Chinese woman finds rest from persecution
MyPlainview.com
By GAIL M. WILLIAMS | Herald Lifestyles Editor
“You cannot imagine.”
It’s a phrase that Yan Wang uses often when describing her life in China as a practitioner of Falun Dafu, or Falun Gong, as it’s more commonly known.
Falun Gong, a series of exercises, is an ancient practice that used to be passed down from one teacher to the next. In 1992 Li Hongzhi, a master of the practice, decided to make it public.
The practice, which Wang says is based on the teachings of Buddha but is not Buddhism, became wildly popular. Chinese people met in the streets to go through the series of exercises before going to work. Wang says it’s estimated that at one time, the number of practitioners of Falun Gong in China was equal to one-third the population of the United States.
Falun Gong is not a religion, Wang said. “It’s very loosely controlled. There is no church, no building to gather at.”
Nevertheless, she said, the practice has spiritual meaning, promotes meditation, and is deeply connected to thousands of years of Chinese culture.
The practice, which adheres to the principles of truth, compassion and tolerance, has great energy — so much energy that the Chinese government became “jealous,” Wang says, and banned it.
Wang, who grew up in Shanghai, had learned and adhered to Communist teachings her entire life. Nevertheless, she was unwilling to give up the source of peace and energy she had found.
For a time Wang’s detention was deferred, first because she was pregnant, then because she was allowed a one-year period for nursing.
Employed at a German firm that imported and exported machinery in Shanghai, Wang let her employers know about her conflict with the government.
“At first they had sympathy,” she said. “They said, ‘We don’t care, we get excellent feedback from your work.’ ”
The government then took the next step and sent police to threaten to close the company, “because I’m so stubborn,” Wang said. “My boss was under great pressure.”
Wang was let go from the company with two months’ salary as compensation.
Depressed at this point, Wang decided to leave her husband and child and run away from home. She lived in another city with the mother of a fellow practitioner for about a year.
“But I missed home so much,” she said. Finally, in 2002, she called her husband on his cell phone, which was being monitored, and Wang was arrested.
“They want to divide husband from wife, child from parent, boss from employee,” Wang said.
“I was very upset,” she continued. “I went on a hunger strike for 10 days. They torture you by force-feeding you (through a nasal tube). You’re handcuffed to the window bars. It’s a bad evil.
“There are no judicial procedures. It’s the same as, or worse than, prison.”
In Plainview, Wang said, she can go into a store and see some of the items she and her fellow prisoners made. These include strings of Christmas baubles and lights, stuffed bears and rabbits, chopsticks, footwear, shirts and artificial flowers.
The day began at 5 or 5:30 a.m. and continued until 9:30 or 10 a.m., with time out for meals. If a worker failed to make a quota, meat was subtracted from their meals. If an order was urgent, the day extended until midnight. Some of the workers would fall asleep standing up.
“They were rude, harsh and cruel,” she said. “They treat you like a slave or an animal, not like a human being.”
The rules in the camp were different for Folun Gong members — in that they were worse. Women over 55 were not supposed to be incarcerated. However, Folun Gong women were that old and older. A prison guard, usually a drug addict, Wang says, was assigned to follow them at all times.
Adding to the physical hardships was the constant brainwashing.
“Answer question, answer question, answer question,” Wang said. “Write what you believe. You become like a ghost. You survive by telling lies.”
In addition, Wang’s family was constantly watched and pressured during the 2 1/2 years she spent in the labor camp.
In 2005, Wang was released to her home where the harassment continued. She went to work for Cooper Industries, a U.S. company in Shanghai. Wang continued to talk about her beliefs at work. Once again, the company was supportive at first, but eventually she was warned to stop talking.
On Christmas Day 2007, everything changed.
“That was the big turning point for my family and my life. A complete change to everything,” Wang said.
Her husband was granted a visa to come to Salt Lake City as a visiting scholar from the University of Shanghai. Wang applied for and received permission for herself and their daughter to visit him.
On the plane from Shanghai to San Francisco, Wang recalls that she and her daughter slept. “So blessing,” she said. On a layover in the San Francisco airport, Wang took out one of her Falun Gong books and began to read it. Realizing that she was at last free to read what she wished in public brought tears running down her cheeks.
After their one-year visa was up, Wang and her family applied for and received political asylum. They plan to apply for U.S. citizenship next year.
Dr. Charles Huang is a professor in the Exercise and Sports Sciences School at Wayland Baptist University. Their daughter Carrie, a talented artist who also takes piano lessons, will start seventh grade at Coronado this year.
Wang did have a job in Salt Lake City and expects to work again, eventually. In the meantime she is learning to cook Chinese food, something her mother-in-law did back in Shanghai, and enjoying the peace and quiet of a small town.
“People are so nice here,” she said.
She worries, however, about members of the Falun Gong who are still persecuted in China. She points to a 2007 study called “Bloody Harvest” by David Matas and David Kilgour that alleges the Chinese harvest organs from Falun Gong practitioners.
“China is so big, the biggest country in the world,” she said. “They pretend to be civilized, but people disappear. I hope more people become aware.”