The Party Persecutes My Father, Calligrapher Gao Zongzhen, and My Entire Family

In the spring of 1999, when I read Zhuan Falun, the main Falun Dafa book, for the first time, I was only 14 years old. Though I couldn't understand its real meaning deeply at that time, I knew that Zhuan Falun is a book that teaches people to become better and to be good people. "Truth, Compassion and Tolerance" deeply impressed me. I wanted to become a devoted practitioner like many other Falun Dafa practitioners.

However, I had never expected that the Chinese government would start a mass suppression of Falun Gong practitioners and utilise the entire state machinery to defame Falun Dafa. Zhuan Falun had also become a forbidden book. Falun Dafa teaches people to be good; why is it suppressed in China? Why have the kind-hearted Falun Gong practitioners become the target of suppression and persecution? Why do the policemen, who are supposed to "serve the people," use violence to brutally suppress their own people? These questions gradually enabled me to see the true nature of the wicked Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at a young age.

My father -- calligrapher Gao Zongzhen -- was also within their sights for persecution. Under the influence of the media, controlled by the wicked CCP, the life and work of Falun Gong practitioners' family members were also affected to different extents. At school, because of lies propagated by the CCP, teachers and students were all very harsh to me, saying that I was the daughter of a Falun Gong practitioner. In order to realise personal political gain, many vicious policemen often came to my home to harass us. They used both "harsh and soft" methods to try to manipulate my mother to help them persuade my father to give up his belief in "Truth, Compassion and Tolerance." They threatened my mother by saying, "Gao Zongzhen has practised Falun Gong. It will become very difficult for your entire family to find any jobs in the future. Your children won't be able to go to school or find a job either. If you can ask Gao Zongzhen to give up Falun Gong, we will ensure his job in the future; and the family won't be effected, either."

Because my mother had read Zhuan Falun before and believed that justice would overcome evil, she drove these vicious policemen out of our home. This greatly enraged them. Both my father and mother were fired from their workplaces. Seeing that they couldn't get anywhere [with my mother], the police started to threaten and entreat my elderly grandfather. Under their threats, my grandfather couldn't stand the pressure and passed away on March 6th, 2001.

Whenever my father went out to distribute flyers and expose the persecution to deceived people, I helped him by watching out for the police. If we were ever caught, what awaited us would be physical and mental torture. Even our family members would be affected. In China, if a student is discovered to be a Falun Gong practitioner, he or she will be expelled from school. I had no other choice but to secretly do the exercises at home.

After my father was arrested, the vicious police officers forced my family to pay a penalty of 20,000 yuan¹. When my mother asked for a receipt, they groundlessly refused to issue her one. This showed that they were just bandits. Fearing that the vicious police wouldn't give our father any food, my sister and I bought lots instant noodles and sausages. We also took father's clothes and went to the Tianzhu Police Station (in Beijing). However, we were not allowed to leave anything for our father. Instead, we were spit on and cursed by the vicious policemen. I remember it was an extremely windy day in Beijing. The wind seemed to be pouring out the crimes of the CCP. After leaving the Tianzhu Police Station, facing those vicious, beast-like policemen with human faces, I made a decision that I must expose the truth to all people. I must expose their crimes.

At the end of 2006, the vicious policemen suspected that we were hiding Falun Gong leaflets exposing the persecution in our home. They arrested my father and took him away. When I learned this, I quickly transferred all the materials at our home to a fellow practitioner's home. Sure enough, several monstrous policemen went to my home and raided it like bandits. They threw things everywhere and smashed all the vases and cups. When my mother tried to stop them, they pushed my small, slim mother so hard that she fell to the ground. They pointed at her and shouted, "Watch out what you are doing!" Even my young sister was slapped with much force several times. As I had transferred the materials in time, they didn't find anything. But they took away our computer and TV set.

Now I am able to expose the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in the free land of Australia.

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/4/22/153211.html