Ms. Fuyao Li

Ms. Wang Huijuan, Li Fuyao, and Mr. Li Zhenjun at their home in Queens, New York, on Jan. 8, 2017. The family escaped China in 2014 and were granted asylum after enduring years of torture for practicing Falun Gong.

Ms. Wang Huijuan, Li Fuyao, and Mr. Li Zhenjun at their home in Queens, New York, on Jan. 8, 2017. The family escaped China in 2014 and were granted asylum after enduring years of torture for practicing Falun Gong.

Fuyao was only 6 years old when her parents disappeared into China’s forced labor camp system for the first time. The little girl’s resolve was tested on every level over the next decade.

Her classmates shunned her and spat in her books at primary school while the teachers looked on; her parents were barely around; and her only constant was her grandmother, who was sick with worry about her son and daughter-in-law.

But neither anger nor resentment is detectable in her demeanor. She said she knew all along her parents had committed no crimes. Her mother recalls one time when Fuyao visited, she asked her, “Would you rather I transform and come home, or maintain my faith and not go against my conscience? If I tell the truth, they will keep me here. I was crying and she wiped my tears and said, ‘Mommy, you have to be righteous. You can’t say Falun Dafa is bad.’”

Maturing Through Hardship

When she was in primary school, Fuyao Li and her mother were imprisoned in a shoddy storage room in the schoolyard where Li attended and her mother had taught for years. Li’s mother was removed from her position, and two teachers kept 24/7 surveillance on the mother-daughter duo to pressure them into giving up Falun Dafa.

Their resolve was tested on every level, but her mother remained steadfast and optimistic despite it all.

On a seemingly normal evening, police abruptly barged into Fuyao’s home and ransacked through their belongings.
Within the hour, the police took her parents away due to their faith in Falun Gong.

Fuyao Li lived the rest of her childhood as a foster child of sorts, jumping from one relative to the next. Many of her relatives also practiced Falun Gong and had also lost their jobs due to the persecution, so none of them could afford to house Li for long. “When I went home, it was not my home.” She grew up feeling like a second-rate citizen.

Fuyao Li rarely uttered the words “Mom” and “Dad” in her childhood, because the Chinese Communist Party had deemed them dissidents for simply practicing a spiritual meditation. Li was only allowed to visit them twice a year, for mere minutes at a time. 

Full story: https://faluninfo.net/life-after-torture/

Documentary featuring Fuyao: https://tv.faluninfo.net/up-we-soar/

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