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Wang Lei: An Outstanding Singer Died Young (Photo)
Date: 2012-11-23 Source: Kaiwind

 

Photo of Pang Shuo 

I am Wang Lei,46-year-old. I graduated from the Vocal Department in the College of Art under Harbin Normal University in 1990, and was employed by the college as a teacher. Pang Shuo was my senior at the college. She was ten years older than me, and was also a graduate from Vocal Department. In 1993, both of us apprenticed to Professor Li Lianzhong to learn vocal music. Pang Shuo was more gifted than me with her sweet, melodious and penetrating voice. She was able to write words and music for songs, to perform operas including the Beautiful Spanish Girl, the Merry Widow, the Turandot and Carmen in standard Italian or English language. She was praised as an outstanding singer with a bright future. My teacher had said proudly, “I am perfectly contented that I have such an excellent student as Pang Shuo.”

One summer day in 1997, when Pang Shuo was selecting books on a bookstand, the vendor recommended to her the book Zhuan Falun by introducing that diligent practice would be able to cure diseases, to avoid disasters, to keep fit and to live a long life. The kind-hearted Pang Shuo was convinced to buy the book. Shortly afterwards, she happened to see a group of people practice Falun Gong in a park, so she joined them immediately.

Pang Shuo went to practice Falun Gong in the park every morning, and read the book Zhuan Falun repeatedly at home. She often studied the lectures by Li Hongzhi with other practitioners, while neglecting her husband and their children. She neither cared about housework, nor prepared meals for her school-aged son. For this reason, Pang Shuo’s husband often quarreled with her. But Pang Shuo still went her own way.

Pang Shuo, who used to be open-minded and had a quick smile, changed into an unsociable person. She kept silent in vocal music classes. Later she even seldom came to class. Finally she devoted herself to the practice of Falun Gong, while giving up her studies into vocal music. She declined to attend the annual joint performance held within the art circle. Although out teacher had persuaded and even criticized her for several times, she did not change her mind at all.

Pang Shuo’s husband was worried about her behaviors. He exhorted her for several times not to practice Falun Gong anymore. In 2006, her husband was pushed beyond his limit of endurance. He requested a divorce. Unexpectedly, Pang Shuo complied with the request. She said indifferently, “I agree to divorce. Thus I can have a quiet and peaceful environment, in which I can devote myself to practice of cultivation.” After they got divorced, her husband and their son Liu Jia left their home.

In 2009, Pang Shuo became weaker and weaker. She often felt stomachache when she practiced Falun Gong at home. The more she practiced, the more painfulness she felt. Sometimes, the serious stomachache made her sweat and she could not straighten up her body. One day, when our teacher and I went to visit Pang Shuo, we found that she was extremely weak and looked very sick. Our teacher advised her to go to hospital, but she rejected. I had no alternatives, but to make a phone call to her ex-husband. Then we forced her to hospital.

The diagnosis revealed that she was in the early stage of rectal cancer. She was suggested staying in hospital for treatment. Doctors told her that the treatment would be fairly effective as long as she was cooperative.

However, Pang Shuo got so obsessed with Falun Gong that she believed it was able to cure any disease. She turned deaf ears to doctors’ advice. She not only refused to stay in hospital, but also rejected to take medicines prescribed by doctors. She spent most of her time sitting in meditation, practicing, reading Falun Gong texts, watching disks on Li Hongzhi’s lectures, or reciting “Falun Dafa is good” and “truthfulness, compassion and forbearance are good”. She also wrote down her experiences and thought. There was a portrait of Li Hongzhi hung over a conspicuous spot at her home. She paid homage to the portrait for several times every day, asking for the help of her master to eliminate her karma and to get rid of the inner factors leading to her disease.

She endured the painfulness for a few months, but her disease was getting from bad to worse. She lost her beautiful appearance. Even worse, she vomited up nearly all she had eaten. Some of her colleagues and friends persuaded her, “You should go to hospital immediately. You will die if you persist in this way. You have practiced Falun Gong for such a long time. But it did not cure your disease. On the contrary, you are too weak to speak now. Why are you so obsessed with it?” But Pang Shuo insisted that her practice had been bothered. She added that her karma had not been eliminated because she tended to attribute her sufferings to outer factors. She still believed that her karma would be eliminated as long as she continued her practice diligently.

So she decided to live in seclusion, getting rid of any disturbance or thought to distract her attention. She refused to contact anybody except her fellow practitioners. She devoted herself to practice and cultivation, believing that with the help of other practitioners and the protection of her master, she is able to eliminate karma and cure her disease.

Pang Shuo kept on her practice with the assistance of other practitioners. She felt that her master was always helping eliminate her karma, which strengthened her confidence. However, there wasn’t any sign of recovery. Instead, her disease worsened. Tragically, Pang Shuo regarded it as a sign of attaining consummation and the complete elimination of her karma.

One day in May 2011, she had to stay in bed because she was too weak. Her ex-husband took her to hospital. Results of medical examination revealed that the cancer cells had been spread all over her body. It was too late to take any treatment.

Pang Shuo came to see the truth in her last days. She expelled other practitioners and requested to meet her friends and relatives. When we came to visit her, she said sadly, “I devoted myself to practice of Falun Dafa. I gave up my career and alienate my friends to persist truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. But at last I got into such a plight. Now it is too late. Neither Falun Gong nor the master’s law body is able to save me. I am ruined by Falun Gong. I should have accepted suggestions of doctors and friends. I am so regretful…”

On June 5, 2011, Pang Shuo, an outstanding singer, died at the age of 56.