The first Sunday of September is the day when Australians send love to their fathers.
Siblings Cathy and Allen Wang reunited in Sydney after being apart for eight years but they are no longer able to wish their father Wang Xiaoshen a happy Father’s Day.
Mr. Wang was an English teacher at Shandong Vocational College of Information Technology who was loved by his students.
In 1998, he came across Falun Dafa while shopping at a bookstore and from there embarked on the path of cultivation.
Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a spiritual practice based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, forbearance, as well as a set of slow-moving meditative exercises. By 1999, the practice had become very popular in China, with an estimated 70 to 100 million adherents in mainland China.
“There was once a student who didn’t want to go to school and wouldn’t listen to anyone. My father gave him one-on-one counselling. Later he only listened to my father, admiring him, and became willing to study,” Allen recalled.
In his mind, “dad could do anything.”
“He read a lot of books, loved to study, and had a wide range of knowledge. He was always able to answer all of my questions,” Allen said.
However, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), seeing the practice’s popularity as a threat to its rule, ordered the eradication of Falun Gong in 1999, launching a campaign to violently detain Falun Gong practitioners and throw them into prisons, brainwashing centers, and forced labor camps.
At that time, seven-year-old Cathy and three-year-old Allen had no idea of what was in store for the family of four.
The siblings’ father had been illegally imprisoned for over 10 years in total because he would not give up his faith.
Yet even when Mr. Wang was assigned to guard the front door and clean the dormitory after he was released, he still took his job seriously and was helpful to students.
“During his second five-year imprisonment, his weight dropped from 180 pounds to 130 pounds,” Cathy recalled.
She learned about some of her father’s tortures from his conversations with fellow practitioners and her mother: “In winter, cold water was poured on his head; he was not allowed to sleep for over 20 days, driving him crazy; after he went on hunger strike, he was forcibly intubated and fed ... I have no way of knowing the details, but I know that these are just a tip of the iceberg of the torture that my father experienced.”
Due to his family background, Allen had always been bullied at school.
“My classmates beat and scolded me, but I didn’t hate them because the Dafa principles of ‘Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance’ has long been rooted in my heart,” he said.
Pain of Losing Family
In 2015, Mr. Wang passed away after over a decade in prison.Cathy, who had just arrived in the United States to study, felt like a bolt from the blue.
“I cried for many days, and it was so hard that I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t leave the house for a week. I didn’t sleep much. I didn’t eat much. I felt so helpless and desperate,” she said.
The young lady tried different methods to relieve her pain, but it was the teachings of Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance that finally calmed her down.
“I tried everything. I called my friends and relatives. I went online and looked up ‘what happens when a person dies,’ but none of these things calmed me down until I thought of studying Falun Gong’s teachings. I then listened to the recording of Master [Mr. Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Dafa]’s teachings, and then I was calmed down.”
Allen was still studying in university in China when he heard the news.
That day, the teacher told him to hurry home as soon as possible. Knowing that something had happened at home, Allen didn’t dare to think about it any further due to what he had experienced since childhood.
His uncle was waiting for him at the crossroads on the way home. When his uncle broke the news of his father’s passing, Allen held back his tears.
A Father’s Love
During the 10 years they were able to spend time together, Allen’s dad left him with happy memories.“Although most of my childhood was characterized by pain and suffering, the time my father spent with me was filled with good memories. He played ball with me when he wasn’t working. He taught me how to be a good person,” Allen recalled.
“In my heart, he was always so selfless … Just like his philosophy of education, he was willing to be the fertilizer, constantly supplying me and his students with nutrients to help us grow, not caring if he was consuming himself or not.
“I learned not only knowledge from my father, but also responsibility, commitment, and a never-give-up spirit, as he always took full responsibility for protecting my mother and my family during illegal arrests.”
Reunion In Free Society
The harsh experience Cathy went through during childhood led her to develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).“I would start to worry if my family didn’t pick up the phone… For a long time after I came to the U.S., when my mom didn’t pick up the phone, I would get very, very worried,” she said.
Now a teacher at a public elementary school in the U.S. state of Maryland, Cathy applied for a visa to visit Australia with her husband right after she received her green card in July.
The moment she saw her brother after a 26-hour trip, she was overjoyed.
“I’ve been thinking for years [for this moment],” she said.
The shadows that accompanied her as she grew up are now beginning to fade.
“The longer I live overseas, the securer I feel. When I was in China, I always worried that something bad would happen, and I didn’t feel safe,” she said.
Allen, who hasn’t seen his family for eight years, said he was delighted to see his sister with a happy family now.
Cathy now realizes that her parents, who fought for justice and their faith “are real heroes, people I should be proud of.”
