PureInsight | September 6, 2004
[PureInsight.org]
Chapter 2: Father and Daughter
June 9, 2003. 11 a.m. Beijing, China
It was raining heavily as Zhang and Li walked hand in hand to see Li's father.
Li's head rested slightly on her husband's shoulders as he tried to cover both of them from the rain with an umbrella. To most people, they would have looked like star-struck lovers ignoring the stormy weather. To them, their relationship was a marriage that had only grown stronger after three years of separation.
Li's father, a wealthy businessman with a lot of influential connections in the Communist Party, lived in a big mansion. But, apparently in consideration of the safety of his daughter and son-in-low, he had agreed to meet them at one of his smaller and rarely used houses with Li Anguo, Zhang and Li's 3-year old daughter.
They were on Changan Street now, where the house was. Zhang and Li trudged through the water that had accumulated on the roads until finally, Zhang pointed out to a house that had the number '35' on it.
The rain eased off a bit as they knocked on the door. But as Li looked up at the sky, she was certain that the storm would return; the dark clouds looked ominous.
The door opened slowly to reveal a plump, balding man. Li's father glanced at his daughter and son-in-law silently, looked around discreetly and then motioned them in. He closed the door and locked it as soon as Zhang and Li were inside.
The sounds from two pairs of small feet running on the floor could soon be heard.
"Daddy!" Little Anguo shouted out as she ran towards her father. She jumped up and hugged Zhang, who lifted her up and hoisted her against his shoulders.
Li started to cry as she watched the emotional reunion of father and daughter who hadn't seen each other for 3 years.
Zhang hugged his daughter as Li went to join them. "Mommy", Anguo cried out, as Li, smiling, stroked her little head.
Li's father coughed from the chair he was sitting on.
Zhang stroked his daughter as he talked to his father-in-law, "I really appreciate what you are doing for us, taking care of our daughter. I know it is not easy for you."
Li Juan placed her hand on her husband's shoulders and squeezed him gently. She wondered what her father would say. He had approved of her choice of a life partner before the persecution of Falun Gong had begun in 1999, but since then, he had pressured her to divorce her husband and give up practicing Falun Gong herself.
But this time, her father looked somber and quiet. After a few minutes, he asked Zhang quietly, "Why did you come back?"
Li felt her heart skip a beat. She looked up at her husband to see the hurt on his face. She looked at little Anguo, who seemed bewildered at what was going on.
She stood by her husband, putting her arms around his shoulder to show her support.
Zhang stood silently. He seemed to sense where this was leading.
Li's father sighed and said, "You know, your father called me and asked me to help in whatever way I could to get you out of prison. I had to painfully tell him that I couldn't; I had enough trouble just getting my daughter out of jail to cause trouble to my reputation in the Communist Party for a long time."
Li started to protest. "Baba", she said, "does that mean you don't care about Zhang? Is your standing within the Communist Party more important than me or my husband getting tortured by the most sadistic people in the world?"
Li's father didn't even seem to hear her. He continued talking to Zhang, "You know that they were devastated after what happened to your sister, right? Do you think they could afford to lose their son as well?"
Li was shocked. She turned around to look at her husband's face and saw tears streaming from his eyes. She knew that, more than anything else, any talk about his sister would really upset him.
Zhang's younger sister, Chan Juan, was a Falun Gong practitioner herself. She had been only 25 years old when she had been illegally arrested, gang-raped by Chinese policemen, murdered, and her dead body thrown onto some untended farmland.
Chan Juan had gone with Zhang to appeal for justice for Falun Gong in early 2000, 6 months after the persecution of Falun Gong began in China, and 6 months after the persecution had shown no signs of relenting. Like millions of other Falun Gong practitioners, Chan and Zhang had gone to peacefully present their cases to the government in the hope that the government would realize that Falun Gong was only a peaceful meditation practice that made people healthier and improved their morality.
The police had responded by violently arresting them in public at Tiananmen Square as they appealed. Both of them had been illegally tried in China's state-run court system and sent to forced labor camps.
Three months later, Chan's decomposed body had been found on the farmland by a ground inspector. Her parents, who didn't practice Falun Gong, had been devastated by the loss and carried her dead body to the police station to find out more.
There, they were told that their daughter had gone insane by practicing Falun Gong, run off and probably met with some disaster.
Her parents found out what had happened later by hiring a private doctor to do an autopsy. But the policemen had later arrested the doctor and carried Chan's dead body away, slapping the father violently when he had tried to stop them. A government doctor's autopsy report "confirmed" the police's stance on the death, and Chan's body had been cremated without permission to destroy the evidence.
In Jiang Zemin's unrelenting campaign against Falun Gong, this was one of the most commonly used tactics – to demonize Falun Gong practitioners as insane, mentally unstable, and as a threat to society.
While in actuality, the opposite was true. The victims – who were being brutally tortured and devastated mentally, physically and spiritually – were being portrayed as criminals, while the real criminals, hiding behind the powerful Communist state apparatus, laughed with perceived invincibility.
All evidence was immediately destroyed to prevent people from finding out the truth about the wicked and shocking persecution of kind-hearted people that was going on in the hinterlands of China's forced labor camp system and police stations.
In the room, there was tight silence as Li hugged her husband, trying to comfort him and blanket the dark memories that she was sure enveloped him. Her father sat quietly in his chair, wearing an enigmatic expression that made it hard to say whether he was sympathetic or critical.
Li's started to remember Chan Juan, who had been as much her little sister as she had been Zhang's …
November 6, 1998. 6:30 p.m. Beijing, China
Li, Zhang and Chan laughed over a joke as they entered the massive apartment where Li's father lived. Over the last 10 months, Li and Zhang had fallen in love. They had met at the Falun Gong practice sites and study groups and eventually started to like and date each other. Dating, of course, for them meant just simply talking to each other, eating out together on weekends and exchanging sweet nothings that make sense only in a pristine and innocent romance like theirs.
Chan gave one of her short but pretty laughs as she asked her bigger brother, "So, Zhang, when are you going to propose to Li?" She had a little twinkle in her eyes.
Li tried to suppress a smirk as Zhang looked embarrassed. He replied, "Ummm … soon, very soon."
They went into the house to be met by Li's father. He welcomed them with a smile, but Li wasn't sure whether she could detect a trace of discomfort on his face.
She knew that he was worried about his possible future son-in-law.
Li knew that her father didn't worry about Zhang himself. Zhang belonged to one of the well-educated and well-off families in Beijing. Like his father, who was the dean of a reputed university, Zhang seemed set for success in his academic career; a career that was very well respected in China.
It was because Li's father was worried about Falun Gong itself. He didn't practice Falun Gong and even though he knew that it was good, he was worried because the government had given stronger and stronger indications that it was regarding Falun Gong as a threat. And anything that was a threat to the government was a threat to him and his standing in the Communist Party.
But for now, he seemed to have no problems in having his daughter sitting alongside Zhang and Chan at the dinner table. Even though Li's father kept away from the conversation, the other three chatted with each other, sentences interspersed with quiet laughter.
"Well", Zhang said after they had all finished dinner. He looked a little shy. He turned around to look into Li's eyes. "Li, do you like me?"
In the corner, Chan giggled.
Li smiled at Zhang, her face growing red. "Of course, Zhang", she replied, "We've been going steady for so long. Of course, I love you."
She quickly glanced at her father to see how he was taking it. Li's father had the stoic and expressionless look on his face, as though he understood completely what was going on.
"Well", Zhang asked, a little more serious this time. "Do you like me enough to marry me?"
Li turned around to look at Zhang in surprise. She then looked at her father again. Both the faces looked eager for an answer.
"Well", she mumbled, "yes, but …"
"Well, if you don't have any objections to marrying me", Zhang said, a little more shyly this time, "I hope you wont mind putting on this little engagement ring that I bought for you."
As he said this, he pulled a little box from his shirt pocket, opened the lid, and showed Li the small but beautiful diamond engagement ring inside it.
Li gasped in surprise and happiness. She placed her index finger on the little ring and stroked it. Then she turned to her father, "Father …"
Her father nodded, as Zhang said, "I've already talked with him, dear. It's up to you now."
Tears flowed down Li's face as she happily and vigorously nodded her head.
As Zhang fitted the engagement ring gently on Li's little finger, Chan laughed pleasantly in the background as she joked, "Well, my dear sister-in-law, you have your task cut out for you. Imagine, you'll have to live with my brother for the rest of your life … it's not something I envy …"
June 9, 2003. 11:30 a.m. Beijing, China
Memories of the pleasant laughter rang hollow in Li's ears. Now, Chan had gone from both their lives. Her young, innocent and kind life had been brought to an end in a brutal and horrifying manner.
Li saw that her husband had closed his eyes tightly, and tears were flowing from his eyes.
How many lives had been lost in the persecution? How many people had been subject to a mental and physical humiliation and persecution beyond the imagination of the world's people!
"Baba", she asked her father, "You know that Chan was gang-raped and murdered. You know that my husband was tortured in the most cruel and inhumane ways known to man. What do you have to say to that?"
Li's father threw his hands up. "My child, you are still too young. I brought you up in a very sheltered manner. You can't fight a limb with a hand; your peaceful appeals don't stand a chance if Jiang Zemin wants to use the government, media and the wicked and corrupt officers under him to destroy you. I just want you and your husband to consider that."
"But father", Li replied, softly this time, "You know what Falun Gong has given us. You know that it has made me a kinder and gentle lady. Would you have called me that before I practiced Falun Gong?"
"And my health! Remember, you used to joke that I was a 'medicine pot' when I was younger. Ever since I have practiced Falun Gong, I haven't had to take medicine; not because the principles of Falun Gong prohibit it, like what the slander on government-run media claims, but because I have truly become healthier and happier through practicing Falun Gong."
Li's father shrugged, "Child, I understand that you and many others have benefited through the practice. Believe me, I am very happy that you and your husband practice Falun Gong; in fact, I would say that I couldn't have found you a better husband. But, why do you have to go out to appeal when you can practice quietly at home?"
This time, Zhang replied. Wiping away his tears, in a quiet voice, he replied, "We do it for Chan, and the millions like her."
He continued, in a quiet but firm voice, "Uncle, you know that during the Cultural Revolution in the 70s, Chinese intellectuals and respected people from all classes in society were humiliated in public, harassed and murdered. Why? Because their ideologies and beliefs differed just that little bit from that of the Chairman at that time. The full extent of the evilness of that catastrophe wasn't known to Chinese people until much later. In fact, this is still not known to many people outside China."
"And the Holocaust. Hitler was able to persecute and massacre 6 million Jews during the Nazi rule simply because the world didn't know what was going on under that well-hidden and powerful media propaganda from the Nazis. In fact, even the Germans at that time are reported to have supported Hitler's actions because they believed the Nazi propaganda. The full extent of that horror was revealed only after Germany was freed of Nazi occupation."
"We have to appeal – so that the mistakes of history are not repeated."
Li's father looked uncomfortable. "Look", he said, "I don't know anything about the persecution or anything. I only know that the government says it is wrong. Now, I know that if Jiang Zemin says that something is wrong, then it must be right, but I have to pretend that I believe it and totally comply with it."
Li started to protest, but her father got up and walked towards the window sill. His hands were trembling.
Li started to feel uneasy. Why was her father so tense and guarded? What was he expecting?
Suddenly, she heard the sound of police car sirens in the distance.
