Falun Dafa Minghui.org www.minghui.org PRINT

Practitioners Mourn for Cai Mingtao

November 11, 2000 |   Practitioners from China

At 9:00am, Oct. 7th, surrounded by police cars and plainclothes policemen, more than one hundred Dafa practitioners attended the funeral of Cai Mingtao.

A portrait of Cai Mingtao was placed in the front and middle of the mourning hall. "Treat others sincerely," was written on the horizontal scroll of the portrait. The couplet on the left read, "Benevolence lasting forever like evergreen pine," and the right one said, "Enduring humiliation for incomplete mission." These were his mother's memorial words in her own handwriting. Although his parents do not cultivate Falun Dafa, they still chose to commemorate their son according to the principles of the Universe -- Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance. Everyone present was moved and inspired after reading them! Two long rows of wreathes were placed on either side of the mourning hall. The right one, which was respectfully presented by Dafa practitioners, contained the poem from Teacher's Hong Ying,

Nothing Left When Alive: one has no desire for this world.

When approaching death, one has lingering thought for this life on earth.

The supervisor of foreign language and research at Wuhan Education College, where Cai Mingtao worked, gave a brief account of his life. He was 27 years old, an English teacher. He was very responsible in his work, treated people sincerely, and had a very good relationship with others. According to students, who liked his teaching very much, he was an excellent young teacher. Both teachers and students at the school were deeply grieved by his unfortunate death.

With tears on their faces, Dafa practitioners faced Cai Mingtao's portrait and pressed two hands together in front of their chests to pay their last respects. Each of them shook hands with his parents and said: "Your son is a very good person, and it was not wrong for him to step forward and validate Dafa. The government's crackdown on Falun Gong not only violates the Constitution and Laws, it is also going against the cosmic trend. You are remarkable parents. Please be steadfast, for you will surely witness that good will be rewarded with good and evil with evil."

Enduring their severe grief, his parents said, "People who practice Falun Dafa are all good and benevolent people. It was not wrong for our son to appeal in Beijing against the government persecution. We lost our treasured, kindhearted son, and you lost a fellow practitionerall because of the government's persecution of Falun Gong."

His mother then spoke out loudly and forcefully, quoting a well-known saying of everyday people: "He is alive, but he has died; although he is dead, he is alive forever." We all wondered what the plainclothes policemen who were monitoring the funeral were feeling at this time.

Since July 22nd of last year when the government labeled Falun Gong an "evil cult," in order to safeguard and validate the Fa, Cai Mingtao went to Beijing to appeal twice. Both times he was arrested and sent back to Wuhan. During one of his appeals, he served as the interpreter for the Beijing news conference of Falun Gong on Oct. 28th 1999. For this, he experienced a great deal of persecution and was put under all kinds of coercive pressure to be "transformed." For instance, in the "closed-door" class for major Falun Gong members of Wuchang district, he was tortured by the guards, senior officer Xiong, and secretary Li who was in charge of the class. They beat his face so severely that his eyes swelled shut, and blood from his mouth and nose dyed his shirt red. He was kicked in the groin so badly that he could not stand up straight. They also hung him by his handcuffs so that his feet could not touch the ground for up to ten hours at a time, and sometimes they did not release his handcuffs for over 20 hours, day and night. He was forced to run in the burning sun for over 2 hours, but he endured the enormous pain and stuck it out firmly. His determined heart could not be shaken.

On Oct. 5th of this year, after reading the report of how the police brutalized and arrested Dafa practitioners at Tiananmen Square five days earlier, he immediately decided to validate Dafa in Beijing once again. But his parents-- worried about his safety-- locked him in. However, his heart for stepping out and validating Dafa could not be locked up. Tragically, that night when he tried to escape by climbing down the drainpipe, he fell to the ground and died.

All Dafa practitioners in the local area are deeply encouraged by his outstanding behavior. Disregarding his personal safety many times, he stepped forward to validate Dafa and his rock-solid heart for Dafa.

Practitioners from China

Nov. 6th 2000