This month is the 26th anniversary Falun Gong’s violent repression of Chinese Communist Party – An oppression that changed my life forever.
Twenty -three years ago, I noticed that my father was pulled by the Chinese police. I was four years old. When the knock came, we sat only for breakfast.
The men at the door said that they were from the water utility company. My grandmother opened it and two of them came in. They started arguing with him and then, suddenly, more plain plain police came to a storm. He caught my father and forced him to a police car. I ran to the window and saw that the vehicle disappeared under the road. This was the last time I saw him.
Two weeks later, my family learned that my father was in a hospital, struggling to breathe. His body, I was later told, covered in injury and swelling. He died a few weeks later. His crime was practicing Falun Gong, a meditation discipline that lies in the principles of truth, compassion and prohibition.
We were an ordinary family. My father was a food safety inspector, my mother was a dental nurse. But it was 1999, and the Chinese Communist Party was Started a campaign To Abolition Falun GongMy father refused to abandon his beliefs, so the government took everything from him – his job, his family and eventually his life.
My mother and I soon fled from China. When I was nine years old, we spent time as refugees in Thailand before being accepted in America. Here, I got protection – and a voice. I discovered the dance, and eventually Shane liked the performing arts, where I now narrate stories through art, including stories like my father.
Every year, our performance includes a piece of harassment of Falun Gong. Some spectators are surprised. Many are taken in tears. For me, this is a way to continue my father’s mission – to show the world to show that no matter how much the truth is suppressed by cruelty, it still finds a way to shine.
There are some places in the world where a person can share a story so that it is painful and others who really understand. But in Shane Yun, many of us live through similar magnitude. Whatever we brought us is not just a love for art, but there is a shared mission to give voice to those who cannot speak for themselves.
Here too, in America, the Chinese rule has not let us go. In the last two years, Beijing has intensified efforts to silence Falun Gong physicians abroad. It’s not just Bomb threatDeath threats, and slide tires that shane the artists like this Has reported To get during the tour. In one case, two illegal agents of Chinese rule Were inspired, Later convicted And were Sentenced to federal jail To try to snatch an undercover FBI agent (he was an IRS employee) to snatch Shane Yun of his non -profit position and to bribe the audit. The purpose of the scheme was to cripple our ability to perform and spread awareness.
The Chinese government is very active with such operations inside the US, in fact, till the point Running illegal police station here By 2023. Recently as November, there was a Chinese immigrant living in Florida Sentenced to four years in jail To work as an illegal agent of the Chinese government since at least 2012. As the Department of Justice said, he was passing information about “Chinese dissatisfies and pro-democracy advocates, members of Falun Gong religious movement and non-governmental organizations of America”.
The Chinese rule is most afraid that faith, freedom, and China have a spiritual heritage – which is before the communist rule. The Chinese Communist Party has long demanded to control how China is considered abroad. But now it is trying to control how Chinese Americans and refugees live, speak, and believe – even on American soil.
As we mark this anniversary, I want Americans to recognize what is at stake. What happened to my father can only be under a rule that sees human conscience as a threat. And now what is happening – for Chinese dissatisfaction, Uygers, Tibetans and Falun Gong Physicians, who are surveyed, oppressed and maligned in the US – is the US’s commitment to the US commitment to freedom.
I often imagine what my father would say if he can see me now. I think he will be proud. Through dance, I share the values for which he died. By telling our story, I respect the freedom they never enjoyed.
Elli Rao is a major dancer with New York -based Shane -Performing Arts.
