Wang Chengxiang, 64, was a retired worker from the Handian Grain Depot in Shuangcheng City, Heilongjiang Province. In January 1997, at the instigation of someone, he started practicing Falun Gong. He was punctual in the practice and sat in meditation every day. His wife also took up Falun Gong due to his influence.
Prior to practicing Falun Gong, Wang was in good health. Open-minded and optimistic toward life, he treated everyone honestly.
Over half year later, that is, in August 1997, he appeared to be disoriented in speech and somewhat confused mentally. Once , his family had to search for him everywhere after he had left home on his bicycle and did not return. He also repeatedly asked his wife to give him clothes specially prepared for a dying man, alleging that he would go to Dalian, Liaoning Province. His wife refused him and sent him to his daughter's for a period of time. By then, his eyes turned dull and he left home once again, taking only some biscuits.
By January 1998, Wang's mental aberrations became more and more serious. On the eve of the lunar New Year, he talked wildly to himself: "You can fly, but what about me if I fall down from the building and die? It doesn't matter, Master Li (Hongzhi) can protect me." Subsequently, he cried and laughed with no reason. Then, he locked the bedroom door from inside and attempted to choke his wife to death.
At daybreak, he said that there was a demon at the corner of the warehouse downstairs, warning his family members to put it in a straw bag provided by the Falun Gong practice site. Following his command, his wife went to the practice site to look for the demon and asked Zhou Zhichang, also a practitioner of Falun Gong, to help look for the demon.
At lunch time, Wang again wanted his clothes, saying that he wanted to go (meaning to die). The entire family was so frightened that they kept him watched all the time, never leaving him alone. Then, however, Wang began to dash himself against the wall, while smashing things. This lasted through to the next day, the Chinese New Year's Day.
In the morning that day, the tragedy happened at last. Wang Chengxiang took out Li Hongzhi's photo and hung it on his body, and then gazed at his wife and seized her, shouting that he himself was Li Hongzhi. Later, he went to the toilet and locked it from inside. When his son found the key to open the door, he could only watch helplessly when his father went down through a window on the sixth floor of the building. When the family dashed downstairs, he was already dead.
