(Minghui.org) I’d like to share my experiences of clarifying the truth about Falun Dafa, resisting the persecution, and continuing to do the exercises during both of my detentions.
In 2006, I was released from prison after serving a three-year illegal sentence. My husband, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary of his workplace, and a driver came to pick me up. They weren’t there to take me home. They were taking me to a brainwashing center for “transforming” Falun Dafa practitioners. On the way there, I kept telling them the facts about Dafa. But they still took me there.
It was past 11 p.m. when we arrived. We went inside and the door was immediately locked behind us. There were four people there to receive us. I asked who was in charge and was told that only the head of the 610 Office carried weight there. I said I wanted to see him.
Around midnight, the 610 Office head came. I politely asked his name and he said it was Yang Chunyue. I asked how much they would charge for having me in this “study workshop” (brainwashing center), and he said 6,000 yuan. I asked what the money was for, to which he replied, “2,000 for workshop helpers, 2,000 for my living costs, and 2,000 for other things.”
I said, “I was put in prison for three years and my husband had to pay a total of 3,000 yuan. Why are you charging 6,000 yuan for one month? Don’t your superiors provide funding? Isn’t your purpose to educate? Why did you lock the door right away, and why are you asking for so much money?”
He didn’t answer, and instead demanded that I curse Master Li, Falun Dafa’s founder.
I replied, “I didn’t know about Master before I learned Falun Dafa. Master wrote a book, called Zhuan Falun and I read it. When I was young, my mother told me not to use bad language, but I didn’t listen. I swore and cursed whenever I felt like it. Then my school teachers told me not to curse, yet I still did my own thing, ignoring their advice and continuing to swear. After I read Zhuan Falun, which taught me not to curse, I’ve stopped it completely and mended my ways. Now you, a government official, are telling me to use such bad language. What kind of logic is that?
“No one forced me to practice Falun Dafa. I decided to practice Dafa because I read this book and thought it was good. It is really unreasonable for you to tell me to curse someone. I’m not going to do it.”
He went quiet.
That night, they planned to detain me there and not let me go home. However, after this conversation, the 610 Office head let me go home with my husband for the weekend (it was Friday night) and told me to come back the following Monday.
When Monday came, no one from the center contacted us. But my husband called them, and they asked him to bring me in. When we arrived, a director suggested that I stay there for a few days of “classes.”
During the weekend at home, I’d been sending righteous thoughts non-stop, not allowing the evil to persecute Dafa practitioners. I knew the evil in other dimensions had already been dissolved, so I didn’t stay, but simply returned home with my husband. They didn’t call to harass me, nor did they come looking for me.
I started to make truth-clarification materials at home in 2008. Every Friday I would download materials from the Minghui website and make weekly journals and booklets for practitioners to distribute. In 2011, I had a satellite dish installed so we could watch New Tang Dynasty TV. In 2012, the police discovered the satellite dish and followed me to my workplace. I managed to get away, but then became homeless for the next six years.
I was arrested and taken to a detention center in 2018. As soon as I arrived there, I shouted “Falun Dafa is good! Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance is good!” so that everyone in the cells I was passing heard it. As soon as I got to my cell, I started to send forth righteous thoughts, recite the Fa, and do the exercises.
A center director told me that the rules didn’t allow anyone to do the Dafa exercises.
I told him, “I am persecuted precisely because I practice Falun Dafa. Dafa has remarkable effects in curing illnesses and improving one’s physical condition. I took up the practice because I was in poor health. If you don’t let me do the exercises, what if I have a relapse? Will you pay for my treatment? Besides, even if you wanted to pay, I wouldn’t want to go through that kind of suffering again!
“You said you have a rule here forbidding people from doing the Dafa exercises. Jiang Zemin [Former CCP Leader who initiated the persecution of Falun Dafa] made this rule too, but hasn’t it failed to work all these years? Dafa practitioners have continued to practice. You should stop acting as a scapegoat. If you persist in forbidding me from doing the exercises, as soon as I get out, I’ll have your name put on the list of perpetrators of human rights abuses.”
“Are you threatening me?” he asked.
“Are you stopping me from doing the exercises?” I replied. “If you are, that would be violating my human rights.”
He didn’t say another word, and from then on, he never mentioned it again. I created an excellent environment to do the exercises.
On another occasion, the director of the women’s cells went on annual leave, and a new director, Ms. Liu, was assigned to oversee the cells. As soon as she saw me doing the Dafa exercises, she objected.
“How come you are doing the exercises here?” she asked.
“I’ve been doing the exercises for the past six months. You can ask the other guards if you don’t believe me.”
“But the other guards said they didn’t see you doing the exercises,” she replied. When I heard this, I immediately understood that the previous director must have told the guards to deny seeing me doing the exercises. To protect the previous director, I didn’t say anything more.
“There are cameras in this room, so go outside to do the exercises during yard time,” director Liu said. At first I agreed, but I quickly realized that the daily yard time was limited to one hour—half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the afternoon—with absolutely no extensions. My cell was the innermost one, with two cells located in front of it. By the time the first two cells were unlocked and the guard reached mine, more than five minutes would have passed, which didn’t leave enough time for doing the exercises. So I continued doing the exercises inside.
“Didn’t we agree that you do the exercises outside during yard time?” director Liu asked again. When I explained the problem, she said, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? How about I unlock your room first?” We smiled at each other.
One day, it looked like it was going to rain, so our yard time was canceled. A little while later, I heard the big iron door to my room open, and director Liu called me and told me to come outside. I followed her out, wondering what was happening. She led me to her room, and told me to do the exercises in the open space in front of her room. She sat on a chair inside the room, watching me.
Before long, it started to rain heavily. I didn’t move and continued doing the exercises. I heard her footsteps walking past me. I didn’t open my eyes and just continued. The rain was pouring down, and I could hear a distinct swishing noise. Just then, she called me and said, “Come over here to do your exercises.”
I opened my eyes to find a makeshift plastic rain shelter set up for me. With tears welling up in my eyes, I quietly stepped under the shelter. When I had finished the standing exercises, I went up to her and another female guard who was in the room at the time. “I want to say thank you,” I said. I felt just saying “thank you” wasn’t enough, so I recited a sentence from Master’s Fa about Dafa’s mighty virtue.
Both their faces lit up with pure, kind, and beautiful smiles, like flowers blooming.