My father Wu Wensheng was born in February, 1943. He was a retired worker of the County Textile Factory who lived in the Culture Street of Binzhou Town, Bin County, Heilongjiang Province. After corporate reform, he stayed at home and sometimes played cards with elder people in the park. He wanted to take a rest after working for a whole life.
In 1998, father found that less and less people played the cards with him. Instead, they all went to practice Falun Gong which was an exercise that can build the body and treat all the diseases without taking medicine and spending money. There were less and less people playing cards and my father was not familiar with the rest of them and lost the interest. He then went to find his card mates and became their Falun Gong mates. Most of the time at the beginning, he practiced with his partners at the small square near our home. He read related books when he did not go out practicing. He even wrote notes while reading and did write a few notebooks of reading reports. Father always said to us that Falun Gong was God’s practice and murmured ‘consummation’, ‘ascending to the Heaven’ and so on. We did not believe in what he said but expressed nothing to avoid irritating him.
In 1999, we found out on TV that Falun Gong practitioners burnt themselves and cut the belly to find the Falun. Falun Gong made people who did not know the truth besiege Zhongnanhai Compound and not take medicine. All the astonishing facts made Falun Gong be determined as cult organization and banned by the government by law. After seeing the reports, my family members was shocked and realized that the Falun Gong which my father had been practicing for a very long time was not Chi Gong but a cult. We persuaded him immediately not to practice anymore and told him Falun Gong was harmful. However, it was too late, my father was completely brainwashed by Falun Gong and could not change his mind no matter what we did and said. He insisted saying that we did not understand Falun Gong, practicing Falun Gong could keep healthy and treat disease as well as become Buddha and immortal. If he stopped practicing and the Master knew, he would be punished.
My father persisted his old way and became more and more unsocial and talked less and less. He could not go out and practice in the public, so he shut the door and practiced at his bedroom every day except eating and sleeping. Sometimes, he went out and met other disciples secretly, and brought scripts and flyers. One day my mother took his Falun Gong book when he was out and thinking that he would have to stop practicing without the book. However, my father went furious when he found out the book was missing and even beat my mom, which shocked and irritated me. They barely fight with each other over 20 years of marriage and my father beat my mom just for some Falun Gong books. I questioned him whether he had to practice and asked him to choose between family members and Falun Gong. I was extremely sad after hearing what he said, ‘you are the devils that prevent me from upgrade to a higher level. I want to keep practicing and you guys can leave me alone.’
Since then, my father went out even more at night and always carried a little bag. I was worried so I followed him one day. After arriving at a secluded community, I saw him taking several flyers from the little bag and pasted on the wall. I realized that he was secretly posting Falun Gong propaganda materials.
In the evening of 12th May, 2002, my father was quite peaceful, did not talk and practice, and only lied down on the bed. Later I realized that he was fighting himself for “ascending to the Heaven over daylight”. In the morning of the next day, my mother went in his bedroom and asked to eat breakfast. Suddenly, my mother was crying. I found out that my father was hanging out of the window and my mother and I went to prevent him from jumping out of the window. However, he was determined to die, struggled and shouted at my mother and me. He used his hands and foot to get rid of us and we could do nothing but looked at him falling down on the ground from 6th floors, saying that ‘Master, I am coming’.
My mother and I were mentally affected by my father’s death. We witnessed the brutality and bloodiness of Falun Gong. 10 years passed, we still could not forget the miserable scene.