A Firm and Steadfast Fellow Practitioner

In the winter of 2000 I was illegally detained in the Shijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp. While in the camp, I got to know a fellow practitioner, an elderly woman from the countryside of Hebei Province. She was 56 years old. I will call her Sister A. The first time I saw this practitioner, she was handcuffed to a rail in the corridor on the second floor. She was handcuffed because she had openly practised the Falun Gong exercises. Sister A was handcuffed every day from morning until night, and she was only released when the lights were finally turned out for the day. Except for using the bathroom and having meals, she was handcuffed continuously. Regardless of whether the sun was baking or the wind was blowing, she was not allowed to come inside. When I passed by her, even before I greeted her, she greeted me with a warm smile, being so calm and compassionate. After seven days Sister A was released from the handcuffs, whereupon she continued to practise the exercises. The police then handcuffed her again. I remember that she had been handcuffed for more than one month. During the worst period of this persecution, she was handcuffed 24 hours a day, and even when she was sleeping, both of her hands were handcuffed to the rail of an iron bed. Later, Sister A and I were both assigned to the same room, and I learned a bit more about her situation.

Sister A came from the remote and poverty-stricken countryside, where an extremely hard life caused her to develop a number of diseases. In 1997 she began to cultivate Falun Dafa. This woman, who had once lost all confidence in life, became free of all her diseases, and at the same time she resolved a long-standing resentment towards her husband and other family members. It was as if she had become a new person. Although she had little formal education, in a short time Sister A was able to read through Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong. She could recite Hong Yin [a collection of Master Li's poems] from the beginning to the end without stopping. Whenever I would see her with her eyes half closed, reciting Hong Yin, I always felt a heart of purity and righteousness. Her heart is indeed very pure and steadfast. No matter how rampant the evil was, it could not interfere with her. She kept practising the exercises and studying the Fa. What is more, she always looked happy and always smiled at everyone. She cherished and carefully guarded her copy of Zhuan Falun, with a righteous faith in Teacher and in Dafa; from detention centre to labour camp, that book was never found by the police. She often said, "This book is my life. I will protect it with my life."

Sister A went to Beijing on two occasions after July 20, 1999 to validate Dafa . After she came back she was illegally detained and fined. In the autumn of 2000 she went to her friend's home to return the 20 Yuan [Yuan is the Chinese currency. The average monthly salary of an urban worker in China is 500 Yuan] she had borrowed for the cost of going to Beijing, and she was abducted by police. She was sentenced to two years of forced labour because she said that she would continue to practise Falun Gong. She was sent to the Shijiazhuang Forced Labour Camp. Inside the Labour camp she was beaten and cursed by police agents and criminals because she practised the exercises and studied the Fa. But in every situation and occasion she always had a warm smile on her face. She repeated these words, "I just know that Dafa is good. My body is the testimony. I have never done anything bad and I will never abandon my principles." No matter what the policemen said, she always said these words with a warm smile. Whenever she saw policemen she said it. Finally, whenever the policemen saw her they would avoid her. After a time, nobody asked her to give up cultivation. It is just as Teacher said, "It looks like human conduct, but in reality it's not. It's because she reached that point through cultivation and truly arrived at that realm--'Now that you've arrested me, I haven't thought at all about going back. Now that I've come here, I've come to validate the Fa.' So the evil was scared." (Lecturing on and Explaining the Fa on Metropolitan New York Fa Conference)

In March of 2001, in order to deal with steadfast Dafa practitioners, the labour camp established a "strictly managed class" under Team Four. Sister A was sent to this class and so we were separated. But sometimes when I was in the bathroom I saw her. She still had a warm smile on her face. Sometimes when there were no criminals watching me, I would talk to her briefly or pass her a copy of one of Teacher's new articles. We encouraged each other by eye contact. In order to resist the persecution of the evil, she and other fellow practitioners in the "strictly managed class" began a hunger strike to protest, claiming their innocence, and demanding their unconditional release. Facing the intimidation, the deceit, and the torture by policemen, Sister A's heart for steadfastly cultivating Dafa, and her faith in Teacher never wavered. Later on, I saw Sister A only occasionally. Her face had become emaciated because of the hunger strike, but she still had a happy smile and her eyes sent out brightness and firmness. She maintained the hunger strike for over 40 days, and her body became extremely weak, her blood pressure dropped precipitously, and she continuously refused to cooperate with the force-feeding and infusions by the vicious policemen. Finally in the middle of April, because the labour camp feared bearing responsibility for persecuting people to death, they asked her family members to take her home. Thus, after being detained for over seven months, Sister A walked out of the forced labour camp in an open and dignified manner, and she once again devoted herself to the current of Fa rectification.