The Reason Bao Bao Doesn't Want to go to School

I asked my neighbour's 4-year-old son, Bao Bao, "Do you want to go to school when you are older?" Bao Bao said, "I don't want to go; school is terrible." I asked, "How do you know it's terrible?" Bao Bao said, "Granny went to school, and she can't come home. Mum took me to school to see her. The school had locked granny in a room. There are steel rods and a lock on the door. Granny can't come out. She even has to go to the toilet in there. There is no bed, so she has to sleep on the floor. The school tries to make granny swear at people, and she can't come home unless she does what they want. School is no good, it's a terrible place."

Everyone knows that Bao Bao's granny is a kind person. Because she practises Falun Gong and believes in "Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance," the police took her away. They locked her in a place they officially call the "law-regulated school," but in reality it is a forced brainwashing centre. There, they used all means to force her to give up her belief in Falun Gong. She was subjected to the worst mental torture. On the outside it's called a "school," but in reality it's a jail.

In China, the persecution of Falun Gong has imprinted an indelible image on Bao Bao's innocent mind. The first school that Bao Bao has experienced is a jail which is a place where bad things are perpetrated on good people. What he doesn't know is that his family, in order to rescue his granny, went to many places asking for help, and begging for money. When his granny does get released, his family will be in debt and still have to pay a few thousand more yuan [an average urban worker's month salary in China is 500 yuan] in illegal fines and fees.

Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/1/21/65414.html