China: Help Beijing Female Painter Xu Na (1)

By Tu Long, Meng Yuan, Secret China*, via The Epochtimes, May 07, 2008-

Xu Na is a 40 year old reputed painter. She is now illegally detained in the Beijing Detention Center because of her belief in Falun Gong. Her husband Yu Zhou, a famous folk singer and also a practitioner, died from torture just before Chinese New Year. Although Xu remains in jail, she is attempting to overcome all difficulties to appeal for her husband’s innocence.

With the Beijing Olympics around the corner, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has intensified the persecution of domestic dissident and Falun Gong practitioners. Xu and her husband are merely one of the numerous families being persecuted.

( Music Video: “My Home”, by Xu Na, her husband Yu Zhou (playing drums) and their partner)

A Scholarly Family

Xu was born in Northeast China’s Changchun City in Jilin Province. All her family members are artists. Xu’s father is a painter of the Chinese Cultural Federation, and her mother is a teacher at the Jinlin College of Arts.

Xu graduated from the Department of Literary and Arts at the Communication University of China (formerly the Beijing Broadcasting University). She chose to be an artist because of her family’s nurturing. Her works attained fame very quickly.

In 1997, Xu’s award winning work was displayed in the Ministry of Culture’s grand exhibition of Chinese art. In 1998, she won an award at the China Youth Oil Painting Exhibition.

Xu’s paintings are well known in China and Hong Kong, an oil painting of hers could be sold for tens of thousands yuan (Chinese currency). Fine arts experts said that the calligraphy of her painting was very skillful, although the colors were very plain and simple. From the elegant and quiet wild flower, the green wilderness, and the desk under the tranquil light, one can feel the wonder and peace in the painter’s heart.

The painting reveals the painter’s personality. Xu had practiced Falun Gong for two to three years at the time, the auspiciousness and tranquility in the painting manifested her simple and serene mood from cultivation.

Xu’s husband Yu Zhou is a fellow Northeasterner, and also a Falun Gong practitioner. Yu is a solid man with 180 cm height, which makes his wife Xu, a 162 cm tall lady, extra petite. Yu is also very artistic, He graduated with a degree in French language from Beijing University and could speak a variety of languages. He was familiar with traditional Chinese arts, and very knowledgeable in poems and poetic song. He was also famous among the young artists at the time. Later on Yu became the drummer of the famous folk music team “Xiaojuan & Co-Residents in the Valley.”

The harmonious life made Yu and Xu a felicitous couple.

The Challenges of a Righteous Path

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) started the suppression of Falun Gong (Video) in 1999.

Under the CCP’s long term brainwashing, many Chinese have twisted minds, in order to protect one’s own interests, many of them developed the notion that they should “do whatever the party asks me to do.” As a result, some people gave up the practice of Falun Gong that they had benefited from, while others were cheated by the CCP’s propaganda of hatred so they stopped practicing Falun Gong blindly.

Despite these circumstances, Xu and her husband Yu persisted in the cultivation like many other Falun Gong adherents. They devoted themselves to clarifying the truth of the CCP’s persecution to other Chinese people.

At the beginning of the persecution, many Falun Gong practitioners lived on tight budgets to save money to travel to Beijing and appeal for Falun Gong. Despite Yu and Xu’s, difficulties making ends meet in Beijing, they often provided food and shelter for their fellow practitioners coming from other places. In 2001, Xu was sentenced to five years in prison for sheltering fellow practitioners.

The prison situation is very brutal in China, especially for Falun Gong practitioners. In order to brainwash Falun Gong adherents, the prison would often deprive practitioners’ right to sleep, only allowing them four hours of sleep while making them doing heavy physical work during the day. To make matters even worse for Xu, on the first day, Xu was assigned to do work that often required one year’s training—to make 600 pairs of shoe parts daily.

In November 2002, Xu was transferred to a special prison section for forced brainwashing. In order to brainwash her, the prison used many torture methods, complete sleep deprivation, tied and forced to sit in a cross-legged position for a long hours, physical punishment, forced into using her finger print on self incriminating statements that were written by others; forced to stay outside during cold weather wearing little clothing, not allowed to shower for more than a month, etc.

Xu is nice to everyone, even to the police and prisoners who were sent to persecute or monitor her. Between the tiring and busy work hours, she drew portraits for the criminals assigned to monitor her, told them the wonders of Falun Dafa and her own experiences of practicing Falun Gong. Gradually, many police and prisoners were moved by Xu’s kindness, they all tried to help her and other Falun Gong practitioners privately, some even became practitioners themselves.

Xu came to know many people in prison because she was often transferred to different sections in the Beijing Female Prison. The head of the prison police was very surprised and bothered to find that Xu had the ability to change others’ hearts, to make all those who had been around her into better people. To him, the prison is the party’s “violent institute.” If the prison police and prisoners became friendly; there would be no “violence.” Therefore, he transferred Xu between teams frequently, but wherever she went, the convicts would wave goodbye to her in tears……. (to be cont’d)

Original: Musician Yu Zhou’s Unusual Wife Xu Na

Related:
- Popular Folk Singer Dies As China Launches Pre-Olympic Purge of Falun Gong, The times Online, UK, Apr. 19, 2008