The Tragic Life of a Musical Genius (Photos)

Ms. Wang Bo, at about six feet in height, is an intelligent and good-natured music student who had diligently practised piano since she was quite young. Wang Bo had passed the highest exam, Piano Exam Level X. The Central Conservatory of Music had admitted her based on her outstanding musical achievements and high college entrance exam scores in 1999. She was the pride of her family, friends, high school, and even the City of Shijiazhuang.

Ms. Wang's father, Wang Xinzhong, was an official at the Shijiazhuang City Railroad Bureau Maintenance Section. Her mother, Liu Shuqin, worked at the Changan Branch of the Shijiazhuang City Industry and Commerce Bank. Her family attributed their affluence, health, and happiness to the cultivation practice of Falun Dafa.

For the past eight years--since the persecution of Falun Gong began on July 20th, 1999--Wang Bo and her parents persisted in their belief in "Truth-Compassion-Tolerance." For that they were arrested, had money extorted from them, had their home ransacked, and were sent to labour camps and brainwashing centres. The family went into exile and were again seized and sentenced to prison. The family was torn apart and incarcerated.

Wang Bo and her mother, Liu Shuqin, are presently being held at the No. 2 Detention Centre in Shijiazhuang City. Her father is being held at the Zhao County Detention Centre in Shijiazhuang City. Officials at the Changan District Court in Shijiazhuang City sentenced Wang Bo and her mother to four years in prison and her father to five years.

Let us recount Wang Bo's childhood in order to get a better understanding of the whole situation.

Music--a constant companion in childhood and during her teenage years

Wang Bo was a bright child. She was a good singer and dancer and especially sensitive toward music. Ever since she was two years old she would start dancing as soon as she heard music. Her improvised movements were quite impressive. When the kindergarten teacher played the piano, Wang Bo kept listening and smiling when the other children played among themselves.

When Wang Bo was six years old in 1987, her father took her to a piano teacher's home. She was immediately drawn to the piano. When the teacher opened the lid, Wang Bo quickly pressed her finger on the middle C, although she had never touched a piano before. The surprised teacher tested Wang Bo on her musical aptitude and her ability to distinguish different sounds. She then urged Wang Bo's father, "Go and get a piano! This child is a musical genius! She is perfectly capable of becoming a great pianist!" Thus, with her parents' strict guidance, Wang Bo began ten years of difficult piano practice.

Wang Bo's father took her to the teacher's home every Sunday, more than 10 km away, rain or shine. When she was younger, Wang Bo sat in a seat on the back of her father's bike. As she grew older she rode the bus to the teacher's home. Wang Bo's neighbours were surprised at her outstanding piano skills.

Truly talented, Wang Bo enjoyed the love of all her piano teachers, and they liked her playing very much.

Nevertheless, she was rebellious and hardheaded and did not follow directions without a fight. Her parents had to constantly prod her in her school studies. Sometimes she slacked off in piano practice. Her parents were worried about her and they came up with plans to help her. Young Ms. Wang thought about giving up piano practice every once in a while. Her mother told her, "If you enjoy piano, you must first overcome hardships, then you can reap the fruits of your labour." She told Wang Bo to keep telling herself, "Endure first, and then I shall enjoy the outcome." Wang Bo listened and continued to practise. One time Wang Bo's mother took her on a mountain climb. She was excited and said she wanted to have that experience of climbing the mountain. Her mother told her, "If you want to do it, you must persevere until the end. Even if you pick the lowest peak, to have a good experience, you must climb to the top!" Wang Bo was then nine years old and cried from exhaustion, but she persisted until she reached the top. She wrote an essay about the mountain climbing experience later on in which she shared her newfound insight, "Life is full of different experiences, good and bad; suffering is a good exercise."

Practising Falun Dafa and finding happiness

Although Wang Bo was not the most docile girl and often came up with ways to infuriate her parents, she actually loved her family dearly. When she learned her parents were planning to divorce after she graduated from middle school she cried bitterly for several days. Her parents did not want to cause her pain, so they decided to postpone the divorce until after her high school graduation.

Falun Dafa came into the family's life at this tumultuous time and brought about tremendous change. The parents began to practise first. Wang Bo's mother was cured of myopia [near-sightedness], pain in her lower back and legs, neurasthenia [nervous exhaustion], and diabetes. Her father saw even greater changes in himself. Wang Bo wrote, "When I was small, Dad was critically ill at one time. He had heart disease, high blood pressure, a stomach ulcer, and a duodenal ulcer. He could not eat anything cold; if he did, he would immediately climb into bed and lie still on his stomach. All of these problems disappeared after he started practising Falun Gong. He can now enjoy fruit and Popsicles with us. He also looks much younger than his age. When I stand next to him, many people cannot believe he has a grown daughter."

What touched Wang Bo the most was that her strong-willed parents changed their mindsets and started looking inward for their own shortcomings whenever they encountered a conflict. They resolved their accumulated grievances and their relationship improved a great deal. Wang Bo witnessed these changes and started practising Dafa as well.

Dafa changed her from a sickly girl into an energetic, robust person, and Dafa's principles became deeply embedded in her heart. She lived her life guided by the principles of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance.

Wang Bo wrote, "I really changed after I practised cultivation. I stopped lying, because Teacher [Teacher Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Dafa] tells us that as cultivators, we don't have to say something if we don't want to say it, but every word out of our mouths must be true.

"My parents also no longer needed to urge me to study and I never cheated, no matter how difficult the exam. Teacher tells us as students we have to study well, and cultivators do things without any pursuit. We must take reputation and self-interest lightly. After I discarded selfish thoughts it became easier for me to focus on the subject itself. I didn't have too much pressure during the college entrance exam, and I took it with a calm mind. I was admitted to the Central Conservatory of Music without much difficulty. The last part of the entrance exam, an interview, was the biggest headache for most students, but I simply enjoyed the conversation with the teachers. I was not nervous at all, which really impressed all of the professors. This is a mentality achieved only through cultivation practice. In terms of personality, I now have much less jealousy than before and no longer throw temper tantrums. Although I still get angry sometimes when my parents criticise me, when I remember that I should conduct myself as a cultivator I quickly adjust my mindset and objectively evaluate my words and actions."

Her mother said, "Falun Gong gave our family health, harmony, and an outstanding child. Whenever I recall those happy days, I feel joyful, and I miss those days. I must thank Falun Gong for all of it. I must thank our benevolent Teacher."

For persisting in their belief, the family is torn apart

Jiang Zemin and the Communist Party began persecuting Falun Gong on July 20th, 1999. Wang Bo went to the Office for Letters and Calls in the spring of 2000. Her goal was to explain how she had benefited from Dafa practice and to send the message, "Falun Dafa is good" to the central government. The Central Conservatory of Music eventually learned that Wang Bo was a Falun Gong practitioner.

School officials and teachers went to Wang Bo many times. They told her to write a guarantee statement and said they would persecute her if she refused. Kind and innocent, Wang Bo chose to withdraw from school when she saw the "dilemma" confronting the school staff. These people chose persecution of the innocent over conscience.

In early 2000, Wang Bo made a joint-appeal form to request representatives at the National People's Congress to discuss Falun Gong in an open and fair manner. She was illegally arrested and taken to the Qingyuan Street Police Station in Shijiazhuang City, where the head of the police station savagely beat her and handcuffed her to a staircase for three days. The officials also extorted 200 yuan¹ from her.

Wang Bo then went to Tiananmen Square in December 2000 and unfurled a banner that read, "Stop Persecuting Falun Gong." The police beat her then and there and took her to a custody centre in Beijing. They threatened and deceived her into telling them her home address. They took her back to Shijiazhuang City. She was held at the Yudong Police Station for more than a month. Her home was ransacked and she was illegally sentenced to three years of forced labour at age 19. She became the youngest detainee in the labour camp.

Target of persecution and long-term detention

Wang Bo was regarded as a "stubborn element" at the Shijiazhuang Labour Camp in April 2001 because she persisted in her belief. She was taken to Xin'an Labour Camp in Beijing for a so-called "attacking the fortified target" and "reform." She was forbidden to sleep for six days. Those in charge also handcuffed her for a very long time and bombarded her with slanderous propaganda. She was physically tortured and mentally tormented, which completely destroyed her ability to think normally.

Similar to all of the Communist regime's past political movements, bodily destruction is not the goal; the more important goal is to destroy people's psyche--their willpower, independent thinking, and soul--and to change them into handy tools to persecute other people.

During the persecution, the Party used meticulously designed, twisted and slanderous theories to deceive and mislead Falun Gong practitioners, something more wicked than physical torture. They instill these theories in the practitioners after long-term sleep deprivation and verbal and physical abuse. Instilling these theories happens when the practitioners reach their limits of endurance and their minds are on the brink of collapse. These evil theories make some confused practitioners think they are still practising Falun Dafa while they are used to attack Dafa and whitewash the persecution.

Wang Bo was one of the deceived practitioners. In the Party's view, her life achievements made her the perfect candidate for "reform²." Agents from the Hebei Province 610 Office³, the Shijiazhuang City 610 Office, and from the Shijiazhuang City Forced Labour Camp Bureau kept a close watch on her. The officials claimed they had released Wang Bo in November 2001, but they had actually taken her to Hebei Capital Legal Education Training Centre, a brainwashing centre, for long-term detention.

In early 2002 they used Wang Bo to arrest her father, Wang Xinzhong, who was living in exile. Wang Bo and her family accepted an interview with CCTV's [Central China Television, a Party mouthpiece] Focal Point Interview program at the end of March 2002. The Party then capitalised on Wang Bo's confused state of mind and edited a programme that slandered Dafa and whitewashed the persecution. CCTV aired the program throughout the country, poisoning the minds of millions of people. Wang Bo was regarded as part of the targeted "reform achievements." Li Lanqing, head of the 610 Office, personally approved Wang Bo's return to school in September 2002, although she had been unconstitutionally deprived of an education.

Many "reformed" Falun Gong practitioners came to realise their mistakes after they left prison and published solemn announcements to expose the Party's brainwashing and persecution. In response, the Hebei Province 610 Office ordered even stricter surveillance of Wang Bo. Between September 2002 and July 2005, a police officer followed Wang Bo 24 hours a day. They took her directly to the Hebei Capital Brainwashing Centre during school holidays. She was permitted occasionally to pay visits to her relatives, accompanied by the police. Each visit varied from 15 minutes to two hours. Sometimes she did not have enough time to eat the food her relatives made for her, and she had no personal freedom.

The persecution severely traumatised Wang Bo. She tried to obtain her freedom and to return home. Long-term confinement and strict control made her want to commit suicide. She took her grandfather's blood pressure drugs and slashed her wrist. At critical times, Teacher's teaching that suicide and killing are both wrong helped her drive away her thoughts of suicide, and she refrained from committing similar acts. Wang Bo endured tremendous pain during five years of detention. It is easy to recover from physical trauma, but psychological trauma is even more agonising and harder to heal.

Exposing deception and persecution, the family of three incarcerated again

After Wang Bo graduated from university in September 2005, the Hebei Province 610 Office arranged a job for her and claimed to be "taking care" of her. In actuality, the 610 Office simply wanted Wang Bo within arm's reach for ease in controlling her. Nevertheless, Wang Bo had some personal space by this time and gradually awakened. She realised the shame of having been used to capture her father; the shame of the evildoers using her to help "reform" fellow practitioners. Her conscience was severely burdened by the fact that her public attacks on Dafa had had a terrible public impact. Her awakening meant she had no choice but to come to terms with all of her mistakes and with the Party's cruel persecution towards Falun Gong practitioners, a realisation that is much more painful than physical trauma.

Wang Bo finally saw through the Party's evil nature and identified her own weaknesses the Party had taken advantage of. To expose the facts, at the end of 2005, in the form of a video recording through an overseas media outlet, Wang Bo publicised how she had been deceived, brainwashed and used by Party officials.

Making this step took great courage, as she has experienced so much brutality and torture, witnessed so much violence and ruthlessness. She struggled with herself for a long time. Nevertheless, she stepped forward and exposed what had happened and took responsibility for the people she had deceived and the humiliation her betrayal had caused her beloved family members. She grew up and strengthened her righteous thoughts through this difficult process by taking this courageous step. Her family went into exile to avoid further persecution after Wang Bo published her experience.

After an international media outlet published Wang Bo's video, the Party's lies were once again exposed before the world. The Party was furious and conducted a blanket search for Wang Bo and her family. The family was arrested in Dalian City on July 28th, 2006. They were taken back to Shijiazhuang City and sentenced to from four years to five years in prison on fabricated charges.

Six lawyers step forward to defend the family

Wang Bo's relatives found six lawyers in Beijing who appealed and defended Wang Bo and her family. We hope more justice-loving people would lend support to the Wang Bo case.

Wang Bo has done the right thing and can now face her conscience. She did not collapse in the face of tremendous pressure because of the mighty power of Dafa, the mighty power of Truth, Compassion and Tolerance that changed her. We hope you can learn more about Falun Dafa and why it has tremendously changed more than 100 million people worldwide!

For more details, please read the article "Wang Bo Recounts How the CCP Deceived, Brainwashed, and Used Her" at

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/2/18/70058.html

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/2/18/69998.html

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/2/19/70093.html

http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2006/2/19/70101.html

Note

1. "Yuan" is the Chinese currency; 500 yuan is equal to the average monthly income of an urban worker in China.

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.

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2007/4/26/153466.html