Japan Times: Falun Gong seeks peace and freedom to practice (Photo)

Shinly Shaw is slender with short hair, and Chinese. This is how she described herself so I could pick her out in the crowd. Luckily we found one another in Tokyo Station, but only the second time around.

Shinly -- the English spelling of how it sounds in Chinese -- is a practitioner of Falun Gong, a form of physical and spiritual training that has its roots in ancient Chinese culture to strengthen the body and mind. "Falun" is a [..] term meaning "law wheel" and "gong" is natural energy, as in "qi gong."

From Jiangsu Province, near Shanghai, Shinly moved to Beijing to work at a publishing house. " It was the time of the open policy, so after a year I went south. That's where I met my ex-husband."

In 1996, the couple came to Japan. "He's a businessman, now back in China. I can't return because of the persecution of Falun Gong there." Living in Koto Ward with her 9-year-old son, she works for a trading company, where "I get to use my Chinese, English and Japanese."

When she realized she would have to stay in Japan, she got a job as a waitress to pick up the language. This earned her a place at Ochanomizu University, and a master's in child psychology.

She first heard about Falun Gong from her mother in China. "She had tried all kinds of techniques and treatments for her eyes. Within one month of practicing Falun Gong, the pressure had lifted."

Shinly read lectures by Li Hongzhi, who [introduced] Falun Gong in 1992. " I found his writings very logical, with a good understanding of life and the world. As soon as I began to practice, I felt my body lightening and strengthening."

It was only after she came across practitioners exercising in a local park in Tokyo that she became involved on a daily basis. "Falun Gong explains the principles of the universe -- truthfulness, benevolence and tolerance -- and
how to apply them to be a better person."

Chinese authorities clamped down July 20, 1999. From midnight, homes were broken into, and practitioners "disappeared." Immediately Shinly and others began a campaign appealing for the release of those detained and the freedom to practice in peace.

At the end of 1999, she traveled to Beijing. "There used to be a place outside the legal system where you could appeal for help, but when I got there, it had been closed down. Not knowing what else to do, I went to Tiananmen Square. Finding practioners practicing or meditating as a form of protest, I joined them."

Shinly was arrested. There were many other practioners being held, she says. "Most were bruised and beaten. One woman told me she had been without food or drink or allowed to go to the toilet for five days. Police called her a panda because of her two eyes were bruised black. There was consideration for practitioners from overseas, but still I was stripped naked and slapped around."

Transported to a police station, she was interrogated for 12 hours. What was her intention in coming to Beijing? Who else did she know practicing Falun Gong? She was then bundled into the back of a van, taken to a detention center and held for a month. "There was a lot of brainwashing, trying to get me to change my mind. But I found Falun Gong had made me strong. No, we couldn't openly practice or meditate; all the prisoners would be punished to make them hate us."

When interrogated, Shinly tried to be as direct and open as possible. "When they said, 'Have you changed your mind?' and 'Stop Falun Gong now!' I would simply say, 'No, it's my right.' Released (there were no real charges), she
went straight back to Tiananmen Square and was arrested again.

"In the basement of the detention center, I saw a practitioner, her legs beaten to a pulp. All she did was try take pictures of what happened on the square that day. I heard of a medical researcher from Japan, also trying to take pictures, who was later sent to prison for three years under a charge of 'disclosing state secrets.'

"I also saw two small children, aged 7 and 6, with their mother and grandmother, all practitioners. They were still there when I was taken away."

Some 437 deaths have been confirmed by Falun Gong, but Chinese officials say the figure is nearer 1,600. Over 100,000 practioners have been detained, with 20,000 in labor camps. Many are receiving so-called psychiatric
treatment.

Shinly has entered Hong Kong three times, once wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Stop persecuting Falun Gong in China." "I was interrogated for five hours before they let me in." The last time was June 29, celebrating five years under mainland rule. "I was detained, body-searched, then 10 men rolled me in a carpet and dumped me in the doorway of a Northwest carrier."

Shinly says she doesn't want to get hurt, but has to stick to her principles. "My son understands I'm doing the correct thing. When I ask what I should do if police beat me, he says, 'Insist!' "

Falun Gong is not a religion, has no leaders or headquarters, and no money is involved. Rather, Shinly insists, it is a peaceful form of personal development. "Falun Gong touches people's hearts, and that is what scares China."

On July 25, with a vote of 420-0, the U.S. Congress passed a resolution calling on the Chinese regime to stop persecuting Falun Gong. (The Chinese government estimates there are between 70 million and 100 million practitioners within its borders alone.)

In Japan, there are official moves to condemn the treatment of practioners within China. This is largely in response to the case of Yoko Kaneko (Luo Rong), a Japanese spouse living in Niigata before her arrest in China in May.

On July 29, a nonpartisan alliance of 21 members of the Diet met for an inaugural meeting, with Makino Seishu in the chair. The same afternoon, he and the Association for Rescuing Yoko Kaneko (now detained in a labor camp) brought the appeal to the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Shinly thanks me quietly for listening to her story. "We are striving to make people more aware of what is happening. Pain is not so hard to bear. It is the brainwashing, being told you are causing trouble to your family, friends, the state. They even held my mother for a week. She still practices, but she is afraid to talk about it."

Falun Dafa Information Center Web sites: www.faluninfo.net,
faluninfo.net/compassion4/default.asp. Falun Dafa in Japan:
www.falundafa-jp.net. For Yoko Kaneko's case, www.rescue-yoko.org/