The Story of My Father（21-22) 我的父親（21-22）
21
However, good times did not last long. In July 1999, an overwhelming persecution was instigated against Falun Gong. Before I even had time to make any sense of it, I had been imprisoned several times for being a Falun Gong practitioner.
可惜，好景不長，99年7月，對法輪功的鎮壓鋪天蓋地的開始，在我還沒完全反應過來之前，就已身陷囹圄好幾次。
My parents-in-law, who lived with us, were almost terrified to death. After failing to convince me to give up Falun Gong, my mother-in-law thought of my parents. She believed that it was they who asked me to practice Falun Gong. Therefore, only they were able to make me give up.
跟我們住在一起的公公婆婆嚇壞了，在多次勸我放棄修煉未果後，婆母想到我父母。她認為是我父母讓我修煉的，因此只有他們才能讓我放棄。她打電話跟他們溝通。我不知父母是怎樣跟她說的，不過顯然是沒有如她所願。婆母放下電話絕望的叫道：「我到四川去跟你父母拼命！反正我也不想活了！」
So she called them and asked them to do so. However, it was obvious that things didn’t go as she had expected. She hung up the phone and shouted in despair: “I will go to Sichuan to fight your parents to death! I don’t want to live anyway!”
我一方面真怕她失去理智從北京跑到四川找我父母哭鬧，一方面又痛徹心肺的想：「您要真的不想活了，為甚麼不去找江澤民拼命！」
I was very scared, fearing that she would really go to Sichuan to make a scene at my parents. On the other hand, I couldn’t help thinking bitterly, ” If you really don’t want to live any more, why don’t you go fight with Jiang Zemin instead!” (Jiang Zemin was the head of the Chinese Communist Party who launched the campaign against Falun Gong in July 1999).
婆婆退休前是個婦女幹部，文革中也曾被揪到臺上「坐飛機」、挨批鬥，之後一家人不得不逃到鄉下躲避。對中共殘暴的深切體會化作她深深的恐懼和臣服。她很難原諒、也很難理解我為何不能夠跟她一起恐懼、跟她一起接受「胳膊擰不過大腿」這個理。
My mother-in-law was a women cadre before she retired. During the Cultural Revolution, she had been dragged onto a stage to be publicly denounced, with her arms twisted backwards and up into the air. This particular gesture had a nickname, “going by air”, which could still be seen in many pictures taken during that period of time.
After being targeted and tortured like this, she had to take the entire family to the countryside to avoid being “struggled against” again. This experience had somehow turned into a deep fear and a sense of compliance towards the CCP.
Like many other Chinese people who had been living in fear and obedience for too long, she couldn’t understand why I didn’t become as fearful as her. Nor could she forgive me for not willingly accepting the reasoning that “the arm is no match for the thigh” and therefore submitting myself to the CCP’s authority.
22
In the autumn of 1999, I heard from other Falun Gong practitioners that several former members of the Falun Dafa Research Society would be put on trial soon. One of the “crimes” they were accused of was that they had incited 10 thousand people to go to Zhongnanhai to appeal for Falun Gong on April 25, 1999. As I happened to be one of the 10 thousand people on the day, I planned to go to the court to testify that I went there of my own accord, not incited by anyone else.
99年秋，我聽功友說，原法輪大法研究會幾名成員就要被開庭審理了，他們的罪名之一是「煽動」1999年4月25日的萬人上訪。那天有超過一萬名法輪功學員到中南海信訪辦外集體請願，我是其中一名。我想到法庭上去作證，說那天上訪是我自己要去的，沒有任何人煽動我。
After learning my thoughts, my father told me that my plan wouldn’t work at all. As one of the lawyers in the city, he had been notified the following policies regarding Falun Gong practitioners’ cases:
父親知道我的想法後告訴我，這是徒勞無益的。綿陽市司法局曾召集市裡所有律師，傳達為法輪功學員辯護的政策，主要內容有：
1. Falun Gong practitioners are different from ordinary criminal offenders. Therefore, while ordinary offenders can be bailed out by their lawyers; Falun Gong practitioners cannot.
1、被關押的法輪功學員不同於一般刑事犯，因此雖然一般的刑事犯可以由律師出面保釋，但法輪功學員一律不得保釋；
2. The overall direction of Falun Gong practitioners is already wrong. Therefore, when defending Falun Gong practitioners in court, lawyers should not fight as hard with the prosecutors regarding the “trivial” issues such as whether the evidence is adequate, or whether the facts are solid enough, as they do in other cases.
2、法輪功學員大方向就錯了，因而在法庭上辯護時，不得像其它案件一樣，去摳公訴人的甚麼證據充分不充分、事實確鑿不確鑿等「小問題」；
3. The attorney’s defense must be approved by the authorities beforehand. While arguing for Falun Gong practitioners, the attorney can only read from the approved defense without saying anything else.
3、律師辯護狀必須上交給有關領導審批，在法庭辯護時，只能照審批過的辯護狀作書面辯護，不許說辯護狀之外的話。
I didn’t feel surprised by this. Nevertheless, on Dec. 26, 1999, I still went to the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court, hoping to attend the trial. However, the street was filled with police, and, like another one thousand other Falun Gong practitioners, I was arrested before I could even get a glimpse of the court.
父親的傳達沒有讓我感到意外，但99年12月26號那天，我還是來到北京市第一中級人民法院，準備去旁聽庭審。然而，街上早已布滿警察，我與其他一千多名法輪功學員一樣，連法院大門的影都沒看見，就被抓起來了。
Before being sent to the detention center, I asked the police officer at the local police station, “How long do you think we are going to be detained this time?”
在被送到看守所前，我們曾問派出所片警：「你估計這次得關多少？」
He replied, “I don’t know. We’ll need to wait for the instructions from higher authorities.”
片警答：「不知道，得等上面的精神。」
“Waiting for instructions from higher authorities” was indeed the real essence of the CCP’s “rule of law.” When I was in jail, some fellow inmates once asked, “Your father is one of the top 10 lawyers of Sichuan Province. Why don’t you ask him to defend you?”
「等上面的精神」，這才是中共所謂法治的「精髓」。在獄中，曾有功友問我：「你父親是四川省十大律師之一，為甚麼不讓他給你做辯護？」
As a matter of fact, not only was my father one of the top 10 lawyers in Sichuan, my mother had also become a chief judge at the intermediate court in Mianyang City by then, with my sister being the director of the Policy Research Department of Mianyang Fucheng People’s Court.
其實，不光我父親是四川省十大律師之一，我母親那時也已做到綿陽中級法院的審判長，大妹妹則是綿陽涪城區法院政策研究室主任。可是這些有甚麼用？鎮壓後，大妹妹因到北京上訪，被開除公職、黨籍，還上了公安部全國通緝的黑名單，父母則處於被軟禁的境地，不但經常被找去談話，在他們住處的樓下，還安排了專門的眼線，父母的進進出出，都有中共密探記錄在案。
But none of these would be of any help. Not only that, but my sister herself was also dismissed from the Party and her workplace, after she went to Beijing to appeal for Falun Gong after the crackdown.
Furthermore, she was also on the national wanted list of the Public Security Ministry. My parents were virtually under house arrest. They were not only often summoned to their workplaces to be “educated,” but were also under 24-hour surveillance by CCP informers living just downstairs. All their movements were closely observed and then reported to the authorities.
（To be continued 待續 ）
My mother and I in early 1999. This was the last photo taken before the persecution of Falun Gong began. I never expected that the persecution would occur. Nor did I realize that I would never have another chance to take a photo with my father. 99年初，我與母親的合影。可惜當時覺得一切都會是「天長地久」的，會永遠都那樣、永遠都在那裡，因此竟然沒想到要跟父親也合個影。那時絕對想不到，我從此再也沒機會跟父親合影了！
