Pagoda of Light: A Falun Gong Story from Today's China

Commentary on

Pagoda of Light

Xin, Haonian

Senior Historian; Chief editor of Huang Hua Gang magazine

The simple yet powerful writing of the authors has reflected well the stories met by Mr. Bai Shaohua’s family as they uphold a truthful and pure path in persevering their belief. While it gives the reader sadness and grief, at a much deeper level it allows one to come to a realization of the true meaning of life.

Zhang, Jian

Former 1989 June 4th Student Democratic Movement Leader

Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition Annual Conference Leader

Federation for a Democratic China Leader

Democratic China Youth Alliance Leader

Chinese Social Democratic Party Europena Chapter Leader

Pagoda of Light, a story of the tribulations met by a young cultivator Bai Shaohua, touched me deeply, indeed.

Nineteen years ago, I was an avid participant in the June Fourth Democratic Movement. I was chiefly in charge of protecting students. On June 4th, 1989, I was shot thrice on Tiananmen Square. Thereafter, I suffered abduction, physical interrogation, escape and evasion before finally fleeing to France. Throughout that period of time, I worked anonymously, for fear of persecution, at the Yulong Hotel in Beijing, China. It was a stone’s throw away from the Linglong Pagoda. At that time, there were no other buildings around the Pagoda, nor were there any parks. Looking from afar, the pagoda was a testimony for thousands of years of rain and shine. Standing magnificently, it was a withstanding monument from a history of tears.

Mr. Bai Shaohua studied in People’s University, across the road from Friendship Hostel where I worked. He had a good education, can be said to be a great student. He had great interests in drawing, painting, and enjoyed a wonderful wife in Ji Lei. In Chinese society today, they would be able to enjoy a blissful, happy life if they only chose to be obedient. They were simply ordinary citizens who’ve surpassed worldly desires and only wished to cultivate their spirits. However, in a country such as Communist-ruled China, even if you do not participate in politics, politics will knock on your door by itself.

In 1989, countless mainland Chinese citizens, faced with the outrageous killing of students on Tiananmen Square, were infuriated. However, not long after, infuriation turned into helplessness, helplessness turned into numbness, and numbness turned into forget. Without facing such trials personally, it is impossible for most to see the true ruthless nature of the CCP. It is so that a similar persecution campaign against ordinary, kind citizens began in 1999.

Faced with persecution, some retreated. However, even more cultivators did not. With their courage and bravery, they stood up against totalitarianism, persevering and fighting on for their rights to the end.

Throughout Chinese history, Chinese people have always honored truth and righteousness, countless historians have chosen to die than bow down to evil. What Shaohua has done is in fact validating the same truth and righteousness—like an undefiled lotus blooming out of muddy water or a beautiful plum blossom smiling in the chilling winter. People who choose this path are often left in solitude, and their fate less unfortunate, which reminds me deeply of a saying in the Bible—that the path to eternal life is narrow and few find this path; the path to eternal destruction is broad and many fall on that path.

The People’s University where Bai Shaohua studied has its school motto engraved on its front gate: be real and realistic. However, it is impossible to imagine the pain and hardship to protect that real-ness in a materialistic and anti-cultural modern China. Sometimes, one even has to sacrifice one’s life. Mr. Bai fought to protect this truth, illuminating darkness and ultimately becoming a thorn in the flesh to the dark side. As a result, he suffered throughout his prison years all forms of attacks by the dark side to change him, as futile as it may be. But remember, the darker his environment is, the brighter he will shine—to validate truthfulness, compassion and beauty behold.

You will not find overt heroics or catchphrases in this biography. In fact, most of his drawings are simply pictures of smiling children. Yet they display his inner realms of peace and purity. Remember, they were completed in a dedicated labor camp for Falun Gong practitioners created by the CCP. Faced with torture and cruelty, being able to maintain one’s compassion and Forbearance is a cultivation like no other— just like how steel has to be forged from the flames, and the phoenix will rise from the ashes.

Being an exile due to the Tiananmen Incident, I can deeply appreciate Shaohua’s experiences. Faced with enemies all around you—enemies who, like hungry lions, pounce on any food that they can find. At this time, any slight backstep that you take is helping the evil accomplish their heinous deeds. In pursing truth, there is no retreat—one can only march on forwards.

In these times, everything around you will be dark even in daylight. Yet, a true warrior frets not this darkness. He thinks it. For only through the black eyes given to him by darkness, can he use it to find the light.

I pray for Shaohua. Believe—at the end of darkness is where light resides—the light of freedom. Such is the law of the universe, and the eternal hope of humanity.

Fang, Han

Director of Global Reporting department of the Epoch Times

In disintegrating evil, compassion demonstrates its dignity;

In breaking through lies, truth displays its power;

In surpassing persecution, faith reveals its eternity.

In modern Chinese history, the totalitarian CCP government has often taken the role of the protagonist. However, in this biography, one will find that such a party that has used the most base actions ever in human history, whether ancient or modern, Chinese or foreign, and employed all the most malicious means suddenly becomes powerless in the face of a Falun Gong practitioner, the protagonist Bai Shaohua. Indeed, all its physical and psychological tortures were all in vain. The CCP has launched the state-led persecution against millions of Falun Gong practitioners. However, in the end, it has only become a minor role in the dramatic historic event which expresses the truth of One righteous mind can subdue one hundred evils.

Using the real-life story met by Bai Shaohua’s family, this book expounds one of the most influential and far-reaching event in modern China—millions of ordinary Chinese citizens just like Bai are disintegrating the evil CCP’s lies and the regime itself using their compassion, perseverance and wisdom obtained through their cultivation in Falun Gong. To the western world, this is a way of understanding China on a much deeper level both culturally and psychologically. It shall be a valuable resouce for the world to judge China’s role and potential in the world.

The story ends with the persecution continues …, magically insinuating the fact that there is still opportunity to choose between good and evil. Every person in today’s world may choose for themselves to become a member of a better future, which has significative realistic meaning.

Pagoda of Light

Pagoda of Light

A Falun Gong Story from Today’s China

Long Tu and Yuan Meng

© Long Tu and Yuan Meng

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, stored, transmitted or reproduced by any method or in any format without the written permission of the publisher or a valid licence from Access Copyright.

Blue Butterfly Books Publishing Inc.

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First edition, paperback: 2008

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Tu, Long, 1970–

Pagoda of light : a Falun Gong story from today’s China /

Long Tu, Yuan Meng.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-9784982-3-8

Electronic edition, ePub format: 2011

ISBN 978-1-9265772-7-2

1. Bai, Shaohua. 2. Falun Gong (Religious organization).

3. Persecution—China. 4. Freedom of religion—China. 5. Religion

and state—China. 6. Political prisoners—China—Biography.

I. Meng, Yuan, 1971– II. Title.

BP605.F36T82 2008     322’.10951     C2008-905748-1

Design and typesetting by Fox Meadow Creations

No government grants were sought nor any public subsidies

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book buyers for their support in the marketplace.

Bai Shaohua with his wife, Ji Lei,

and their daughter, Zhenyu

On Tiananmen Square, Falun Gong practitioners

appeal repression by the Chinese Communist Party

Foreword

This book is a must-read for anyone who wishes to see the real workings of modern Chinese society. While, on the one hand, it is a simple story of the tragedies met by an ordinary Falun Gong practitioner, it is also a reflection of the complicated society that China is today, and a guide to the intricate spiritual struggle that has arisen out of decades of economic development.

The decade-long Cultural Revolution dealt a great blow to China and changed it deeply. Different scholars have different views towards this change. There is great change in China today, also; the Cultural Revolution has been largely forgotten, replaced with an economic one. Indeed, compared to other developing countries, China’s economic development has been remarkable. However, it is well known that this country once famed as the land of courtesy has become one of the top-ranked abusers of human rights. This book provides a unique perspective—it is one of the very few biographies ever to show the persecution of Falun Gong—of the sufferings of an ordinary Chinese family. You may judge, then, what China’s development means for its ordinary citizens.

The protagonist, Bai Shaohua, is an ordinary Chinese citizen. Through his own hard work, he was able to achieve a great deal; he made it into one of the top universities in China and worked diligently in a successful company in Beijing. However, he was unsatisfied with the lack of spirituality in China’s economic miracle and began pursuing a path of faith and holiness. Even though he led a life without pursuit of worldly desires, it nevertheless came on a collision course with the Chinese Communist Party’s doctrine and way of managing its people. In peacefully protecting their consciences, he and his entire family met with countless instances of persecution—including imprisonment, torture, and death.

Drawing on the perspective of an ordinary citizen, this book exposes striking details of the CCP’s political and reeducation through labour systems. How is political stability achieved in China? What is its price? How does the Chinese government maintain its rule? How does it persecute dissidents? How does the re-education through labour system work? What is the source of violence in many cases of Chinese society? What is the state of morality in China—especially of its governmental officials? How do the ordinary Chinese see the Chinese economic growth? How do the ordinary Chinese seek spiritual guidance in a spiritual vacuum? How does one persevere and find a meaningful life in a morally degrading society? How does one improve societal moral standards? These are the questions that this book answers through the course of its story.

Finally, and most importantly, through reading this book and understanding the struggles of its characters, one can see the problems—and hopes—of modern Chinese society. As a Chinese, I feel proud of my fellow Chinese depicted in the story. They shall be named forever in the annexes of history, as proof to history and to the world of the magnificence of the Chinese people.

Wang, Juntao, Ph.D.

Specialist on modern Chinese issues

Assistant Chief Editor, Economic Weekly

1989 Democratic Movement Leader

Nieman Fellow, Harvard University

Ph.D. Columbia University

Bai Shaohua

Preface

Bai Shaohua is our friend. With the rest of his family, he has been a practitioner of Falun Gong since the 1990s. The family has suffered unspeakable persecution, including arbitrary imprisonment and torture, since the suppression of Falun Gong by the Chinese Communist Party began on July 20, 1999. Throughout the long years of pain and suffering, though, Shaohua and his family have remained true to their beliefs, standing up to their tormentors with the quiet strength that their faith in the Falun Dafa principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance gives them.

In these pages, you will discover the story of an extraordinary man and find many heart-warming stories about him, including stories of Shaohua’s youth and days as a high school student, his university life, and marriage; you will also find the story of his long struggle to continue his practice of Falun Gong, even when he was imprisoned and tortured. Family and faith are the recurring themes here.

Many people will ask, What is Falun Gong? Why did this persecution take place? We sincerely hope that this small book based on Shaohua’s real-life story will provide the reader with a better understanding of the Falun Gong community of practitioners, as well as a better understanding of the truth hidden below the veil covering modern China and the brutality of the Chinese Communist Party.

We should point out that Shaohua and his family are the true authors of this biography. It is this group of extraordinary people whose lives have provided the touching stories found here. All we have done is collect their stories and organize them so that a record of their brave stand for justice would be available to reach more people and touch the hearts of the public. Nevertheless, Shaohua’s family’s struggle is but one small example of what millions and millions of Falun Gong practitioners in China have faced and are still facing.

—Long Tu and Yuan Meng

[Part One]

The Bai Family

Old Mr. Bai

[1]

Resolute Old Mr. Bai

Bai Shaohua is the younger of two brothers born to Old Mr. Bai and his wife. The family is an old and respected one. There isn’t anyone in the Huanan District, Heilongjiang, who doesn’t know of Old Mr. Bai. Prior to his recent death, he was there for forty years. In 1958, responding to the calling of the Party to build up and industrialize the Northern Plains, he came to Heilongjiang and settled in the 859 Farm in Huanan District. In terms of seniority, therefore, Old Mr. Bai’s household is probably the oldest in the area.

Old Mr. Bai originally came from Wujin District of Changzhou, in Jiangsu. He was born there in 1926 and grew up studying the ancient Chinese texts of Confucius, Mencius, and the other great classics. This was the standard education of the time, a method of study almost as old as China itself. He was greatly influenced by those ancient texts, and as with countless scholars before him, he gradually developed a virtuous but rather detached personality. Mr. Bai’s study of these philosophers filled him with a love of knowledge and truth. His insistence on truthfulness gave him a reputation for stubbornness.

When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took power, it divided the population into various classes, according to how proletarian it deemed them. Mr. Bai was classified as a middle-class peasant farmer by birth, which was not red enough according to the Party.¹ As a result, Old Mr. Bai had to be careful in almost everything he did since he could be publicly denounced at any time, which could cost him his livelihood or his very life. His difficult situation was made worse by a very serious problem: he didn’t like to lie, and, in fact, tended to speak his mind. In the end, he decided to do something that was suitable for him that would also keep him away from being too involved with the Party. He