By Chen Teng in China

(Clearwisdom.net) My name is Chen Teng, and I am 16 years old. I live in the Shihuyuan area of Weicheng District, Weifang City, Shandong Province. When I was 3 years old my parents divorced. I stayed with my mother and grandma. They were unhappy most of the time due to my mom's divorce and my grandma's illnesses, so I spent much of my childhood in a sad and cheerless environment.

In 1995 when I was 7 years old, one by one, everyone in my family started practicing Falun Gong. Since then my mom became happy again, and Grandma totally recovered from all her illnesses. At last I heard laughter in my family. I started to experience and understand what real happiness is. But these happy days didn't last long. Since July 1999, Falun Gong has been persecuted by Jiang's regime. My family was broken up simply because they remained determined to practice Falun Gong, the practice which brought us such happiness. My grandma, who was an outstanding teacher honored by the provincial government, and my aunt Sun Xiaobai, who was a teacher in the Fulong Elementary School, both died as a result of the persecution. My mom, Sun Xiaomei, who used to be the volunteer assistant at our Falun Gong practice site, was arrested many times and now is in detention again. As for myself, I can't go to school any more and I was forced to leave my home when I was 12 years old.

My heart breaks when I recall my family's previous happiness, and our current tragedy caused by the persecution.

In the early morning of July 20, 1999, policemen from the Police Department of Weifang City abducted my mom. She was released one month later. During that period, my grandma and aunt both died from the persecution. At the beginning I was told that they had gone back to our hometown in the Northwest of China (the grown-ups were afraid that I couldn't bear the tragedy) and I believed it. After I realized that Grandma had passed away, I felt as if the sky had fallen and I couldn't accept the truth for a long time. Grandma was the closest one to me in my family, even closer than Mom. I grew up with Grandma. I was extremely sad. After school I often imaged that Grandma was still sitting there, studying Falun Dafa. But I was disappointed every time I got home. After Grandma's death, Mom and I depended on each other to go through the hard times that followed.

At the end of 1999 we were forced to move to a little room in the factory where Mom was working. That room was no bigger than 20 square meters. There was no heat in the winter. In the summer there were a lot of bugs, especially mosquitoes. We had to use a barrel as the toilet inside the room. We lived in that kind of environment for over half year. My heart was hit hard.

Later Mom was detained in a dormitory of the factory. With no one else to depend on, I was sent to Mom's detention place. There are two beds in the detention room, one for the guard and another one for Mom and me. Except for school, I stayed in that room. There I couldn't even find a place to do my homework. During the detention period the huge light in that room had to be turned on at night. We couldn't sleep normally at all. We stayed there for two months. One guard told us, "If it was me who had to be detained in such an environment for two months, I would have gone crazy long ago."

In the summer of 2000, Mom was arrested because she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. I was forced to live in somebody else's home. Mom was released after 17 days in detention.

On October 1, 2000 Mom and I went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. After we came back, my teacher questioned me many times, and the police came to my school (the Examination Elementary School of Kuiweng District) to harass me. According to my teacher, the police ordered the school to dismiss me.

In November 2000 Mom was arrested again. They blocked our home for two days and two nights before they abducted Mom. They didn't allow me go to school during that time. After Mom was arrested, I stayed in a fellow practitioner's home. I often wandered around after school until very late because of the pain of losing Mom. On one New Year's Eve when I went home to my fellow practitioner's house, I found about ten people from her family were gathered there having dinner. At that moment I was not sure whether I should walk in or leave. At last I walked in. Although their whole family treated me very well, I still felt very uncomfortable. But I couldn't tell anybody about it.

A month later Mom was released. When the police tried to take Mom away again, she was forced to leave home and became homeless. After Mom left, the police followed me everywhere. Once when I went to an Internet café, a plainclothes policeman sat beside me. His interphone was hanging on his waist and making noise from time to time. My classmate told me there was a policeman there; but they didn't know that the policeman was tracking me.

At the end of 2000, when I was 12 years old, I too was forced to leave school and became homeless. Afterwards the authorities informed one of my aunts that they would send me to the juvenile detention facility. My aunt was afraid for me and asked somebody to pass that message along to me.

In April 2002, Mom was arrested again during our homeless time. This time I felt so bad. The fellow practitioner who stayed with me told me that I talked in my sleep so much that it seemed as if I didn't sleep at all. But I never used to talk in my sleep before.

Over the past four years of wandering, the concept of home has become a blur to me. Around 2001, I slipped into my house once. When I opened the door, I saw that the home was messy and spider webs were everywhere. Now I don't even know where my house key is. When I see other kids my age enjoying the most wonderful time of their life in school and living a light-hearted life, protected by their parents, I wished I could be just like them, even just to have a stable warm place to live in. That is just a dream. It is impossible for this dream to come true under the persecution conducted by Jiang's regime. Even so, I don't feel sad because what I'm doing is the most righteous thing. I am upholding the truth. It is my honor, my pride, and the true meaning of my life.

Mom became kind and strong after she began practicing Falun Gong. That affected me a lot. I feel a great deal of pride for her, because I have such a great mother who can give up all her benefits to safeguard Falun Dafa and Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance. But after she had already been detained on five occasions, Mom was once again arrested by the authorities on the night of April 24, 2004.

I was unprepared for this blow and it wounded my heart very seriously this time. My mind was almost broken. I want cry, but no tears would come. Why? Why, in this country with a five-thousand-year history and with such a highly developed sense of propriety and courtesy, are its people not even allowed to have the right to be a good person and to believe in Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance? My mom, I, and any other Falun Gong practitioner in the country simply want an environment to practice freely, the right to believe what we believe, and to be a good person. What is wrong with that? Why do we have to suffer this cruel persecution?

Mom was detained at the notorious Brainwashing Center of the Industry Cadre School of Weifang City. She is on a hunger strike to resist the persecution. I was told that she was diagnosed with heart disease. Her condition is very serious. But the authorities refuse to release her.

Here, I earnestly request the attention and help of the international community. Please help to rescue my mother Sun Xiaomei, and all the other illegally detained practitioners. The detained practitioners I know personally, besides Mom, include artist Ms. Xiao Yixia (abducted on April 24 and detained in the notorious Brainwashing Center of the Industry Cadre School of Weifang City), Mr. Yang Guangmao (detained in Nugukou Detention Center of the Qingdao Railroad Police Department), Mr. Li Jiangang (detained in the Kuiwen District Detention Center), Mr. Zhang Liang (location unknown), and Ms. Tang Xiumei (detained at the Fangzi District Detention Center). Please help us, and condemn the shameless persecution.

Posting date: 6/7/2004
Original article date: 6/7/2004
Category: Eyewitness Accounts
Chinese version available at http://www.minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/5/21/75266.html

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