July 30, 2003 Wednesday

By William Verity

ESTHER Wang should be happy. She is one of the stars of a documentary with a world premiere in Wollongong next week.

And her mother was released a week ago after serving three years hard labour and "re-education" in a Chinese jail.

But the 30-year-old assistant accountant from Dapto finds it hard to celebrate. Her sister and brother-in-law are still in jail, her father is dead, and she can only communicate with her mother through friends and relatives.

The reason? Falun Gong or Falun Dafa, an apparently innocuous spiritual movement which teaches meditation, truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance.

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"I am a little bit lost about the future," Ms Wang said.

"Even though my mother is out, it's almost like she is still in jail.

"I can pick up the phone and talk to her, but I don't want to bring any more trouble for her."

Police arrested her mother, Jielin Li, now 58, in the Sichuan town of Chong Qing and accused her of distributing Falun Dafa leaflets.

Months later, her father died. Ms Wang missed his funeral because of a three-month delay before the Chinese authorities granted a visa.

Ms Wang's story, and that of two other young Chinese Falun Dafa women, features in a documentary to be screened at part of International Week at the University of Wollongong in the Unihall Theatre next Thursday, August 7, at 6pm.

Produced and directed by Sydney moviemaker Vina Lee, it will form part of an introduction to Falun Dafa, its exercises and philosophy.

Between 10 and 20 practitioners - many of them from the university - practice the tai-chi-style art every morning at Stuart Park, North Beach, after dawn each morning.

"They don't come there to protest or anything," Ms Wang, the group's only Chinese member, said.

"They just want to cultivate self improvement. It's that simple."