Witnessing History by Jennifer Zeng

Author:Jennifer Zeng
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Soho Press
Published: 2008-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

A few days later the camp leader summoned me again and went over the same thing: the informal discussion with reformed Falun Gong practitioners was an opportunity not to be missed and it would be a pity if I didn’t go.

This time I didn’t insist that I wouldn’t go and not long afterwards a little sentry called out my name and told me to meet her in the corridor. There were two other Falun Gong practitioners with her. One was Gu Hua—she, Wang Jin and I had been in the first group from Chongwen District to be sentenced to re-education through forced labour. The three of us fell into line behind Team Leader Su and were escorted out the main gate to the administration building.

As I entered the room where the discussion was to be held I saw another familiar face. This woman was in her thirties and I had met her at a fellow practitioner’s place. We had been talking about going to Tian’anmen on the anniversary of April 25, but she had said she couldn’t wait a day longer and wanted to go on the thirteenth. Nobody, it seemed, could stand in the way of her determination and I was filled with admiration for her courage. Seeing her now I felt a warm glow as if I were meeting up with an old friend in a distant land. I nodded to her and, apparently recognising me, she gave me a nod in return. I walked over and quickly sat down beside her before the police had time to tell us where to sit, trying to figure out how I could manage to talk to her. I saw from the card pinned to her breast that her name was Hu Xiuying.

All the seats around the big oval meeting table were soon taken. There were a dozen or so labour-camp inmates and the same number of police officers. Slices of watermelon were set out on the table and something like So-and-so, welcome back for a discussion was written on the blackboard in coloured chalk.

The camp leader, who was chairing the meeting, said that they had invited the former Falun Gong practitioners Yang Jing and Tang Shuzhen, who had ‘reformed’ and been released in June to serve their sentences outside the camp. Unfortunately, Yang Jing was tied up at work and had been unable to get away but Tang Shuzhen was going to speak to us. However, he would like to say a few words first. Tang Shuzhen was not highly educated and not much of a speaker, he told us, so he would appreciate it if we would all remain disciplined and not interrupt her. If there were any points on which we didn’t agree we were to leave them for later discussion; this applied especially to his three new inmates—and here he gave me a meaningful look.

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