On April 25th nine years ago, an event occurred in Beijing that amazed the world. Over ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners, according to the rights bestowed by the Chinese Constitution charter, gathered outside the State Council Appeals Office located near Zhongnanhai, the central government compound. Ms. Chen was there and experienced the entire process. Although nearly nine years have passed, it still remains fresh in her memory.

On February 24th, 2008, Ms. Jing took a taxi to Shenyang City to visit her relatives and friends who were imprisoned at the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp. Police arrested Ms. Jing, the practitioners who were with her, and the taxi driver and jailed Ms. Jing at the Chaoyang City No. 1 Detention Centre. The taxi driver was tortured to death. The first time Ms. Jing Fei was imprisoned was July 1999. She was arrested in Beijing while appealing for the right to practise Falun Gong and was taken to the Masanjia Forced Labour Camp in November 1999. Ms. Jing lost her beloved job in the government-owned nursery school because of her beliefs.

In 1998, I started doing the Falun Gong exercises. At that time, my wife Ma Gui'e was undergoing treatment for breast cancer at the Shenyang Tumour Hospital. During that period of time, a Falun Gong practitioner introduced her to the practice, and she began to practise Falun Gong too. Within two weeks of starting the practice, she suddenly noticed that the bowl-sized tumour was now as small as her fingertip. On July 20th, 1999, when the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners began, our village's Chinese Communist Party (CCP) secretary turned us in. The police told us that it was higher ranking officers forbidding us from practising Falun Gong. The village CCP secretary started to continually harass us, subjecting us to tremendous mental torture. He forcibly occupied a quarter acre of land that we had cultivated ourselves. Under such persecution, my wife's disease reoccurred. She died on July 18th, 2002, at only 44 years of age.

Ms. Ren Guixia, 46, was introduced to Falun Gong in 1997. After six months, her heart disease, leg pain and rheumatism were all cured. After the Chinese Communist Party started persecuting Falun Gong, Ms. Ren went to Beijing to appeal. She was arrested and detained. In February 2000, police went to her home because they were afraid she would go to Beijing again to appeal. They asked her, "Are you still going to practise Falun Gong?" She replied, "Yes," and was arrested and taken to the local police station where she was hung up by her handcuffed wrists and beaten by several policemen for several hours. She was subjected to inhuman torture on a daily basis for more than 30 days in the detention centre. Recently, Ms. Ren was tortured until she suffered another onset of her heart disease and was sent to the hospital.

Mr. Jin Junjie, a practitioner from Jilin Province, was sentenced twice to a forced labour camp, for four years in total. He has been inhumanly tortured both physically and mentally. After being tortured the first time, he was carried home on his mother's back. Following the second time, he was released while still handcuffed. For a long period of time, he has had to rely on his family's support or manual labour job to survive. He has no home of his own, and so far, he has not yet recovered from the physical injuries inflicted upon him in the labour camp. In summer 2007, Mr. Jin had symptoms of chest pain, shortness of breath, weight loss and vomiting blood, etc. and his condition did not improve after a period of time. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Mr. Jin Junjie is only 35 years old.

Although it was close to Chinese New Year, we kept going the the lectures every day. The assistant extended the lecture series two extra days just for us. We learned all five exercises. I said to my son, "We are practitioners now. Let's not take that useless medicine anymore. Let's get rid of it." My son happily threw them all in the trash. He was so relieved.

We had all committed enormous sins. Was it still worthwhile for us to continue practicing cultivation? Before long, all three of us wrote solemn declarations, expressing our repentance and determination to begin cultivation practice all over again. But repentance didn't mean we could easily carry on practicing. Tests followed.

I now realize that all these attachments are the cause of my not wanting to save sentient beings and being a real cultivator. All these mundane matters have moved me, and I was not even aware of the fact that I was bringing losses to myself.

Prior to the upcoming Human Rights Torch Relay in Kaohsiung, the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG) Asia Chapter is running a campaign to collect one million signatures in Taiwan to rally support to end the persecution of Falun Gong. After learning about the truth of the persecution, many people have signed the petition.

The persecution by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has caused numerous Falun Gong practitioners' families to be broken up and their members dispersed. The painting shows a child holding the ashes of her parents, who were persecuted to death by the CCP, holding back her tears. Her mind is filled with suffering and she has no idea what course to follow.