Original subtitles

Playing musical instruments

painting

playing Go...

I want to teach myself everything.

Young and full of life

I felt that I could do anything.

The biggest challenge at the time

was whether I could persevere.

I didn't know how long I would be detained

what kind of persecution I would suffer

and what would happen after I started the hunger strike.

At that time

I could wrap my waist

with my hands.

He was carried back on a stretcher.

The doctor explained to his family

that the best outcome for him was a lifelong disability.

He could die at any time.

I could only lie flat.

My heart could stop beating if I turned my body.

I remembered the teachings of Falun Gong:

"When you encounter a tribulation

that great compassion will help you overcome it."

I can only make up my mind.

I will not give up.

The past twenty years

has been a process of starting over again and again.

After I was forced out of the military

I had to adjust to civilian society.

Then I was imprisoned twice.

Twice I had to start my life over.

When I arrived in the United States

I had to start over again.

We then hear from Mr. Zhiming Hu

was serving as an air force officer in Beijing

when he began practicing Falun Gong

after the Chinese Communist Party

began the persecution of Falun Gong in 1999.

Mr. Hu, bypassing China's controls on the internet

he downloaded information

on the persecution from the internet.

For these activities...

I was a non-combat military officer with the rank of Major.

After 1992

many military officers started practicing Falun Gong.

Like me

whoever refused to give up the practice

was expelled from the military.

Hu Zhiming was an air force officer in China.

His father was an intellectual.

In the 1950s, his father was labeled as a "rightist"

for his bold political remarks

and was banished to the countryside.

Knowing nothing about farming

he had to learn how to use tools

and grow crops from scratch.

We were very poor at that time.

My parents couldn't afford any extracurricular activities for us.

So we had to make our own fun.

My father taught us how to paint Chinese paintings.

The most we did together was playing Go

a Chinese board game.

We picked white pebbles

and dark sea snail shells as Go stones

and drew the board on a sheet of paper.

The funniest thing

was that some of the sea snails were alive.

They would move around.

After my elder brothers went off to college

I was the only child at home

and entertained myself by playing the guitar.

When the time came for Zhiming to attend college

he chose to go to a military academy

to reduce the financial pressure on his family.

In July 1999

the communist regime began its crackdown on Falun Gong.

In 2000

Zhiming was forcibly discharged from the army

for his spiritual belief.

He settled in Beijing.

During that time

practitioners from all over the country

came to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong

or protest in Tiananmen Square.

"We're just trying to be good people."

"We cultivate Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance."

"Falun Falun Gong (Falun Gong) is good."

Since the communist regime banned hotels in Beijing

from hosting Falun Gong practitioners

Zhiming's apartment became a temporary dwelling

for many of them.

During that time

his small apartment was packed with a dozen people every night.

My brother who lived in California

returned in 1999 and 2000 to appeal for Falun Gong.

The last time he was in China was in 1996.

Away for four years

he felt cordial upon his return.

He felt that the Chinese people were very kind

and that they could easily understand Falun Gong.

They all seemed to have the innate quality

to improve themselves through cultivation.

Actually, I felt the same way about them.

When I was a child

I felt that people were nice and simple.

But during college and later in the workplace

I felt that the relationships among people

became more and more stressful.

I felt that I had a responsibility

to help people improve their morality somehow

especially after I started practicing Falun Gong.

I believed that Falun Gong

would fundamentally change people for the better

so I was so ardent

to tell as many people as I could about the practice.

Falun Gong instructs us to always consider others first

and take fame and fortune lightly.

This concept is easy for intellectuals.

Therefore, many intellectuals practice it.

For example

I always decline kickbacks that construction teams offer me.

They're surprised at my actions

but I follow Falun Gong's teachings.

We cultivate our moral character.

In a moment

you will see that everyone picks up after themselves

when we finish the exercises.

The ground will be clean and you can find anything you lost.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses propaganda

to slander Falun Gong practitioners.

The CCP accuses them of committing murder

and having mental disorders.

Meanwhile, the regime covers up

the cruel persecution against them.

With his knowledge of technology

Zhiming travelled around the country to teach practitioners

how to break through the internet censorship

and access Minghui

an overseas Falun Gong website

that documents the persecution.

There weren't many tech-savvy practitioners at the time.

The regime would purposefully target young practitioners

who were competent with technology and arrest them.

It was hard for me to find them.

During this period

Zhiming traveled to a dozen cities.

Harbin, Changchun

Jilin, Qingdao

Wuhan, Shanghai, and so on.

While teaching practitioners

Zhiming heard accounts of persecution in different regions.

In August 2000

I went to Jilin City.

There, two practitioners told me what happened

to a young female practitioner in their labor camp cell.

When she first arrived

she was a cheerful and optimistic girl.

But one time, after being tortured

the girl came back a different person.

She was very depressed, and her eyes were dull.

She must have suffered great mental shock.

After repeated inquiries

the girl said

the police shocked her private parts with electric batons.

She was badly burned.

She couldn't even walk normally.

Every time I heard about the persecution they suffered

it was a shock to my heart.

I felt I should do more to help them.

In October 2000

Zhiming arrived in Shanghai.

He didn't know that the practitioner he'd contacted

was being followed by the secret police.

On the night of October 4th

the police broke into his hotel room.

Someone knocked on my door at midnight

and said they needed to do a routine check.

When I opened the door

seven or eight people came in.

They asked me to empty my pockets.

I felt that something was wrong.

I had a hotel receipt in my pocket.

It would show that another practitioner was staying next door.

I stuffed the receipt in my mouth and tried to chew it up;

the paper was hard.

I knew that if the police got the receipt

the practitioner in the next room would be caught.

I had trouble breathing

so I had to open my mouth for a bit.

An officer stuck his hand in my mouth.

Amid the turmoil

I was finally able to swallow the receipt.

From then on

the officers were very rude to me.

They handcuffed me and threw me on the ground.

They packed all my belongings and took them away.

When a case like this came up

police officers would try to make it a big deal.

The bigger it is, the better chance they have

of getting a promotion.

They wanted to make it a foreign collusion case.

They interrogated me every night

from 6PM to 6AM for about three weeks.

Feeling that there was little chance in getting what they wanted

they changed their approach.

I was sentenced to four years in prison

for teaching others how to access the Minghui website.

I met Hu Zhiming in Thailand in 2010.

We had many things in common

like our hometown

age

and graduation year.

He told me about his experience

which was similar to mine.

I could see that he was very kind.

That impressed me the most when I first met him.

Although they met for the first time in 2010

this was not the first time Huilian had heard of Zhiming.

When she was still in mainland China

Huilian learned about Zhiming's persecution from Minghui.

At the time, Huilian was also being persecuted

for her beliefs in Falun Gong.

At 25, my life seemed to reach an end.

Practicing Falun Gong gave me a chance to live a healthy life.

I won't give up the practice.

In 1997

25-year-old Huilian was taking the PhD entrance exam

when she was told that she had acute rheumatic fever.

A strong believer in science

Huilian hoped that medicine could restore her health.

But the doctor told her there was no cure

and that she could only rely on steroids

to stabilize her condition.

Lying on the hospital bed

I began thinking about the meaning of life.

Someone visited me and recommended Falun Gong

saying the practice could improve my health.

At the time, it was hard for me to believe

because I didn't believe that a simple Qigong exercise

could restore my health.

A year later

the side effects of the steroids were worse than the disease itself.

While still taking medication

Huilian started to read Falun Gong books.

Many of my questions were answered by reading Zhuan Falun.

My belief in atheism crumbled;

I realized that higher beings do exist.

When my thoughts changed

a miracle happened:

I was cured.

It was thirteen years later

that Huilian and her future husband met.

She was surprised to find that

although their paths had never crossed

they were on a similar life journey.

As college students, we were both poor.

I could hardly imagine donating money

out of my very limited stipends.

But when Zhiming was in college

he felt that education was very important

so he tried his best

to help poor children living in the mountains.

At that time

financial support was about 20 to 30 US dollars per month.

Whenever he got a stipend, he made donations.

He kept it up after he started working.

After he began practicing Falun Gong

he noticed that the founder of the practice

donated to China's Foundation for Justice and Courage

so he did the same;

150 or 300 US dollars each time.

The cells in Tilanqiao Prison were all very small

about thirty square feet.

You could touch both sides of the cell by

extending your arms out.

Each cell usually held three people:

one practitioner

and two other prisoners watching them.

Usually, the prison gave felons

who committed robberies or murders this job.

They were promised that

if they made the practitioner give up their faith

their prison terms would be reduced by upto a year and a half.

Therefore, those who watched me were brutal.

In trying to force Falun Gong practitioners to surrender their faith

prisoners have done many horrific things.

For example

when cutting the practitioners' hair

they would push the hair clipper directly into their scalp.

The blades would leave rows of bloody scratches.

Of course, there are also nice prisoners.

A young man who watched over me, named Chen Jun

had been sentenced to ten years in prison for financial crimes.

He was very interested in Falun Gong

and liked hearing about it.

He helped practitioners a lot

and later

not only did he begin practicing Falun Gong

he also wrote letters to the prison

to report how the prisoners

were mistreating Falun Gong practitioners.

He even protested over the mistreatment.

The prison authorities were very angry.

He was beaten up so badly that he almost died

causing him to be released.

He died shortly afterwards.

In 2004

when I had almost completed my four-year sentence

the prison authorities deprived me of sleep

for my final two months in prison.

This was an attempt

to achieve their goal of complete "conversion."

I went on a hunger strike to protest.

Since I was very weak

I went into a coma shortly after.

I was then sent to the prison hospital.

The prison hospital is another place

where Falun Gong practitioners are persecuted.

As soon as I arrived

my limbs were stretched out and tied tightly to a bed.

I couldn't move at all.

I was given an IV and force fed.

I don't know what kind of fluid was put into my body

but during each two-hour infusion

I had an excruciating headache.

My body's reaction became more and more severe

and I started vomiting greenish-yellow vomit everywhere.

I felt horrible.

A prisoner in the hospital paid a lot of attention to me.

When no one was around

he would talk to me briefly.

Normally

someone would beg for mercy within one day of being tied up

but he noticed that I was calm after being tied for two days

and even after a week.

Because of the painful condition

most people would be very irritable

lashing out

cursing, or screaming

but I was calm.

I could even converse with him.

He was quite touched by this

and wished to know how I was so tranquil.

I've been curious about spirituality since I was young.

But after receiving a materialistic education

I felt that life was quite meaningless.

We are born involuntarily

forced into school

and made to work.

We get married, give birth

become old and frail

and eventually we die.

It felt like a very sad process.

However

an out-of-body-experience changed me.

It was around May 1995.

I was in graduate school when one night

after I laid down

my spirit flew out and floated in the air

looking at my body on the bed.

I couldn't move my body.

At that moment, I wondered if I was dying.

My first reaction was fear

but I thought that I hadn't done anything wrong

I shouldn't die so young.

I wanted to get back into my body.

With that thought

my consciousness returned to my body

and I could move again.

This experience left me perplexed.

I needed to know where we go after death

and what kind of existence it would be.

In order to find an explanation

Zhiming began reading religious and philosophical books.

However, after years of exploration

he still couldn't find the answers he was searching for.

After I started learning Falun Gong

the concept became very clear to me.

A human being with worldly thoughts

cannot understand the meaning of life.

However

during the path of cultivation

he can improve himself constantly.

Through this process

he will gradually understand the meaning of life.

The path of self-improvement is there for us to take.

When we truly improve and reach a higher spiritual realm

we will understand our life's purpose.

The young man in the prison hospital

who always wanted to talk to me was in his twenties.

I told him that the persecution of Falun Gong was wrong.

We shouldn't be arrested and coerced to give up our beliefs.

We won't give up.

We just want to improve ourselves.

He was really impressed and agreed with me.

He said he would read the Falun Gong books

once he was released.

During his time in the hospital

he'd often wipe my sweat and clean me.

He did all of this voluntarily.

From a boy growing up in a poor family

to an air force officer

who remained kind despite the vagaries of life

Zhiming always hoped his life was on the right track.

So when he finally found the path to return to his true self

he threw himself into it.

After being on a hunger and water strike for over one month

Zhiming was released from prison in 2004.

Soon after, he found a job as a programmer.

His life finally seemed to be back on track.

My brother is very smart.

He learned a lot of things by himself.

After four years of imprisonment

his health got very bad

and I worried about him.

When we finally got in touch

he told me he'd found a high-tech job in Beijing.

The company was good and so was the income.

He was ready to start over and

I was really happy for him.

In 2005, when I was working in Beijing

I would make DVDs of

the Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party

in my spare time

and distribute them in my neighborhood.

The people I encountered had various reactions.

While some accepted my brochures and disks

many did not.

Some were very hostile and reported me.

I couldn't predict how people would react

to my distributing the materials.

So I just did as much as I could.

The Nine Commentaries on the Communist Party

is a series published by the Epoch Times.

It exposes the nature of the Communist Party

and the disasters it has brought to mankind.

The series was widely circulated in China after its publication

and caught the regime's attention.

Those who spread the series were arrested

and given heavy prison sentences.

At that time

plain clothes policemen were everywhere in Beijing.

But I didn't know that until later.

I noticed a few people lingering around

while I was handing out DVDs.

When I was done and ready to leave

they came over and arrested me.

For distributing the Nine Commentaries

Zhiming was sentenced to another four years in prison.

I spent the first few months of my second imprisonment

adjusting myself:

reflecting on why this happened

and what I should do in the future.

After much consideration

I decided the most effective thing to do

was to go on a hunger strike.

I wanted to make a clear statement

that I'm resisting this persecution.

I could also meet with more people

like doctors, nurses, prison guards, and other prisoners.

I was suffering a lot

but I remained calm and rational.

I thought

"this will impress the people I meet

since they wouldn't be able to achieve such a calm state

in the same circumstance.

Therefore

they will be willing to listen to what I wish to tell them."

But no matter what

it would be a difficult decision.

I didn't know what it would be like down the line or

how long I could hold out.

At the beginning

not drinking water was hard to tolerate.

My thirst drove me crazy.

I yearned for water.

Three or four days into my hunger strike

I swallowed a mouthful of water one morning

while brushing my teeth;

it tasted very sweet

but I soon regretted it.

I read a book about Xuanzang

a monk in the Tang Dynasty.

During his journey to India to obtain Buddhist Sutras

he accidentally spilt his water in the desert.

He thought

"I have no water in this endless desert.

I should turn around and go back.”

While walking back

he felt what he was doing was wrong

so he turned back around and continued his journey.

He then vowed

not to return until he got the true scriptures.

I think that those who truly seek the Dharma or the Tao

should have the same determination

when encountering tribulations.

My desire to eat and drink lasted almost half a year.

The whole process was quite unbearable.

Every week or so

the skin on my lips would scab and peel.

This was part of the pain I had to endure.

I also had to resist the temptation to eat and drink.

After six months

my cravings gradually stopped.

I was fine and I didn't think about it anymore.

People don't understand

why Falun Gong practitioners go on hunger strikes.

"If it's so painful

why don't you just eat and be done with it?"

The way I see it, is that

Falun Gong practitioners will suffer in detention

whether they eat or not.

For example, if you don't eat

they will force-feed you to make you suffer.

Once you start eating, they will use other methods

such as forcing you to watch videos defaming Falun Gong

sleep deprivation, and forced labor.

They also put your family in extreme pain.

Mothers are forced to give up their children;

couples are coerced into divorcing.

Even if you don't go on a hunger strike

you will still be persecuted with the same intensity.

So through this method

we have used our own bodies to resist the persecution.

Going through this...

every moment we were facing the choice

between life and death.

I remember a nurse who once force-fed me.

She inserted a tube into my stomach through my nostril.

Normally, about 20 inches of the tube

should be inserted into the body

but when she did it

she inserted most of the 50 inch tube.

I told her she wasn't doing it right.

Upon hearing this

perhaps out of panic or anxiousness

she quickly pulled the whole tube out of my body.

She was quite rough

and when it was completely out

the bottom of the tube was full of blood.

After that

I experienced severe pain in my esophagus

whenever I turned or swallowed.

This lasted for a couple of months.

One of the biggest challenges during that time

was how to deal with the people inflicting pain on me.

Whenever I encountered such a situation

I always thought of Jesus when he was crucified.

Looking at the people who were crucifying him

he said

"Forgive them

for they do not know what they are doing."

The portion of each force-feeding varied greatly.

Zhiming would gain a lot of weight in a short period of time

and then lose weight rapidly.

Within a couple of weeks

I looked like a skeleton.

At that time

I could wrap my waist

with my hands.

The hospital's plan was to scare Zhiming out of his hunger strike.

When they realized that it wouldn't work

they sent him to the infectious ward.

The ward housed patients with infectious diseases

such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, etc.

I didn't think much about it.

I thought I would be fine.

I just need to maintain my state.

And indeed, I was never infected.

Zhiming was extremely weak.

The hospital required nurses to check

if he was alive every two hours.

Once I made up my mind

to counter the persecution with a hunger strike

all other thoughts and distractions were gone.

But my physical suffering was enormous

so I often recited Falun Gong scriptures to resist the pain

like this poem:

"A Great Enlightened One fears no hardship

Having forged an adamantine will

Free of attachment to living or dying

He walks the path of Fa-rectification confident and poised"

I was in a semi-conscious state

when I was later transported from Beijing

to the Jinzhou Prison in Liaoning Province.

During the transfer

some police officers scolded me

"Don't be lazy."

When they realized that I couldn't move

they dragged me and threw me directly into the car.

At that time my body was very light.

I guess I was only eighty to ninety pounds.

I had no strength to defend myself.

I was thrown directly under the car seat like a sack.

He's the youngest of us four brothers

so we tended to protect him when we were growing up.

We had similar beliefs and personalities.

We played together often when we were young.

He was easygoing and outgoing.

My brother took great care of the family's finances.

When it was time for him to go to college

he enrolled in a military academy

because it was free and even provided stipends.

He often sent money to my parents.

When I was in college

he even sent money to me.

When I heard he'd been on a hunger strike

for a very long period of time

I was really worried.

So, sometimes when I was having a good meal

I would be reminded of my brother

who had nothing to eat.

While in prison

I felt that even under the high pressure

of the Chinese Communist Party

many people still had kind hearts.

This is the reason practitioners try to clarify the truth

about Falun Gong

and tell them about the CCP's persecution.

When I arrived at Jinzhou's Nanshan Prison

a doctor was put in charge of my medical treatment.

After running some tests

the doctor said I had no reflexes at all.

He even used a flashlight to see if my pupils were dilated.

For the next three years

I used a wheelchair sent to me by my family.

This doctor was touched

by practitioners' determination to safeguard our faith.

Seeing our sacrifices

he felt obligated to help me.

He would often spend his own money

to give me additional nutrition.

He bought vegetables

and asked the staff to squeeze the juice

to mix with my liquid food.

From his actions, I knew he was very kind.

I told him the truth about Falun Gong and the persecution.

While talking

I felt that he was still hesitant.

After all, he worked for the CCP.

He once told me

"I don't know much about the teachings of Falun Gong

but I know that some terminally ill people in our community

recovered because of practicing it.

That, I know."

Not all Falun Gong practitioners

are lucky enough to meet such a kind doctor.

Several practitioners in the same prison as Zhiming

were serving sentences of more than ten years.

All were suffering from different degrees of abuse.

Although still on hunger strike

Zhiming's health began to improve

under the care of the doctor.

His state was much better than during his hunger strike in Beijing.

However, an unexpected event put him in danger once again.

In August or September 2008

a prisoner was moved into my cell.

He was an intelligence official in his 60s.

He'd been sentenced to ten years in prison

for leaking intelligence.

He was moved into my cell

because he'd suddenly become paralyzed

and could only move his right arm.

The hospital sent a prisoner to take care of him.

The caregiver was a violent criminal

serving a 15 year sentence.

He was bored

and always tormented this elderly man for entertainment.

When washing his face

the caregiver demanded that he keep his eyes open.

Because of the repeated abuses

the elderly man had become too scared

to disobey the caregiver's demands.

So he opened his eyes

and the caregiver rubbed the towel into them.

The elderly man screamed in pain

much to the amusement of the caregiver.

A few days later

the elderly man went into a trance-like state.

During the night

he often screamed and had nightmares.

I felt that if this continues

he would die

— not of illness but from torture.

Seeing such a situation

I couldn't stay quiet.

I told the prison staff about it many times

but no action was taken.

With no other options

I started to refuse infusions.

Within two days

my physical condition rapidly declined.

When I lay down

my heart rate would reach 160 beats per minute.

I was afraid that my heart would stop beating

if I turned to the side.

Two days later, at around 6PM

the doctor suddenly came in.

He checked my pulse

and then walked out

and made a phone call to the prison warden.

He asked him to take care of the situation right away.

The doctor then came back in

and told me my condition was so bad

that I wouldn't survive the night.

He asked me to accept infusions

and promised to fix the situation the next day.

He was quite sincere so I agreed.

The next day, they replaced the caregiver.

You know

— actually you wouldn't know...

the prison hospital was like Hell:

a patient sitting there

too stiff to move except for his eyes.

Only when someone took pity on him

or when he desperately needed it

would he be fed some food.

He just sat there

waiting to die.

Some prisoners in the hospital

had rotting skin all over their bodies.

It was so bad that their bones were exposed.

This was quite common.

The hospital's toilet was the scariest place to be.

Many prisoners didn't dare to go there at night.

They said they felt like their legs

being pulled by ghosts there

and said they were almost pulled to the ground.

It was very scary.

And seeing the elderly man in that kind of environment

I thought he would soon die from pain.

In this type of prison

replacing a caregiver doesn't help much.

Sitting in his wheelchair

not knowing what lay ahead

Zhiming made a decision.

He decided to take care of the elderly man himself.

This was not an easy decision to make

because my own physical condition was very bad.

Each morning

I helped the elderly man wash up

sometimes sharing my water with him.

I washed his face

bathed him

cleaned his hands and feet

and fed him.

I also helped him go to the toilet.

It was indeed very difficult.

Even though I'd done all these things for him

he didn't appreciate it at all.

He was always rude and uncooperative.

For example

when I fed him

he would sometimes spit the food out

or use his functional arm

to push my hand away.

He would often rub his feces on his blanket

and I had to clean it up.

When I washed his feet

– which no one else would do –

he would point his fingers at my head like a gun

and pretend to shoot me

— an action considered taboo in prison.

This made me feel terrible.

Humans have emotional impulses.

But when I feel those

I try to calm myself down.

I remembered the teachings of Falun Gong:

"When you encounter a tribulation

that great compassion will help you overcome it."

In that moment

I had to rely on these words to keep me going.

I had to treat the elderly man with compassion.

So I ignored all these provocations

and did what I had to do.

In fact, during that period

I didn't know how long I could last.

I didn't know what my future would be like.

I just did what I was supposed to do

according to Falun Gong's principles.

One day in June

the elderly man died unexpectedly.

His family came to the prison.

They were quite touched that despite such poor conditions

their loved one who'd been paralyzed for 6 months

had no bed sores.

Even his old wounds were healed.

The doctor said that

in all his years of working in prison

he'd never seen a paralyzed patient without bed sores.

When I was finally released in 2009

I was extremely weak.

If it weren't for looking after the elderly man

I wouldn't have been so frail.

I felt I had exhausted my strength.

But despite this

I never worried about my health while taking care of him.

I was weak

and suffered occasional heart pain

stomachaches

and other discomforts

but I never had any fear

that I had serious health issues.

In September 2009

Zhiming was sent home laying in the back of a prison van

accompanied by the doctor and a lot of medical equipment.

His body looked just like images you see

of Nazi concentration camp victims.

His muscles had completely atrophied.

He also suffered permanent nerve damage in his right leg

from long hours of being bound by chains, and physical abuses.

The doctor told his elderly parents

that his heart and lungs were failing

and that he could lose his life at any time.

At best, he would be disabled for the rest of his life.

Because his gastrointestinal tract was severely damaged

Zhiming was advised to start with a liquid diet.

When I got home

my parents were so happy.

My father boiled two eggs for me.

But when they were brought to me

I had a moment of hesitation.

I'd been told that eggs were difficult to digest.

But my parents made them for me

so it wouldn't be good if I didn't eat them.

I told myself

"Don't worry too much,"

and ate the eggs.

After eating

I didn't have any discomfort.

Since then

I've been able to eat normally.

I was surprised;

my four-year hunger strike

didn't appear to have any effect on my digestive system.

After regaining my freedom

I resumed practicing the Falun Gong exercises everyday

and studying the teachings.

I started to recover.

Thinking back

I feel that the exercises played a great role in my recovery.

My muscle atrophy and nerve damage was eventually healed.

During my recovery

a guest came to my home.

I tried to stand up

but I immediately fell backwards.

My feet were in a straight line with my legs.

I couldn't bend my ankles.

If I forced myself to stand

my tendons would break.

So I had to gradually stretch them back to normal.

Pretend this is the bed.

I would hold onto the edge of the bed

standing on my toes like this

then push my heels down gradually.

I had to learn to walk again like a baby.

It was very painful at the beginning

because my leg muscles were all gone.

Since I couldn't bend my legs

I could only inch backwards.

Gradually, I stretched my tendons back to normal.

Eventually, I was able to walk again.

What did the doctor mean when he said that

Zhiming could die at any time

and that the best outcome would be a lifelong disability?

He meant the best scenario was a leg disability.

However, his failing heart and lungs could take his life.

He had lost the normal feeling of hunger.

And if he didn't eat, he would have chest pain.

Little by little

his internal organs began recovering.

He was getting better and better.

At first, he had a lot of pain in his feet.

After regaining the ability to walk

he was still in a lot of pain.

Gradually, his discomfort shrank

and he only felt pain in his toes.

Then one day

he said his toes didn't hurt anymore.

As he kept practicing Falun Gong

he was healed.

I think it's a miracle.

I was released in September 2009.

In December

when I was able to walk normally again

I called the prison doctor.

He was very happy to receive my call.

He was shocked by my recovery

and repeatedly thanked me.

After Zhiming was able to walk again

secret police came to see him

and found out he had recovered.

He felt that he was in danger again

so he bought a ticket to Beijing.

In Beijing, he bought a ticket to Yunnan

and from there, escaped China.

In March 2010

Zhiming managed to arrive in Thailand.

There, he applied for asylum

at the United Nations Refugee Agency.

After meeting in Thailand

we visited a famous tourist attraction

to clarify the truth about the persecution.

Many Chinese tourists would go there.

Zhiming would go there every day

with a handmade poster board.

There were many practitioners there.

Usually, we took shifts for a few hours each

since it was really hot.

One day, for some reason

no one came to relieve Zhiming after his shift.

There were so many Chinese tourists

and Zhiming didn't want them to miss the chance to learn the truth

so he stayed.

He held up the poster board for about eight hours.

He had just fled to Thailand

and his health was still fragile.

Sometimes he still experienced pains

in his heart, feet, and stomach.

If it were me

I wouldn't have been able to hold on for eight hours

yet he stayed.

The past 20 years

have been a process of starting over and over again.

Coming to the United States

is also a new beginning for me.

My life has gradually stabilized.

After all, in this free society

I can continue to perform to the best of my ability

and not have to start from scratch abruptly like I had to before.

I once wrote a letter to my parents that reads:

"I hope that I have faith and spirituality

and will never be caught up in worldly pursuits.

I hope that the light of

Truthfulness, Compassion and Forbearance

will forever be in my heart

and illuminate my path forward."