Respekt (Czech newspaper): All Alone on Tiananmen Square

In Prague's Luxor Palace, a petite Chinese lady is sitting among many paintings. She is painting beautiful flowers on pink paper. At first glance you would never guess that 42-year-old Zhang Cuiying has recently endured torture and beatings in Chinese prisons and labour camps. It wasn’t necessary for her to experience this. For ten years the artist has been an Australian citizen and she could have lived without suffering these horrors. However, Mrs. Zhang cannot accept how the Chinese dictatorship brutally persecutes practitioners of the Falun Gong Spiritual movement. She has returned three times to China since her emigration and each time has ended up in prison.

"I was born in Shanghai and since my childhood I have been painting. I have not been interested in anything but painting". As a child she was a gifted artist. Her technique appeared to be that of a mature artist. She went to study with a well-known Master painter and by the age of 20 she had held her own exhibition.

A major change in her life happened in 1990 when she was allowed to emigrate to Australia. Her husband, already a student in Australia was granted political asylum following the Tiananmen Square massacre. Now both of them are Australian citizens.

In order to make a living in Australia she worked in a cold storage plant, which eventually damaged her health. In 1997 she started to experience severe rheumatic pain. "I couldn't work or paint and had difficulty in walking. I couldn't eat and was in great pain", recalls Zhang. She sought help in both western and Chinese medicine but without success. Then she and her husband read in the newspaper about a free Falun Gong class and thought to give it a try. She learned about the teacher of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi, who was in America, and the principles that are based on Truth, Compassion, and Tolerance. People who practise regularly find that it brings them better health, reduced stress, inner peace and greater moral character.

After several weeks of practice she found her rheumatic pain begin to subside. "I found that I was able to paint again and the rheumatic pain has gone away and never returned", said Zhang. The improvement was so surprising that she started to read books about the system and to practise the exercises.

Whilst living in Australia, Zhang didn't have any problems practising the Falun Gong exercises, but she knew that since 1999 millions of practitioners in China have been forbidden from practising. The Chinese dictatorship cracked down on the practice of Falun Gong when they felt that it had become too popular. Over 100,000 people have been imprisoned in labour camps or mental hospitals. Many have died from torture.

Zhang is a shy person but when she heard about the persecution, she went to the Chinese Consulate in Sydney to deliver a letter of appeal, asking them to stop the persecution of innocent people. They did not accept her letter despite the fact that she was there every day for five months. Zhang then decided to go to Beijing to relate her experiences and deliver her letter in person.

On Tiananmen Square, she met other Falun Gong practitioners and within a few minutes police arrested them. After being interrogated and beaten she was forced to leave China.

Upon returning to China the second time, she was again arrested. She was imprisoned with murderers and drug dealers awaiting execution. Efforts were made [by Chinese authorities] to persuade her to give up her Australian citizenship. When they did not succeed she was placed on a plane to Sydney.

On her third trip to China, while attempting to attend a large conference in Beijing she was arrested at the airport and immediately taken to prison. She was put in foot shackles and chains and was placed together with male criminals. The prisoners were encouraged to abuse her and those who beat her the most were rewarded. A released prisoner contacted her husband and the Australian Consulate and told them where she was being held. After eight months they managed to obtain her release.

Her fight for the basic rights of Falun Gong practitioners didn't end there. Since her release she has visited over forty countries to raise awareness of the persecution in China. She was in Prague recently and said that lately she did not have that much time to paint. "When I do paint", she said, "I feel that my paintings are more pure and spiritual after what I have been through."