Every Name Has Its Power

At 1 a.m. on February 6, 2003, my mother, Yang Yueli, called from Beijing and told me that she had safely returned home after having been detained for 400 days and nights. Due to the endless effort of the Global Mission to Rescue Persecuted Falun Gong Practitioners, the intense pressures from international organisations and overseas media, and with the help from millions of kind-hearted people all over the world, the Chinese regime finally released my mother who was detained groundlessly just because she practises Falun Gong.

In the past 14 months, everything appeared to be like a dream. Those days were filled with tears and hope, confusion and excitement.

The Story of Collecting Signatures

My mother planned to visit me in Canada however, on December 7, 2001, she never returned home after she had left home to apply for a passport to go overseas. When my mother was just arrested, as a new practitioner, I did not have a deep understanding based on the principles of Falun Gong. I just thought that I should stand up to tell the truth of the persecution using my personal experience. A practitioner made a poster that contained my mother’s picture. Holding this poster, I started the journey to rescue her.

During the Christmas 2001, I returned to England, where I had studied before. A friend in charge of a program in a music radio station listened to my mother’s story. I told him the meaning of my mother’s name means, “the beautiful moon”. One peaceful night, my friend’s voice spread through the air with the beautiful music: A young Chinese fellow, who has studied in our city. Our city is his second home. Today, he has met a great difficulty. As his family members, what kind of care should we provide him with? Nobody wants to see the beautiful moon disappear. Then, come sign your name and say a prayer, the light from the moon will not dissipate”.

I have always wanted to tell my friends in the church that I go to that I practise Falun Gong. When I was studying in England, I had gone to this church for many years, but I didn’t know how I should go about telling them. This time when I returned to England, I told my friends in the church that my mother was arrested for practising Falun Gong. They immediately expressed their support for my mother and their opposition to the persecution.

On the street of a small town located in New Port, in England, a cheerful couple smiled at me. The beautiful lady appeared familiar to me. The lady walked to me and said: “I saw you here collecting signatures a couple of days ago. I told your mother’s story to my boyfriend. Today is the weekend and so we thought that you would be here. We have waited a long time in the rain for you.”

One young man told me that his parents came from East Germany and that he could understand everything that is happening in China. He called and mobilised a lot of people to sign my petition. After they signed their names, they were reluctant to leave. They formed a team: Some held the poster, some were telling the story on the poster to passer-by’s, and others held the signature boards to collect signatures. People lined up to wait to sign their names. When we went to a coffee shop to have a cup of coffee to warm ourselves up, people saw the poster through the glass window and crowded into the coffee shop to sign their names. The coffee shop manager asked his employees to sign their names as well.

In another small town, I met a very kind elderly lady who had read my mother’s story on the Internet. When she saw me, she took out two sheets full of signatures that she had made by herself and said: “Our village is small. Every family signed the form there are over 40 signatures.” Her friend handed me a chocolate and said; “You look tired. Please take care of yourself.”

On the train to Manchester, the conductor saw the poster and immediately sighed. The store clerks took the signature forms one day and returned them to me the next day with several sheets full of signatures. Almost all of the customers signed their names.

One classmate of mine in a Taiwanese University learnt of my mother’s arrest by accident. He immediately told the news to the Falun Gong practitioners in the Taiwanese University. They immediately walked to the streets to collect signatures. Soon after, they sent me 37 lbs worth of signatures.

On the busy streets of Toronto, several senior women held the photos of my mother and myself around their arms, collecting signatures from people whom were passing by; On campus, young college students would continuously sign their names one after another.

Yesterday, after knowing that my mother had come home, that elderly lady said on the phone, "Every name has its own power!"

My Colleagues

My division manager is a somewhat well-known economist. He was also a student of the Canadian Foreign Ministry. After they heard about my mother’s case, he and some of his colleagues voluntarily downloaded the materials about the persecution of Falun Gong by the Jiang Regime, and then went to parliament members and lawyers to seek help from them. Trust banking is a busy and competitive profession. Because of this, there have often been colleagues who work 16 hours per day. However, when I asked for a month's leave due to my plan to go to Texas, the manager said after a slight hesitation, "Your matter is more important than the job. Nevertheless, please take the laptop with you, so that we can find you just in case."

It has been customary for every employee to receive a check from the company at the end of the year. It is required by the company to donate this check to a charity and then give the company a report detailing where and why that charity was chosen for the donation. I donated the check to the activities for rescuing the family members of Falun Gong practitioners and stated in my report the persecution of Falun Gong in Mainland China. To my surprise, the CEO of the company called me from London, "Can we publicise the case of your mother in the yearly report of our company? We know about Falun Gong, but we do not know that there has been such an outstanding case in our company. What else can we do for you?"

After we learnt the news that my mother had been released, my office was full of joy. We heard that some of the media may come to interview us, and one colleague asked me, "This will be a program for us all. Can we hold you in front of the camera?"

The manager said in a calm voice, "There are many more things that need to be done. We will request, as citizens of this country, to the Canadian government to help you mother secure her genuine freedom - coming to reunite with you here."

A few days ago, I received news via a phone call that my mother would soon be released to a highly respected old lady who was over 80 years old in China. She is a senior who has followed the Communist Party for her whole life. As soon as she heard that my mother was going to be released, she said just before I was about to say something, "You mother should continue to practise Falun Gong. If Beijing does not allow her to do the exercises, you may tell her to come to my place to practise the exercises." I asked, "Aren't you afraid?" The elderly lady replied, "If you blame somebody for one or two things, people would believe it. However, if you dump everything onto Falun Gong and accuse it for everything, hasn’t everybody got a brain? Who will believe it."

After I hung up my phone, I was so excited. There are more and more people who understand the true facts about the persecution. The day will not be too long when the rain is over and the sun shines again.

Here, I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks to the thousands of kind-hearted people who have made concerted efforts to rescue my mother. I hope you will continue to use your compassionate thoughts to help save the several hundred thousands of Falun Gong practitioners who are still imprisoned or detained in China.

Note: For the report on the release of Yang Zhendong's mother, Yang Yueli, please refer to the article entitled "Overseas Falun Gong Family Rescue Effort Allows Aeronautics Scientist Ms. Yang Yueli to Gain Early Release (Photo)" at the link:
http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200302/10182.html