The Truth about the April 25 Appeal Made Me Abandon Atheism

Ms. Li Xiaoyu was born in a remote village of Southeastern China. She grew up in nature, among streams and mountains. Educated by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), she was an unrelenting atheist. After seeing ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners appealing on April 25, 1999, she started to ponder over her atheist belief and began searching for a spiritual belief. After eight years of searching, she finally began Falun Dafa cultivation.

On this 11-year anniversary of April 25, 1999, I interviewed Ms. Li, who currently resides in Australia.

Reporter: Can you briefly tell us your experiences after arriving in Australia?

Li Xiaoyu: I immigrated to Australia at the end of April 2004 as a technology émigré. When we arrived here, my son was not yet four. My husband and I rented a house in Neutral Bay. I should say that we arrived here at a good time. What I mean is that Australia's economy was flourishing, and jobs were easy to find. I found a job within one month. Because of my work, we moved from Sydney to Perth. I started contacting several Falun Gong practitioners in Perth.

Reporter: When did you begin to contact Falun Gong practitioners?

Li Xiaoyu: It was 2005. I remember I attended a lecture on China's economy given by Professor Yuan Hongbing held in Western Australia Library. Several Falun Gong practitioners were also there. After the lecture, I chatted with them and found out that they had a booth in front of the library every Saturday. They were there, regardless of the weather, to introduce Falun Dafa and clarify the truth to people. I often went to the library on the weekends and chatted with them. I considered myself a friend of Falun Gong, because I understood the truth about the April 25 Appeal and the ban on July 20,1999 and the fabricated self-immolation on Tiananmen Square. My job was in software development, so I was able to obtain information from overseas through certain software to avoid being detected by the CCP Internet police.

Reporter: You said you considered yourself a "Friend of Falun Gong." What was your impression of Falun Gong?

Li Xiaoyu: It was because I knew the truth that I supported Falun Gong. When the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party came out in January 2005, I withdrew from the CCP. But I had never thought of practicing Falun Gong at the time. Speaking about Falun Gong, it is really a reflection process. The first time I heard of Falun Gong was in 1998. I was simply not very interested in qigong and just knew there was such a phenomenon of qigong in the community. And then there were so many types of qigong at the time. Friends and colleagues were practicing. I was young and had never been seriously ill. Besides, being a typical atheist, when people talked about qigong, I did not have much feeling toward them and considered them superstitious. In 1998, I was working at a civil aviation research institute. There was a large group of people in my unit that read Zhuan Falun together during lunchtime. It seems unbelievable now. At that time I really did not believe in the existence of deities, so when a friend of mine told me about ethics, karma, and the concept of cultivation, I simply disagreed and I said coldly, "What is this bad karma or virtue?" But after the appeal on April 25, I began to re-examine these ideas.

Reporter: What factors made you examine your thoughts?

Li Xiaoyu: It was actually very simple. Although I had never practiced qigong, my intuition was that there have been so many people practicing qigong in Chinese society over the years, such as Tai Chi, etc., but are doing nothing but exercising. It seemed illogical to me that, all of a sudden, these people were having any thoughts about their government. Especially those colleagues of mine; they just did exercises and were ordinary people like me. How come, all of a sudden, were they interested in politics? At that time, I felt that the the Chinese Communist Party's negative publicity was not credible. When I understood the situation regarding that appeal, I had great admiration for those Falun Gong practitioners and thought they were not the same as others. I thought I should consider believing in something.

I have been interested in ancient Chinese literature and traditional culture and have learned from them, such as the Four Books and the Song Dynasty poetry. I am also very familiar with Dream of the Red Chamber and other classics. The April 25 incident opened the gate for me. As I revisited the cultures of past dynasties, I suddenly noticed that they were related to the deities, especially Dream of the Red Chamber, which starts with deities and ends with cultivation practice. Zhuangzi and Lie Zi both describe deities and men flying in the wind. Perhaps the ancient account is the true account of the universe. I thus had a new insight into the traditional culture. Although I didn't start practicing Falun Gong, in fact, I had already abandoned atheism.

After I came to Australia, I felt that I should be integrated into the local society, so I joined a Catholic training class nearby and began studying the Bible three times each week. I studied very diligently and didn't miss a single class. It lasted for more than a year, until my second child was born. Because I had a difficult delivery, I had to convalesce for a month following the birth of my baby. That and the inconvenience of getting to and from the class interrupted my Bible study. Since I was having a hard time recovering and had no one to help me in a foreign country, I thought of how I could get into in better shape. I suddenly thought of Falun Gong, because I had heard so many experiences of miraculous healing and fitness from practicing Falun Gong. Furthermore, Falun Gong advocates of Truthfulness-Benevolence-Forbearance, which I thought was in line with my desire for self-cultivation. So I decided to learn Falun Gong. By coincidence, a Falun Gong practitioner lived in the house behind mine, so I started practicing Falun Gong. I remember the first time I did the exercises was on October 28, 2006.

Reporter: Thank you for sharing your experiences with Clearwisdom readers.