During the 22 years of my education, I have experienced sweetness and bitterness, hardship and struggles, and also earned many honours. However, I feel as calm as still water. I have been inspired by the well-known lyric, “The hair of young men might grow white with deep regret” (“Full River Red” by Chinese national hero Yue Fei 1102-1141AD) Thus with my determination and continuous efforts, I achieved success in my academic studies. As a high school student, my grades were much better than others and I was quiet but carefree. As a college student, I studied books of all fields, determined to acquire the latest scientific and technological knowledge. Therefore, I earned all kinds of scholarships. Technology and technique being the top priority, I was chosen to attend technical meetings and exhibitions because of my expertise. I have been referred to as one of the country’s most remarkable postgraduates and was awarded many special scholarships. I was even esteemed as a heroic figure in my school! When pursuing my further studies in Britain, my academic research had earned recognition from over twenty groups of experts from various countries.
August 19th 1994 was an unforgettable day in my life. I was lucky enough to read, “Zhuan Falun” [The main text of Falun Gong] by Mr. Li Hongzhi. The peaceful and compassionate appearance of Teacher Li felt so familiar to me. Holding the book in my hands, I felt a powerful flow of energy circling around my arms and chest. Without a break I read the book twice and was moved to tears. Having been confined to my previous boundaries of science, I suddenly felt enlightened and experienced the immeasurable greatness of Falun Dafa. Several days later, the enterogastritis that had plagued me for almost ten years surprisingly disappeared, and so did my insomnia. I became the most cheerful person in the world and introduced Falun Gong to all of my friends and acquaintances. I kept studying the Fa [here referring to Falun Dafa books and articles], trying to improve my moral standards and living by the universal principles of “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.” I felt so serene and harmonious and experienced considerable improvements in my working and learning efficiency.
One night in December 1994, I had a very vivid dream. I dreamt that several fellow practitioners from Tsing Hua University and I were on our way to a remote mountain summit to practise the Falun Gong exercises in the early morning. It was dark and icy cold. When we passed through Zizhuyuan Park, I felt almost frozen. Suddenly, someone behind me put a coat on me and I was warmed up. As I turned back to thank that kind person, I found that it was Yongjie Zhu (now my fiancée who is detained in China by the police). After waking up from the dream, I found the dream unbelievably amazing. Yongjie Zhu was my elementary school classmate. Because my parents were transferred to another unit, I was also transferred to another school and I had not seen her for eight years. When we met each other again, I was already a freshman in university and she was a young lady. We met each other the second time during the winter vacation of my third year in university. At that time, there were many girls eager to make friends with me. My lasting memory about Yongjie was that she was the class leader and I the vice class leader in our elementary school. In my childhood, I was very naughty and often played some jokes on her.
Of course, I would never easily forget such a vivid dream. It flashed across my mind that I should introduce Falun Gong to her. During the winter vacation of my senior year in university, I went back to my hometown in Xinjiang. By accident she came back to Xinjiang from Shanghai too. So, I went to her home by bus and took the book Falun Gong with me to show her. She was very worried about her father who was hospitalised and I tried my best to help her. That winter vacation she had been busy taking care of her sick father, and thus I had no other opportunity to see her. Feeling regretful, I was about to return to Beijing. On Labour Day, I made up my mind to travel to Shanghai to introduce the Fa to her again. I took the express train and brought Zhuan Falun with me. However, her classmates and friends kept her too busy. One week had passed by so quickly that I left Zhuan Falun to her and told her to read it attentively and to find a nearby practice site if possible. As a result, I often called her to exchange my personal understanding of the Fa with her, in hope that I could encourage her. Later, she found a practice site in Dr. Sun Yat-sen Park in Shanghai. During the summer vacation of August 1995, she went back to Xinjiang to work there after her graduation from college. Once again I travelled to Shanghai to help her carry her luggage and went back to Xinjiang with her by train. At that time, we became boyfriend and girlfriend.
In June 1998, I asked her to come and work in Beijing. In early 1999, we decided to get married but my parents were against our marriage. My parents had been against our relationship from the beginning but Yongjie had never been angry with my parents. She still waved me off as I boarded the aeroplane heading for Britain, wearing a sweet smile on her face. Since then we have been separated for three and half years.
What I most admired about Yongjie was that she changed my parents’ negative opinion of her. From then on, my mother often talked about Yongjie on the phone, saying that she missed both of us and that she wished that Yongjie could visit her during the holidays. Due to her efforts, my parents approved of our marriage. As soon as I went back to China or she came to Britain, we could get married. Last year my mother had an operation. Yongjie took the plane from Beijing to Xinjiang to take care of my sick mother for two weeks. Only before she boarded her plane did she call me to tell me her plan. She took care of my sick mum for me. Yongjie also got along very well with her colleagues. She made many of her friends and acquaintances understand the truth of Falun Gong despite the lies spread by the Jiang regime. After I went abroad, she still gave me support, helping me to search for academic information and sharing my daily burden.
In 1996, the persecution of Falun Gong had already begun to surface. At that time, the publication of Falun Gong books was banned. From 1996 on, there had been slanderous reports of Falun Gong in all major newspapers, TV stations and radio stations. In the summer of 1998, our exercise practice and Dafa activities in Tsing Hua University were restricted. There were also slanderous reports about Falun Gong in the Tsing Hua University journal, so the practitioners in Tsing Hua University found the school authorities to tell them the truth about Falun Gong. In 1998, we knew that Ministry of State Security had faxed one paper to Tsing Hua slandering Falun Gong. Apparently, the evil people in China had sought all dirty means to make troubles for Falun Gong regardless of people’s inner wishes and the fact that Falun Gong had brought health to countless people. On April 24th 1999, the police in Tientin arrested Falun Gong practitioners during a peaceful demonstration.
On April 25th 1999, Zhu Yongjie and I decided to go to Zhongnanhai to appeal for Falun Gong. We sincerely hoped that the Central Government could understand the inner wishes of its citizens and stop the evil people from attacking Falun Gong. At that time, Premier Zhu Rongji promised to investigate and deal with the situation. The Premier’s kind gesture earned him credit from global media. The global media thought that China would be able to move on from the 1989 Tiananmen Square event towards human rights and democracy. However, Jiang insisted on his dictatorship and started the most brutal persecution of Falun Gong. Jiang controlled the state-run propaganda machine to defame and slander Falun Gong, and ordered the police to persecute Falun Gong practitioners as well as their relatives. Numerous families were ruined, with the whole country being dominated by him. Jiang used the Chinese consulates around the world to spread slanderous attacks on Falun Gong, to get involved in other states’ domestic affairs, to threaten overseas practitioners by refusing to extend their passports, and to force other countries to accept the “black list”. Jiang has been inflicting horrifying persecution on “Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance” and thus committing crimes against humanity.
Regardless of the laws and the National Constitution, the Chinese authorities charged and persecuted the Falun Gong practitioners at whim. Even the academic fields unrelated to politics were not left alone. For example, many Tsing Hua graduates were persecuted. My friend who was also a teaching assistant in Tsing Hua, Meng Chun, was charged with subversion against the government through the Internet and sentenced to ten years of imprisonment. Yao Yueh and Liu Wen Yu were individually sentenced to twelve and thirteen years of imprisonment. Yu Ping was sentenced to four years of imprisonment. In particular, Yuan Chiang who set up the practice site in Tsing Hua together was tortured to death at the age of 29.
On the eve of the 16th Party Congress in October 2002, under pressure from the police, Zhu Yongjie was forced to become homeless and jobless. Usually before the coming of important political campaigns or anniversaries, the Chinese police harass Falun Gong practitioners. On November 4th, the Ministry of State Security in Beijing secretly arrested Zhu Yongjie. So far we have no idea of her whereabouts. Now I am very concerned about the safety of my fiancée. I am aware that the police in China could do anything under Jiang’s orders. On July 20th and 21st of 1999, I had been detained twice just because I made an appeal for Falun Gong. I had experienced how the police crazily beat the practitioners under Jiang’s orders.
Today when I am being awarded my doctorate, I call on all people around the world to urge China to promptly stop the persecution of Falun Gong and to unconditionally release all the Falun Gong practitioners, including my fiancée. I hope that this tragedy will not be repeated.
Translated from Chinese at:
http://www.yuanming.net/articles/200212/15578.html
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