Sunday, August 17, 2003

If Chinese government officials knew that every weekday morning, a McCandless woman exercises on the front walk at her apartment complex, they'd likely blacklist her husband.

But that doesn't stop Lingfang Kong or her friend Xiaoyan Liu, also of McCandless. The two women begin the slow, meditative moves of Falun Gong every day at 6 a.m. in front of Kong's home or, if the weather is wet, in Liu's living room.

They stand straight, close their eyes and slowly reach high with palms out. Sometimes they sit quietly, legs tucked in, arms outstretched, palms turned to the earth. All the time, gentle traditional music plays.

Soon, they say, a surge of spiritual energy [...] fills them with health and well-being. Practicing Falun Gong restores stamina, calms aches and pains, and creates clarity of mind for another day, the women claim.

But each morning, as they breathe deeply, the women are mindful that back in China, the government continues to press its policy of incarceration of Falun Gong practitioners. More than a thousand have been tortured to death, according to a U.S.-based Falun Gong organization.

[...]

A brochure published by the Falun Dafa Information Center, a Falun Gong organization based in the United States, states that more than 100,000 followers have been detained in China. The organization says 1,600 have been tortured to death.

Nevertheless, Kong and Liu said they will not give up the philosophy or the exercises, even though family members still living in Jiangsu and Sichuan, their homeland provinces, implore them to do so.

Kong said her husband, whose English name is Edward, is a representative for a U.S.-based international corporation and travels frequently to China. Although he does not practice Falun Gong, he could be subject to questioning and/or detention because of her devotion.

The situation for her family members in China appears more precarious.

"I called my sister," Kong said. "She says, 'You'd better give up your practicing because everybody in our family will be interfered with because of your practicing."

Kong, 36, said her sister is especially fearful because she knows of a person who lost his job and his family because he refused to denounce Falun Gong.

[...]

"My younger brother said to me, 'You cannot go back. They have already put your name on the blacklist on the Internet.' "

Kong said her mother cries because heart disease prevents her from coming to the United States to see her 10-year-old grandson. But, Kong said, if she returns to China, she is certain to be arrested.

Liu learned Falun Gong in 1998 from former Monroeville resident Weihua Li, an environmental engineer who said he was relieved of migraine headaches through the practice. Li has since moved to California, Kong and Liu said.

Liu said the exercises helped her regain her waning short-term memory.

"I totally recovered," Liu said. "So I wanted to tell everyone who knows me. First, I told my family."

She said her sister, a Communist Party member in China, loved the idea and began practicing Falun Gong.

Two months into it, the sister attended her regular Communist Party study group meeting. The group leader impressed on the students that if they were caught practicing Falun Gong, "they will be in big trouble."

"I called my sister," Liu said. "She spoke very quietly. She said, 'You are very, very lucky. You are in America. You have the freedom to practice Falun Gong.' "

Liu and her young daughter moved to Pittsburgh in 1997 with her husband, a student at the University of Pittsburgh.

She learned about Falun Gong when Li taught it outdoors at the North Side campus of Community College of Allegheny County in 1998.

"In March 1998, I got a fever," she said.

Shortly afterward, the memory loss arose. It got so bad that trying to remember hurt, Liu said.

"I tried yoga," she said. "I tried swimming. I practiced yoga every day. I tried everything. It didn't work."

Liu, who works as a lab technician, had been a pharmacist in China and sought help at a local hospital. No relief came until she tried Falun Gong, she said.

Kong, who arrived with Pittsburgh four years ago with her husband and young son, said she had been fighting a general lack of energy and a minor sore throat for many months.

But now, "when I practice [Falun Gong], I feel the energy circulate. I feel very, very wonderful."

Kong said she learned from Liu who, by then, was holding her own seminars in area libraries and community centers.

Now, "when I walk, I feel like somebody is gently pushing me," the recent Robert Morris College grad said. "When I go up hill, I do not feel tired like before."

The two women tried to hold a seminar introducing the practice at Northland Public Library in June, but no one came. Kong said she thought the warm weather might have been a factor, and the pair plans to hold another session in the fall.

Through the exercises, each practitioner hopes to achieve Falun Dafa's three major principles: Truthfulness (Zhen), Compassion (Shan) and Forbearance (Ren). Practitioners believe reaching the principles helps one achieve contentment.

All Kong and Liu know is that they mean no one any harm.

"From my heart I can tell everybody ... I try to be good," Liu said. " I didn't do anything wrong ... I'm never afraid. I won't run."

http://www.post-gazette.com/neigh_north/20030817ncover0817p4.asp