up late in the evening to practice for two hours everyday. Several months later, I really lost some weight. Then my fellow practitioners told me that if I wanted to keep it that way, I’d got to read Zhuan Falun by Master Li. So I started to “study Fa” besides doing exercises.

I read Zhuan Falun by Li Hongzhi and it said: “After our Falun Dafa students cultivate a while the way they look changes a lot. Their skin becomes delicate and fair, it glows with health, which is all common. You truly do a dual practice of nature and longevity you’ll naturally get that, and I can guarantee you won’t need to do facials.” I wanted to be more beautiful and kept that way, so I started to grow admiration toward Li Hongzhi, for I believed that Falun Gong he founded was just amazing. Gradually, I lost the normal thinking pattern as an ordinary human being; as an intellectual, I didn’t know that my losing weight was actually the result of physical exercises. Anyway, I started to believe in Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong against all logical thinking.

Before I realized it, I’ve read most books of Li Hongzhi, Zhuan Falun, Explaining the Content of Falun Dafa, Falun Buddhism on Reaching Consummation, and Fa Teaching in Singapore, etc., finding that some of its theories including “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance,” “not to participate in political affairs,” “to look inward for the cause within when things happen” match with my own principles and life philosophy. I believed that to practice Falun Gong could not only make me more beautiful but also improve my character, and it was worth doing. From then on, I started to give top priority to the practicing of Falun Gong in my life, spending all my spare time in Fa study and in practicing. As a result, I didn’t treat my students so seriously as I had been before, I was no longer be so patient with my girl. At the sight of a toddler crying for mother, I would feel so uneasy and vexed.

At the same time, I gradually felt that I was not in line with the environment of “ordinary people.” Whenever I saw my colleagues worked actively and hard, I would discard them for “being involved in vanity fair” and for being so vulgar. As for my husband, all he did was working, taking care of daughter, doing household chores, so I felt he was so pathetic for being an “ordinary man.” For Li Hongzhi once said that: “The human beings are those fall downwards from the universe, while the Earth is but the garbage dump … the entire process of cultivation is to continuously get rid of the attachments of human beings.” Later on, my family that used to be so warm to me gradually became an obstacle on my way of cultivation. One day, my daughter had a hyperpyrexia, in order to practice as usual, I did nothing but to give her some medicine for adults. Two days later when my husband went back, our daughter became dazed. My husband was so angry that he criticized me: “The kid is so ill and how can you still study Fa and practice it, are you the mother of this girl?” At these words, I argued confidently: “A practitioner will benefit the entire family, our girl will be just fine!” Ever since, our quarrels have never stopped and my husband proposed divorce several times out of anger.

Then the government announced that Falun Gong was banned as a cult, and at that time, with the regulation of the law and the attitude of my families, I should have wakened up. But I didn’t see through the nature and danger of Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong, holding that the order of banning was unfair to both Master Li and Falun Gong. I thought to myself: how could it be wrong to “improve one’s health” and to “be a better person”? As a result, I was on the illegal road and committed crimes. Being encouraged by the lies of Li Hongzhi that “those practicing at home will get evil enlightenment,” while “those stepping out of the home are great,” I had been to Beijing for three times leaving my 2-year-old daughter at home.

Due to my performance, I was appointed as the Falun Gong counselor in my county. But it was a dilemma for me with the disciplinary restriction of my school and the emotional attachment to my family. After several days of hesitation, I went back to work at school. Taking into consideration of the fact that my daughter was still very young, the school leaders let me submit a written promise on not practicing Falun Gong anymore in future. But I didn’t change my mind to return the kindness of school leaders; on the contrary, I started to work for Falun Gong in secret.

Since then, when it was getting dark, I would go out to distribute Falun Gong materials and communicate with other fellow practitioners in the name of taking the kid out to play around. I did all these very carefully, but still, my husband found about the truth. In order to stop me, he sent the kid to his parents while he managed to go back home early everyday to keep me company. Being house arrested, I had another plan of doing all these at work. Finally, the school was going to send me to the Study Group, at the hearing of which, I ran away from home on that very night and started my four-year journey of being a professional Falun Gong practitioner.

In order to gain “Consummation” advocated by Falun Gong, I really did what Li Hongzhi taught us to do, “to bear what no ordinary human being can bear.” But in real life, what I really got is injuries and hurts instead of so-called “Consummation.”

When I was on the run, the only support I got was from the fellow practitioners, and I was no longer a respectable teacher in both appearances and behaviors. Although I always comforted myself: “I’m the sacred Dafa disciple,” yet the real life full of hardships of living in the open had turned me into a beggar. When life was hard, I couldn’t stop missing my girl. In order to have a look at her, I sneaked back home at night several times, taking a look at her outside the window of her bedroom. One day at the end of 2000, the only I wanted to do was to give her a hug and so I opened the door and stole away the girl still soundly asleep. With her around, I started to know what the word “hardship” really meant. Back then, she had fresh fruits everyday at home; but during two months with me, I could hardly get enough food for her. I remember it clearly till now that she once took quiet a while eating half an apple picked up from garbage can and really enjoyed it very much, I felt so painful at the sight: my child, a princess loved by all in a family, now became a little beggar because of my practicing Falun Gong! I used to double on what benefits Falun Gong really brought to me. But then I recalled what Li Hongzhi said: “Gong cultivation has a way, the heart is the path, Dafa has no bounds, hardship serves as the ferry.” So I didn’t give it up. In a cold winter, I couldn’t afford a hotel room and had to take my daughter to a pile of corn stalk at night. Both of us were frozen. If it were not a kind old man who managed to warm us up, it’s probable that we would end up like Liu Chunling and her daughter, reaching “Consummation” in the paradise created by Li Hongzhi. But this didn’t make me change my mind either

I stole my baby, which was the last straw breaking the back of my exhausted husband. At the news that he fell ill, I felt a little uneasy and went back home at midnight with our daughter. At the sight of us, my weak husband knelt down in front of me, begging me to give up Falun Gong. But at the thought of the teachings by Li Hongzhi that “you won’t cultivate if you don’t give up emotions … to give up fame, interest, and emotion is the only way to reach Consummation and to go up to heaven,” I told my husband resolutely: “I’d rather lose everything than giving up Falun Gong.”

Being homeless and wandering from place to place, home became nothing for me, especially being controlled by the spirit advocated by Li Hongzhi, I believed that: “Who are your real relatives? Nobody when you close your eyes … How many parents have you had in so many lives? No one is able to count them.” Just like that, I have been full-time practitioners for three years. At that time, I heard that, in order to take care of our young daughter, my husband had to take the responsibilities as both a mother and a father. Besides, he had to work to support the family and his weight reduced quickly from 90kg to 65kg. As a wife, I didn’t feel guilty for that but complacent for being able to “pass the test of emotions.” I even showed it off to others: “When I finally make it, my husband must be the one benefiting the most from it.” Just like that, I deserted, dragged, and hurt my husband, who had to bear all the pressures. He was exhausted and couldn’t stand the torture brought by me, an obsessed Falun Gong practitioner. Finally, on the third year I got away from home, he made up his mind to give me up, to give up the wife that he used to love so much. So that’s the benefit Li Hongzhi promised to his loyal followers, a broken marriage and a broken family.

Many others “benefited” from my cultivation too, especially my parents and parents-in-law, among which the one “benefiting” the most is my mother, who missed her only daughter so much that she had an acute cerebral haemorrhage and been bed-ridden ever since, being this close to death at one time.

Such an experience of cultivation that I find unbearable to recall! Going through all these, I conclude that what’s behind the propagation of “one practitioner benefiting the entire family” advocated by Li Hongzhi is actually the real scenes of frightened and tortured families and even a broken marriage, a broken family.

Thank the Communist Party and the government for not giving me up so that I had a chance to start all over again and to have a new family. But I have paid such a big price for the happy life today. Look what I have got in return for what I have sacrificed so much! Brothers and sisters, if you are still obsessed with Falun Gong, wake up right now! What Li Hongzhi said that “one practitioner will benefit the entire family” is a poisonous sword; don’t let it hurt our relatives again!

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Words/200907/t96007.htm

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Li Hongzhi destroys my family completely

I’m Liang Xuelin, female, 60 years old, live on Dongmen Street, Lincheng Town, Huitong County, Hunan Province, retired from Huitong County Film Corporation. In November 1998, I started to practice Falun Gong for it would help me to get rid of illness and to be healthy as they claimed. In December 2000, I was sent to the labor camp for one year on the charge of engaging in illegal activities and committing crimes in Beijing. On June 8, 2003, I engaged in illegal activities and committed crimes once again but managed to run away and had stayed away from my hometown for more than one year, becoming a professional Falun Gong practitioner.

The seven-year experience is a nightmare for me, for I have done a lot of illegal and immoral things harmful to the country, to my family, and to me as well. I used to have a happy family, but now I’ve got nothing but a broken marriage and a broken family. And the root of all these is because I believed in the evil theories of Li Hongzhi. Now I hate Li Hongzhi so much, I hate Falun Gong so much!

– Li Hongzhi says we should “sever emotions,” so I gave up all true love and emotions in human world in order to make my cultivation go up to a higher level.

In his Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi said: “People just live for emotion. The affection among family members, the love between a man and woman, love for parents, feelings, friendships, doing things for friendship’s sake – no matter where you go you can’t get out of emotion. You want to do something, you don’t want to do something, you’re happy, you’re unhappy, you love something, you hate something – everything in society comes completely from emotion. If you don’t sever emotion, you won’t be able to cultivate.” In his Essentials for Further Advancement, Li Hongzhi said: “Those who are attached to affection for family will definitely be burned, entangled, and tormented by it. Pulled by the threads of affection and plagued by them throughout their lives, they will find it too late to regret at the end of their lives.”

These evil theories of Li Hongzhi made me give up all the good things in the world at that time, such as emotions, friendship, and love among relatives. I didn’t fulfill my duty as a wife to take care of my critically ill husband when he was hospitalized, taking his diseases as the way to “remove karma” instead. In the end, my husband was so weak that he fell to the ground from the bed and then died of cerebral haemorrhage.

Before I started to practice Falun Gong, we used to be such a happy couple and live such a happy life. My husband was the chief of a bureau and we loved each other very much. We have two sons and everyone envied us. After I started to practice Falun Gong, during the first few years, my husband cared about me very much. He talked to me about the danger of Falun Gong even if he was critically ill. But at that time, I just didn’t want to listen to him. In remembering his deep love, I regret so much right now and I will never forgive myself. In a report submitted to authority on September 15, 2001, my husband wrote: “… I had cerebral haemorrhage and after I left hospital in 1999, I’ve got to take medicines and my health status is very bad. Meanwhile, Liang Xuelin, my wife, suffers high blood pressure too, making me very much depressed with a high mental pressure …” From this short paragraph, I can see that my husband suffered a deteriorating health and a painful life at the same time, but I can also see his love and caring for me.

Li Hongzhi is such a devil asking me to “sever emotion” and to give up all feelings and emotions in the world, that’s why I left my sick husband and our love behind to “propagate Dafa” day and night for Li Hongzhi, to “clarify truth” for Falun Gong. Now I want to tell the entire world: the theory of “severing emotion” advocated by Li Hongzhi killed my husband and I want Li Hongzhi to pay for this!

– Li Hongzhi’s evil theory of “Consummation” made me abandon my happy life and two sons.

In his Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi said: “The ultimate goal of cultivating is to attain the Dao and reach spiritual Perfection…. Although the part that we teach among ordinary people isn’t a religion, the goal of cultivation is the same: it is to achieve Unlocking, or Enlightenment, and to succeed in cultivation and achieve Perfection. That’s the goal.”

In order to gain “Consummation,” I went out to “propagate Dafa” everyday, coming back home very late or staying outside all night sometimes. In order to gain “Consummation,” I devoted wholehearted to Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong, while ignoring totally my two underage sons. For Li Hongzhi said that, when cultivators reached “Consummation,” their relatives would also benefit from it.

In his Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi also said: “A large number of students have now achieved or are about to achieve Consummation. How solemn it is for a human being to achieve Consummation! Nothing in this world could be more wonderful, glorious, or magnificent.”

Knowing that some of my fellow practitioners have gained “Consummation,” but I didn’t have any progress at all, I felt so anxious at that time. So I speeded up the pace of “cultivation” and “advanced cultivation.” In my mind, I would like to pay any price in order to reach “Consummation” earlier, including my life. My fellow practitioners and I spend our own money to work for Falun Gong; without anyone looking after them, both of my sons stepped onto the road of breaking laws and committing crimes.

When my husband had cerebral haemorrhage in 1999, my elder son was 17 years old while the younger 7; when my husband died in 2002, the elder son was 20, still too young to know anything better; while the younger one was only 10, a critical moment of growing both physically and mentally, requiring more cares from mother in life. But at that time, I was fooled by Li Hongzhi, and the only thing in my mind was to gain “Consummation,” discarding the emotions between husband and wife, between mother and son, as well as all other emotions and feelings in the world. I can still recall that, before I started to practice Falun Gong cult, both my boys were so smart and lovely, both were top students in their classes. But since I became obsessed with Falun Gong and didn’t fulfill my duties as a mother, being abetted by bad guys, my two boys started to take drugs one after another. In short of money to get drug, my elder son engaged in a robbery and was sentenced to 17-year imprisonment and still serves his term right now. My younger son was almost dead due to drug overdose and was sent to the re-education station of juvenile delinquency and is still there till this day.

– I want to tell the entire world: the evil theories of Li Hongzhi and his Falun Gong destroyed my family and ruined my two promising sons.

Li Hongzhi coerced and threatened me into this; I just couldn’t get away from it and got increasingly deeply involved. As early as in January 2002, during my stay in the labor camp, through psychological therapy and teachings on the dangers of cult by teachers, I had an initial recognition on the dangers of Falun Gong and promised that I would give up practicing Falun Gong. But shortly after I was released and back home, Li Hongzhi said: “Both the body and soul of those changing their mind will be gone and be destroyed completely.” Being threatened by Li Hongzhi, since both my family and I had already done so much for Dafa, it would be such a waste if I stopped and ended up with “both body and soul being gone and being destroyed completely.” So I started to do those illegal things together with my fellow practitioners once again, causing troubles in neighborhood areas and being caught several times. The authority had always helped and educated me kindly and patiently, and I had wanted to get rid of Falun Gong for several times. But I was so afraid that Li Hongzhi might revenge on me. Li Hongzhi said that all causing troubles to Dafa are “demons.” In his Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi said: “In the beginning stage I took care of many demons like that…we have another ability that used to be called the Great Soul-Catching Method, and that ability is even more powerful. It can pull out a person’s whole master soul, and instantly that person won’t be able to move.” At the thought of the miserable “ending,” I was so afraid that both my families and I would get our souls removed by Li Hongzhi. I had no other choice but to continuously work for Li Hongzhi.

In June 2002, shortly after the funeral of my husband, I left home to “propagate Dafa” and to “clarify truth,” starting to revenge on the society madly. In order to work for Falun Gong, I’d been a professional practitioner for more than one year, living a miserable life without sufficient food, safe place to stay, and hiding all the time. What’s more pathetic was that, even if I made a small amount of money by doing part-time jobs, the first thing I thought was not to buy new clothes for the younger son, for I hadn’t bought anything for him for more than seven years, but to spend it on the materials propagandizing Falun Gong. For more than seven years, being cheated by the evil theories of Li Hongzhi on “going up to a higher level and reaching Consummation by giving up all attachments of ordinary people,” I’d always “sung the praises” and “clarified on the wrongs done to” Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong organization at the risk of breaking Chinese laws. To work for Falun Gong, our practitioners got nothing in turn and had to pay the bills by ourselves, some lost everything they had and even died for Li Hongzhi.

For so many years, Chinese government has never given it up on us Falun Gong practitioners who have done so many damages to this country. Instead, the government takes care of us by adopting the policies of “educating, saving, and transforming.” In October 2007, I was awarded the honor of “Provincial Active Prisoners on Reform Program,” which is the highest and the best “spiritual award” for me since I took a wrong road of Falun Gong a decade ago.

As for my family, my husband has gone forever, the elder son serves his term of imprisonment, and the younger one is at the reeducation station. The more I think about these, the sadder I feel, and I cry a lot. Every time I visit my two sons, I either cry with my elder son or with my younger son. Getting back home, I’m the only one left and feel so lonely. I miss my husband and my boys, at the thought of them; I just can’t stop my tears from running down. At the thought of Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong, I’ll grind my teeth, and the only thing I want to do is to drink the blood of Li Hongzhi and eat his flesh!

Today, I condemn Li Hongzhi with my miserable experience. And I want to tell the world loudly: Li Hongzhi is a swindler, Falun Gong is a cult!

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Words/200907/t95792.htm

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An American citizen punished by law in China

Li Xiangchun, also named Chuck Lee in the U.S., an American PhD, was actually born in February 1965 at Nanyang Town, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province of China. He worked in Wuxi City of his home province since college graduation in 1987. It was not until September 1991 that he went to America for a master’s degree on his own expense. There he was granted a PhD degree and was admitted to American citizenship in 2002. It was in 1997 that Li began to practice Falun Gong. In October 2002, he boarded a plane from San Francisco to Shanghai, carrying with him an illegal scheme to cut in the local CATV network of Yangzhou, a city in Jiangsu Province, to put on some Falun Gong programs. However, he was spotted by the local police when he was to carry out his plan and later, managed to flee. When he attempted again to infiltrate into China on January 22, 2003, he got arrested right on his arrival in Guangzhou. On March 21 the same year, he was sentenced to three years in jail, plus banishment for his sabotage on broadcasting and television infrastructure, which took effect from May 12 in Nanjing Prison. Three years later, that was January 21, 2006, on the very day he was released, he was expelled out of the country.

Mr. Li was arrested on his arrival at Baiyun Airport in Guangzhou on January 22, 2003 and put in prison in Yangzhou. However, he complained to American diplomats that he was arrested just because he was blacklisted as a disciple of Falun Gong. Falun Gong mouthpiece Minghui took this lame argument as a basis to slander the Chinese government; and it called on wide attention and even public signature to manage an immediate rescue. The Chinese government must have been out of its mind – if what Li and the Minghui Net said were true, it is well known this would undoubtedly invite accusations of human rights infringements. The truth, however, is that it’s the Falun Gong organization who is out of mind, to believe what Li has committed in China could be covered up with lies. On October 22, 2002, at about one o’clock in the morning, Li was actually caught red-handed on his way to carry out his illegal scheme; the tools he carried clearly told the police what he was up to: complete sets of devices to send and cut off closed-circuit CATV programs, and scissors and knives of all kinds used for cutting and connecting wires. He somehow managed to escape from the police station at about 5 o’clock in the morning and fled back to America. But discontent with the outcome of this attempt, he felt compelled to venture once more, only to be caught before he could get the chance. Does he really believe, in China, American citizens could go beyond the laws?

On March 21, 2003, Yangzhou People’s Court held a session to hear the case of Li. The first instance, viewed by Li’s relatives and US consular officials as well, made a verdict of three years in jail plus banishment for the sabotage of broadcasting and television apparatus. On May 12, four days after his appeal was rejected, he was transferred to Nanjing Prison, which gave a clear manifestation of the Chinese government’s serious attitude about the law and its enforcement. Obviously the verdict is soundly based: otherwise the US embassy and media would not remain silent, given the fact that the US consulate has been paying close attention to this case, contacting Li as many as 24 times in the process by personal meetings and telephone conversations. Till now, not a word is uttered on the part of US embassy to claim the crime Li has committed as something of a framing by the Chinese government, nor has it said the verdict is wrongly made, which explicitly means it has recognized the justice of this court decision. People may still remember that years ago, when an American youth was lashed by the hip for his illegal graffito in Singapore, the American side has done everything possible to show their disapproval. As if diplomatic protest was not enough, the media even took and publicized photos of the lashed hip to condemn Singapore for its “disrespect of hips.” This time, however, what PhD Li has committed is so evidently illegal that there is no room at all for argument, thus the western media have to remain silent, leaving the Falun Gong cult to kick and shout alone.

But not everyone is willing to accept justice. Fu Yongqing, Li’s fiancee, organized a touring team of three or four people to complain. On a complaint conference held for Falun Gong disciples, she whined in tears that there were no human rights or justice in China and that it was unreasonable for Chinese government to imprison her fiance. Her words reminded people of the example of Zhang Cuiying, an Australian citizen who similarly and deliberately ignored the truth of her illegal infiltration of country border and accused Chinese government of “illegal imprisoning.” When a US journalist asked Fu Yongqing, why people heard that the reason of her fiance’s imprisonment was his unlawful attempt to damage the operation of television network, she was struck by the question, unable to find any excuse. It took her quite a while before she came up with the argument that her fiance was not smart or educated enough to carry out a cut-in of television programs. And he was actually caught for his breach of city curfew, which deserves nothing like a three year term. Whoever remembers the three principles that Falun Gong preaches (namely “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance”) would now come to understand what the principle of “Truthfulness” is really about: It means “be truly distorting.” It’s distorting since no city in China has ever had a curfew in recent years, including the serene city of Yangzhou. It was ridiculous of Fu’s lies, and of all the lies that Li Hongzhi has taught his disciples to tell about China, like repression, sexual abused torture, city curfew, or whatever could disgrace China’s reputation. As if he wanted the western world to believe that China was still living in the Middle Ages. Put the curfew issue aside, Fu’s words at least proved that her fiance was arrested on the street deep in the night, making it even less credible that he was innocent. No wonder that not a single word of this conversation has been quoted this time by Minghui.

However, when the verdict was made at the court, Mr. Li surprised all people present with a proud statement of his crime: “On October 5 last year, I came to Wuxi from America. Beside my business plan, I also prepared a trip to Yangzhou, to reveal through the circuit television to the local public how the Falun Gong followers were persecuted on the mainland. I spent three days, from October 10 to 13, inspecting the Yangzhou CATV network. After selecting five sites for this operation, I went back to Wuxi to assemble five sets of devices for it. On the night of October 21, right before my scheduled departure for America the next morning, I came to Yangzhou to do my job. Since too many people were around the first site, I went on to the second, but was interrogated by two policemen because of my roaming at 1 o’clock in the night without an ID card. I was brought to the police station for investigation, but I escaped around 5 o’clock a.m. in the morning.” Even more surprisingly, he continued to declare that, “My activity was not violating laws since it served for disseminating the ‘Dafa’.” All the audience, including the US consular officials, was stunned by his words.

Knowledgeable as he was, PhD Li somehow accused the Chinese government of imprisoning him illegally after he admitted his aim of cutting off authorized CATV programs to broadcast his own with the purchased devices. What logic! Does he really assume that he were the one to make and interpret laws? Or does he believe he could challenge the laws with his “supernatural power” as a Falun Gong disciple and his privilege as a foreign citizen?

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Facts/200907/t95603.htm

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Wang Jindong: Blindness, death and rebirth (Excerpt)

My name is Wang Jindong, 51 years old, used to be a Falun Gong obsessed follower. I lived in Kaifeng City and now I am serving a sentence in Zhengzhou Prison, Henan Province. Recalling the miserable years of being obsessed by Falun Gong, recollecting the idiotic “1.23” self-burning incident and the heart-warming and patient instruction and help I received from the government and all circles of society, surveying my process of waking up after the incident, I realize all these events have witnessed my course of being blind, surviving the death and heading for a new life.

The “1.23” Self-immolation Incident

One day in October 2000, I talked to Liu Yunfang, a fellow practitioner, and expressed my decision to go to Tiananmen Square and conduct self-burning to “protect the Fa.” My idea coincided with that of another disciple Hao Huijun who was familiar with Liu. At the end of October, Liu Yunfang asked me to buy two train tickets of sleeper to Beijing. When we arrived in Beijing, Chen Guo, the daughter of Hao Huijun, received us at the gate of the Central Conservatory of Music. Later, Liu Yunfang and I walked around on Tiananmen Square to locate the spots where we would carry out the plan. After that we found a paint store and bought gasoline needed for self-immolation. A few days later, we went back to our hometown. Around January 6, 2001, Liu Yunfang gave me a paper of hand-written “lection” from the Master, it read to the effect that: a Buddha can sacrifice all, including his life, to defend the universe where he lives and the people in it. The lection reinforced my resolution to advocate and protect “Dafa” by immolating my life. After January 8, Hao Huijun proceeded to talk with Liu Yunfang frequently about the self-immolation on Tiananmen Square, saying her daughter Chen Guo would also take part in. On January 10, Liu Yunfang asked me to buy four train tickets to Beijing at the expense of Hao Huijun and said Liu Baorong, another disciple, would also join us. The Next day, I came to Liu Chunling and asked her to buy the tickets, she agreed; and told me she had already heard about the self-immolation and wanted to join in.

On January 16, at the railway station of Kaifeng, I saw all the disciples heading for Beijing: Xue Hongjun, Hao Huijun, Liu Chunling and her daughter Liu Siying. When we arrived in Beijing, we went to the Central Conservatory of Music by bus where we met Chen Guo who later took us to a disciple’s home. Then Xiao Li, a youth disciple, led us to a courtyard selected before in Mentougou District where we met another disciple named Liu Xiuqin from Beijing that evening.

The next morning, Liu Yunfang and I called Liu Xiuqin to arrange another meeting, Liu Xiuqin agreed at once. Then we went to Liulichang Antiques Street by subway, where we bought a 40-metre-long plastic bag to contain gasoline (actually the moisture proof bag for mounting calligraphy and picture). At 7 o’clock that evening, we met Liu Xiuqin at her home as planed, and then we told her our scheme of self-immolation. Being surprised and admiring us a lot, she expressed her willingness to help us in fulfilling the plan and told us we could fill the gasoline at her home. On the morning of January 22, Liu Yunfang and I bought four 10-litre plastic barrels in a nearby grocery and then filled the barrels with gasoline in a gas station. We separated the gasoline at Liu Xiuqin’s balcony and wrapped the barrels with three-layer plastic to prevent exuding.

On January 23, the day before Spring Festival, we seven disciples woke up early and headed directly for Liu Xiuqin’s home after breakfast. Liu Xiuqin warned us the gasoline had exuded and was quite smelly. So I went to Liulichang again to buy bags to prevent gasoline from exuding. It was almost 1 p.m. when I came back.

The others were impatient of waiting for me so they decided to use soft-drink bottles instead. Liu Xiuqin bought a dozen bottles of soft drink downstairs, emptied them, and filled with gasoline. Liu Yunfang and I hang the bottles over neck by ropes, fixed them with adhesive tape under our armpits, then put on the sweaters and wadded jackets. Each of us took a single-edged blade and a lighter with us prepared by Hao Huijun, and left all the money we had and promised to take action respectively around 2:30 p.m. We went direct to Tiananmen Square by two taxis: Hao Huijun, Che Guo, Liu Chunling and Liu Siying were in one, Liu Yunfang, Liu Baorong and I were in another. The taxis stopped at the south of the Great Hall of People, we got off and walked slowly to the Square.

At about 2:30 p.m., I cut the bottle open with the blade prepared before, and then took out the lighter. At this moment, some policemen nearby hurried towards me. When they were ten steps away from me, I struck the lighter. The fire devoured me instantaneously; I had no time for a cross-legged sit, so I sat on one leg instead. Being suffocated by the fire, I heard nothing but the whirr of the flame, but I thought my mission was about to be fulfilled. At that time, the policemen used something to put out the fire on me; I refused, twice. However, some other policemen managed to put out the fire with extinguishers. Greatly disappointed, I stood up and shouted, “Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance is the law of the universe, the Fa deserves to be respected by all people in the world. The Master is the major Buddha in the universe!”

Later, we were carried onto a police van and driven to Jishuitan Hospital in no time. At the hospital, I lay on an active bed in the emergency room, after a while, Chen Guo, Liu Siying and Hao Huijun had also been pushed into the room on beds. We all lay silently.

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Words/200907/t95505.htm

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Review: Whole story of Falun Gong diehards sabotaging CATV network to broadcast illegal programs

At about 19:00 on March 5, 2002, many families in Changchun City, Jilin Province were watching CCTV news program as usual. At 19:19, to their surprise, the signal was interrupted, and after a few seconds, the programs of the cult Falun Gong appeared dimly on the TV…

The evil broke the silent and peaceful night. The audience called the 110 Police Service… It didn’t take long for the police to find out that it was a malignant crime made by Falun Gong practitioners who had been instigated, organized and directly instructed by Falun Gong. After investigation, the police found that more than ten Falun Gong diehards were involved in the crime. And they were Zhou Runjun (alias as Aunt Zhou), Liu Chengjun (alias as Tian Li), Liang Zhenxing (alias as Xiao Zheng), Liu Weiming (alias as Xiao Wen) and some others.

They confessed the plot that they invaded CATV network and preached the cult illegally was hatched at Li Hongzhi’s indication and directed by Falun Gong organizations outside China. In January 2002, two Falun Gong diehards, 52-year-old Zhou Runjun and the other Liang Zhenxing who had learnt from Minghui how to insert illegal programs into CATV network, schemed to use TV transmission lines to go in for their activities of cult agitprop. And they asked help from the local Falun Gong diehards Liu Chengjun and Liu Weiming, so they prepared for it together on the stick.

Liu Weiming was working in an electronic company in Changchun, and he was very familiar with the CATV transmitting technology, so he played the role of engineer for the other practitioners. And Liang Zhenxing was the fund provider, spending more than 10,000 Yuan buying the equipments to play the Falun Gong disks. Then, Zhou Runjun and Liang Zhenxing gathered and collected more than a dozen Falun Gong diehards to join the team, including Liu Chengjun, Yun Qingbin, Lei Ming, Zhao Jian and Zhang Wen.

In the following two months, Zhou Runjun and other Falun Gong members began their illegal activities with various plots hatched at their rendezvous, a room rented in Kuancheng District of Changchun City. Liu Weiming led the technical training for plugging Falun Gong program disks; Liang Zhenxing was responsible for gathering hands and funds; Zhou Runjun acted as “logistics minister” – cooking for them; Liu Chengjun was the manager to allocate the members. After the training, most members were able to broadcast Falun Gong disks on the CATV network, and then they bought the tools such as VCD players, branch amplifiers, and electrician knives and so on. Zhang Wen and his partners draw the CATV main line sketch and the assembling order indication, and they made four sets of broadcasting equipment by themselves.

At about 19:00 on March 5, after furtive investigations, Zhang Wen, Lei Ming and five other members took a set of broadcasting device and tools to the area near Jingyue Hutong in Nanguan District of Changchun. Zhang Wen climbed up to the top of a wire pole, and then he cut off the main cable and connected the device which was broadcasting Falun Gong disks to it; the others were covering him. At the same time, Zhou Runjun and Liu Weiming were doing the same, and they cut off the main TV transmission lines near the National Revenue of Jilin Province and broadcasted the cult Falun Gong programs.

In that morning, Liu Chengjun, followed by Li Dehai and three other members, invaded the CATV network in Songyuan City, too; and they also caused serious consequences.

The police resources in Changchun told reporters that Zhou Runjun had made a detailed scheme for the crime. Before they did it, they had dispatched someone to examine furtively the spots in Yanji City, Jilin City and Tonghua City; because the condition didn’t permit, they cancelled their plots in those cities.

Liu Weiming escaped from the first wave of arrestment, and he planned to use the radio transmitting device technique provided by Minghui Net to “introduce” the Falun Gong programs to places all over the country, so he bought 1,000 sets of devices. Fortunately, he was arrested by the police just in time.

During the questioning in the court, some suspects felt sorry for what they did. The 31-year-old defendant Li Xiaojie and one of the principals Liu Weiming were a couple. Thinking of the serious damages they had caused to the country and people, even to their own family, she couldn’t help crying. But some members who mentally controlled by Falun Gong still refused to admit their crimes.

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Reports/China/200907/t95205.htm

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My day on April 25

I am Tang Liangyou, male, aged 40, finished primary school education only, I live in Haian County of Jiangsu Province with a living of barber. As a victim of Falun Gong, the memory of “4.25 Incident” in 1999 is unforgettable, every detail of the day flashes back vividly.

Let’s go back to the day of April 24, 1999. At 8:00 a.m., Mr. Xu, a person in charge of the Falun Gong practice spot where I did practice, called me and said that the upper level of Falun Gong Assistant Center informed that all members of this practicing spot were requested to go to Beijing by train to “clarify” and “protect Falun Gong.” At that time I was accompanying my son, Tang Jie, at Shanghai Baoshan People’s Hospital (before 2004, I was a barber in Shanghai). Receiving the call, I hesitated, however, Mr. Xu repeated the purpose of the trip was to “clarify” and “protect Falun Gong,” and to improve the practicing environment of Falun Gong . He said it was a rare opportunity and we should go. I asked my wife Yuemei to take care my son and I hurried back home and took the book Zhuan Falun with some pocket money then boarded the No. 1462 train heading for Beijing together with six other disciples, we left hurriedly without even eating anything.

On the train I was talking to myself: never before had I been to Beijing, where and how were we going to “protect Falun Gong”? I raised these questions to the other six disciples, they were confounded as well. At about midnight (before dawn of April 25), we arrived in Beijing. As we begrudged spending money on hotels, we had to stay in the railway station’s waiting room. At dawn, a young woman stood at the door and shouted: Disciples from Shanghai please join me. We quickly woke up and followed her to take taxis. After a short drive we got off and walked a while, then we were told not to run about, stay where we were and wait for other disciples. She said that was the place to gather all members from South China, and she was responsible for taking care of those members Then she left to pick up other disciples.

We were afraid of getting lost because it was our first trip to Beijing. While we were waiting, some disciples bought bread from a shop nearby and we gulped down them. Then more people mobbed the place, the size of disciple mob kept growing. No one knew each other, however, when disciples were identified, people mingled together quickly. Soon after a big guy with a crew cut came, he said he was the authorized organizer from Falun Dafa Research Society to maintain peace and order, he said disciples from various places should stay where they were and discipline themselves. He also mentioned, the primary reason the Master summoned all disciples to Beijing was to “clarify” that, the nature of Falun Gong disciples were truthfulness, compassion and tolerance, and we were to be good persons; the second was that demanding the government to free the disciples put into prison in Tianjin, and appealing the government couldn’t punish our Falun Gong disciples, because we gathered in Beijing just to “protect Falun Gong.”

We moved quickly with the crowds and found a clean place to rest. One of disciples said, in front of us is Zhongnanhai, where the government office was located. My feeling was agitated slightly with some superiority complex to get so close to government officials, before today they were only attainable on TV. At noon, more people poured into the meeting place, I could not even see the end. Later I heard over 10,000 people joined the gathering! I was sitting there watching and listening, sharing Falun Gong practice feelings with others, quite often there were other disciples walking by. I did not have any exact idea about what actions to take, as a result, I followed others.

When it was getting dark, I got exhausted and began to starve, some said we should find accommodation, then the big guy, the self-claimed authorized organizer from Falun Dafa Research Society, stood out and said: “Do not leave until there is clear-cut feedback from the government. We will sit until dawn if no reply is received. We won’t stop on our way to reach our destination!” Later at about 9:00 in the evening, a tall guy with a bag under his arm came, he allowed all to leave and kept all the requests not settled to their responsibilities for tomorrow. Upon hearing this, the mob all left, we were thinking, since the head let us go, then why not. Mixed up with the crowds I left as well. I grabbed something to eat at train station and took the night train back to Shanghai. I returned home the very next midnight. The trip to Beijing cost me money and two-day-and-two-night starving. After I was back, at the end of July, I watched the program Topics in Focus on CCTV, I suddenly came to understand, we were made goblin in a play with director behind the stage, and this person was Li Hongzhi!

The memory of “4.25 Incident” is unforgettable and unbearable to recall. If on that specific day Li Hongzhi reached his goal, what the world would look like today…

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Words/200907/t95041.htm

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