My Experience of Being Persecuted with "The Same Song"

On December 31st, 2003, I went to Beijing to stand up for the rights of Falun Dafa practitioners and unfurled a banner that read, "Falun Dafa is Good." I was abducted by plain-clothes police and taken to a local police station. I was then sent to a Detention Centre in the Dongshan District, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, where I was illegally sentenced¹ to one year of forced labour. I was then detained in the Chatou Forced Labour Camp, where I suffered from various types of torture such as physical punishment, humiliation, and psychological persecution. Among the tricks used to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners, they forced Falun Gong practitioners to sing, "The Same Song." If you refused to sing this song, it would be construed as being confrontational. Those who were "transformed²" by force had to sing this very song. This was an intentional act of brainwashing and psychological persecution. A practitioner who had been "transformed" once told me: "They are just rogues. They force you to give up everything and also force you to say that it is your own will doing so."

In the Chatou Forced Labor Camp, whenever a meeting was held, a performance during a holiday took place, or when the upper level 610 Office³ managers came to inspect the rate of "transformations", as well as when some practitioners were "transformed" by force, we had to sing "The Same Song."

Once a person who had been "transformed" tried to force me to sing a song and gave me the lyrics. I realized that it was "The Same Song," so I told that person that I was not in the mood to sing. As far as the police and those collaborators⁴ were concerned, if a practitioner refused to sing the song with them, they viewed it as being against them. My refusal to sing "The Same Song" with them was construed that way, and because of the position I took regarding this song, I was listed as a key figure for "transformation" in the labor camp. They started enforcing more strict measures against me. I was detained in a solitary cell and was besieged by more than 20 collaborators every day.

No matter whether it was during the day or at night, I was not allowed to sleep. I was forced to sit on a small stool with ridges all the time so that my bottom started to fester. They also tried to force me to read books that defamed Falun Dafa and Teacher Li. I refused to read them so they just read them to me and forced me to listen. The summer in Guangzhou is very hot. In the burning sun when the temperature was above 40oC, I was forced to take a drill, a kind of physical punishment. This drill lasted for a half-day and made me often feel dizzy. Under this kind of physical torture and mental pressure, I experienced extreme pain and almost collapsed. My hair became dry and turned yellow. My endurance reached its limit.

When those who had been transformed were told to sing "The Same Song," I did not sing it. It was against my will and my conscience. It was against my belief; it would have been selling my soul. Can you imagine the agony? However, if you did not sing "The Same Song", they took it as a sign that you had not been totally "transformed"; therefore they would not allow you to go home. At one point, a guard asked me: "What is your opinion of Li Hongzhi's Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance? Do you think it is right or wrong?" My heart was shocked. Without hesitation, I told the guard that: "I think it is correct." Since that was not the answer they wanted to hear, they gathered another group of collaborators in order to brainwash me. Then they put me in handcuffs and sent me to the Sanshui Forced Labour Camp for Men and ordered the collaborators there to brainwash me as well.

In a word, they start torturing you psychologically so that their carefully planned brainwashing steps can be successful.

Note

1. Illegally arrested: Contrary to what former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who initiated the persecution, and the Chinese Communist Party would like the world to believe, practising Falun Gong is NOT illegal in China. Although the Public Security Department issued an unconstitutional set of restraints on the practice at the onset of the persecution in 1999, no laws have been passed by the only legislative body in China, the People's Congress, banning Falun Gong or granting the police the authority to arrest Falun Gong practitioners for practising the exercises or distributing flyers. For a more complete discussion of the illegality of the persecution of Falun Gong, please refer to the article "The Ban on Falun Gong—A Dictator's Whim, Not the Rule of Law". (Variation: "illegally sentenced")

2. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

3. "The 610 office" is an agency specifically created to persecute Falun Gong, with absolute power over each level of administration in the Party and all other political and judiciary systems.

4. 4. "Collaborators": Former practitioners who have turned against Falun Gong under brainwashing and torture. They are then made to assist in brainwashing and torturing practitioners.