(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Xiao Yan, 72 years old, is from Gaosha Township, Dongkou County in Hunan Province. She started practicing Falun Dafa in 1996. When she was young she raised seven children, living in a meager and poor household. She endured a lot of hardship that eventually caused her health to deteriorate with numerous ailments. From 1993 to 1995, she spent her days in bed due to her disabilities. Each day she took several doses of medicine costing her more than one hundred Yuan (1), but her pain and suffering only continued.
In 1995, Xiao Yan's daughter, who was working in Beijing, called her mother and urged her to practice Falun Gong. The whole family immediately went to several places, including Changsha, Chenzhou, and Shaoyang to seek Falun Gong books and instruction. The entire family of nine started to practice Falun Dafa. Since then, Ms. Xiao's health started to improve. In order to study and practice Dafa more diligently, she formed a practice site at her home. Each day more than 80 people came to Ms. Xiao's house to study and practice. In less than a year, her illnesses were completely gone. She became younger looking and full of energy. In order to tell others about the benefits of practicing Falun Gong, Xiao Yan invited several other practitioners to travel with her to promote the practice to other areas. She wanted to tell others of the miracle of Dafa and the preciousness of practicing Falun Gong. In a short time, there were 36 practice sites established in Gaosha Township alone, with more than 1,000 practitioners.
In July 1999, the Jiang regime started their ruthless suppression of Falun Gong. In February 2000, Xiao Yan was abducted as soon as she returned to Dongkou County after attending a Falun Gong conference. She safeguarded her Falun Gong books when her house was ransacked. Even though she was detained for more than 10 days and went through numerous interrogations and reprimands, Ms. Xiao persisted in explaining the truth about Falun Gong.
The day before the Dragon Boat Festival (the 5th day of the 5th lunar month), Xiao Yan and another fellow practitioner went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong. They each bought "standing train tickets" (1) to Beijing. They did the fifth exercise (sitting meditation) at Tiananmen Square before they were arrested. The Dongkou police came to take them back. On the way back to the Dongkou Detention Center, Ms. Xiao was handcuffed in the car and was constantly verbally abused by the police. At the detention center, the guards searched her and confiscated the 1,700 Yuan cash that she had with her. They then forced her to kneel on the floor for 12 hours. A few days later she was transferred to the Shaoyang City Detention Center. Xioa Yan was detained for 57 days and fined 3,000 Yuan before they released her.
On November 2, 2000, while distributing Falun Gong truth clarification flyers, Xiao Yan and 17 other practitioners were abducted by the police and sentenced to 8 months in jail. During her detention, she witnessed guards applying the so-called "flying moth kite" torture to female practitioners. This torture involves tying all four limbs of a practitioner and hanging them face down from the ceiling.
On October 30, 2002, the Gaosha Township detained Xiao Yan at the County Detention Center for nearly 3 months because of the 16th Party Congress meeting in Beijing (3). The Gaosha Township Government further fined her 5,000 Yuan, and the Gaosha police fined her 1,000 Yuan, for a total of 6,000 Yuan.
On September 1, 2003 Ms. Xiao was again abducted and taken to the County Detention Center because of explaining the facts about Falun Gong to people.
While persisting in telling the truth about Falun Gong in detention, Xiao Yan further investigated and uncovered two cases of local police trying to frame and misrepresent Falun Gong. The first case took place at the Shaoyang No. 1 Detention Center. The guards told practitioners detained there that, "A Falun Gong practitioner poisoned more than 10 people to death in the Shiqiao District in Dongkou Township." Xiao Yan immediately rebutted them on the spot, saying, "This is absolutely impossible. I will investigate and find out exactly what happened after I am released." After two weeks she was transferred back to the Dongkou Detention Center for further imprisonment. One day she asked the police there face-to-face, "Would you please honestly answer me, was the suspect who poisoned people truly a Falun Gong practitioner?" The police replied, "No, the suspect never practiced Falun Gong. The deputies at Shaoyang No. 1 Detention Center heard it wrong." The second case involved another poisoning incident that took place at the Nanni High School. The suspect, named Yuan Mingliao, was detained in the same cell with Xiao Yan. Ms. Xiao asked Yuan, "Have you ever practiced Falun Gong?" Yuan answered, "No, I never did." "Then why were there people who claimed that you practice Falun Gong?" asked Xiao Yan. Yuan opened both eyes wide and angrily proclaimed, "Those police thugs told me I could get my jail term reduced if I claimed that I practice Falun Gong."
(1) Yuan is the Chinese currency; 500 Yuan is the average monthly income for an urban worker in China.
(2) With this type of ticket, passengers are allowed to board the train; however, there is no seat available to them and they have to stand in the train.
(3) The authorities frequently detain Falun Dafa practitioners around the dates of national holidays and political meetings, for fear that they will go to Beijing to appeal during these times.