接上篇...
Being cut off from the world was only a small part of the hardship. Since I was not at all prepared to be arrested, I did not take any extra clothes with me. Two days after my arrest, Shenzhen was hit by the coldest weather in this century. Sleeping on the cement floor, I could hear the cold wind howling through the prison wall. Worse yet, we were not allowed to wear shoes. As a result, my feet became badly chapped, and I had a deep sore on one foot, which would not healed until one month later. We were also forced to labor from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, making head-brushes or shoes for export to the US. The other cells made shoes for export. We had to make 70 hair brushes every day. Every one of us had bleeding finger tips caused by the sharp needles of the brushes. If we couldn't make the assigned work, we would be punished with no sleep or forced to knee down on the floor. After I came back to the US, some people asked me what if someone refused to work. Refuse? I witnessed a girl being beaten up really badly for being slow at assembling the brushes. An inmate recalled that some inmates were beaten up badly for being slow at work and stuck with needles in their private parts (so they cannot show the marks to others). Fortunately, with my science training, I was able to study and improve the assembly process and prevent more inmates from being beaten up for slow work. For all my forced labor there, I had to pay my own per diem - total of 130 Chinese Yuan for my 13 days of detention. Apparently, the forced labor is so systematic that the detention center I was in did not even bother to deny it when being asked by a reporter who interviewed me after I was released.


We were provided with only two simple meals (cabbages and Tofu) a day, one at 10:00 a.m. and the other one at 4:00 p.m. There was no tables or chairs. The cement floor was served as both our table and our chair. As shoes were not allowed in the cell, we had to be bare feet all the time. My feet were soaked in cold water for at least 6 hours each day since a lot of my duties included washing and cleaning. Pouring cold water from head to toe in the open air of 35F was the closest to “taking a shower.” There was only one toilet without flush and one had to flush it by hand. Since I could not stand the smell of the toilet, I tried not to go to the toilet. I suffered severe constipation so that I bled badly whenever I had to stool.

We were not treated as human beings at all, nor was there any justice whatsoever. Prostitutes who had connections with the police could be released overnight, while innocent Falun Gong practitioners were put behind the bars. The guards yelled at us and threatened to beat us when we were practicing the Falun Gong exercises. Our US permanent residency had eventually protected us from being beaten. But for Mainland Chinese practitioners, they would easily be the victims. The inmates told us terrifying torture stories that the past 20 Falun Gong practitioners had experienced. They were stripped and beaten to black and blue. Blood was forming streams on the floor…

I felt that I was living through another Cultural Revolution. The things I had seen in movies about the Cultural Revolution were actually happening around me. I met Falun Gong practitioners who were forced to resign their jobs, who were deprived of their apartments after they showed determination in continuing the practice. Their families and relatives were also in trouble as a result of the affiliation. The day before we were released, three women in late 40th and early 50th were sent to our cell. Two of them were arrested while visiting the Palace Museum in Beijing. It happened when they checked in their bags, the security searched their bags and found a Falun Gong book. They were immediately sent to a Beijing police station. Another lady was taking a walk after dinner in her apartment complex. She ran into a few other Falun Gong practitioners who were also living in the same apartment complex. They chatted for a while, and shortly afterwards, they were arrested for “illegal assembly.”

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