Tianjing Kuang

One day in 2007, when I was at home with my grandmother in Hong Kong, my father came to the house with a lady I didn’t recognize. My father watched as she approached me with tears in her eyes. She seemed familiar, but I couldn’t remember who she was. As I later found out, the lady standing before me was my mother.

I was too young to know at the time the depth of what my family had already endured. I had been lucky to be born into a family where both of my parents practice Falun Dafa, a spiritual faith based on the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance. However, after the Communist party’s crackdown on Falun Dafa in July 1999, in which they spread lies and slander about Falun Dafa, my father went to Beijing to clarify the truth and, in October, was detained for one year in the Tangshan Detention Center. In the year that my father was detained, my mom was constantly hiding and running away from the police while taking care of my 8-month-old brother. 

As for me, from the day I was born, the police already had my mother and me under surveillance in the hospital. They followed us and ransacked our home without any legal processes. After that, my father was forced to go to Hong Kong, and my mother, brother, and I often had to leave home as we were constantly moving to escape the persecution. 

On May 19, 2004, at midnight, around twenty police officers showed up in six vehicles to our house; they took my mom to XianWei City District Sub-Bureau Detention Center. Luckily, she returned five days later, on May 24. Five months later, On October 27th, 2004, my mother took my brother and me to kindergarten and suddenly disappeared—this time, she did not return so soon. My brother and I were then taken to Hong Kong to live with my grandmother. At first, I waited for her return every day, but eventually I lost count of the days she was away, and my memory of her became blurry. I was three years old at the time, and during the years when my mom wasn’t around, I often felt lonely and helpless.

I only found out recently that while she was away for those three years, she was taken to the Sanshui Detention Center and was severely persecuted without due processes. Later she was transferred to Guangdong Province Legislative Re-education Center for continuous persecution in the name of “re-education.” In the beginning of my mother’s forceful arrest, she rejected food for six days in hopes of resisting the persecution and the suppression of her faith. However, her mistreatment was not lessened despite her body’s condition.

One month later, she was sent to the hospital for an entire week for emergency care because of all the abuse she endured. For years, my dad tried to rescue my mom. He tried to communicate with the Sanshui Detention center and the judicial authorities in China. He wrote letters, made calls and spread the word of the persecution of my mother through media, human rights organizations, and gathered 2,000+ signatures from Hong Kong citizens. Many members of the Hong Kong Parliament even personally visited or wrote letters to the Guangdong Detention Center asking for the release of my mother. My father’s determination to rescue my mother, however, brought fear to the Communist Party, and he was more than once attacked in Hong Kong for spreading the truth about Falun Dafa and the persecution to my family and my mother. Despite these efforts, for three entire years, my mother experienced torture and unjust treatment for holding fast to her spiritual faith and wanting to become a better person, and three years was long enough for a young child to forget what her mother looked like.

Not long after our reunion in Hong Kong, my mom, brother and I fled to Malaysia, where we

were granted political asylum, although this didn’t grant my brother and me the right to go to school and receive education. In the beginning, I often had nightmares dreaming that my mother was again taken away. Nonetheless, it was in Malaysia where I first got a taste of happiness and sense of security—I was finally together with my mom, and farther away from the Communist Party. 

It was also there that I first watched a DVD of a Shen Yun performance. I was fascinated by the show—the colors, the stories, the dance, and the music all mesmerized me. Moreover, I was moved by Shen Yun’s mission: To bring to the world China before communist control and expose what is happening in today’s China. It was then that I made a wish: I wanted to go to America to attend Fei Tian Academy and be part of Shen Yun. Although my dream seemed unrealistic and too far-fetched to achieve then, my family eventually made it to America. In July of 2019, I was accepted into Fei Tian Academy of the Arts for flute performance. 

When I was young and separated from my parents, I could not understand why my parents would choose Falun Dafa over me and my brother, why they would stand being persecuted and tortured rather than letting go of their faith. Yet as I’ve grown up, I have come to understand: the principles of Falun Dafa— Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance—have guided me through all these years. It has taught me how to put others first, how to push through hardships, and how to be truthful and kind. These principles have made me who I am today, and I wouldn’t give up my faith for anything.

Sometimes, when I watch our other Shen Yun troupes rehearse a piece depicting the persecution, tears stream down my face, because I am reminded of the pain my family endured. In 2024, one of the pieces Shen Yun performed was actually about a family of four, including a brother and sister, that was broken apart because of their faith in Dafa amidst the Communist Party’s persecution. Similar stories are still happening in today’s China. I am extremely proud to have participated in Shen Yun as part of practicum because even though many Falun Dafa practitioners have been persecuted in China and are still being persecuted, Shen Yun stood strong; even though Shen Yun has received bomb threats, and has faced unjust lawsuits and biased, untruthful media coverage funded by the Chinese Communist Party, Shen Yun continues to bring something that is truly uplifting and inspiring to audiences around the world. I am grateful for Shen Yun because Shen Yun gives me a stage; it gives me an opportunity to voice my experiences and show the world what is really happening in China. Thank you, Shen Yun, for giving me the courage and resilience to share my story and to stand up for my faith like my parents once did.