Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman's Fight for Freedom

by Jennifer Zeng

"A glimpse not just of the true face of the Chinese government but of the threat holiness poses to the powerful. . . . A useful counterbalance to the reckless enthusiasm of our leaders and media for the Chinese miracle. . . . Should be mandatory reading."- Sydney Morning Herald Zheng (Jennifer) Zeng was a graduate in science from Beijing University. She was a wife, a mother, and a Communist Party member. But because she followed a spiritual practice called Falun Gong, her life in China was shattered. Adhering to the practice's simple tenets of Truth, Compassion, and Forbearance, she was amazed that the Party would institute a crack down, arrest her and demand that she recant. After twice being held at a detention center and refusing, she was sentenced without trial to reeducation through forced labor. Her "enlightenment"-in part undertaken by fellow prisoners incarcerated for prostitution, pornography and drug addiction-took the form of beatings, torture with electric prods, starvation, sleep deprivation, and forced labor. She was compelled to knit for days at a time, her hands bleeding, to produce goods contracted for sale in the US market. Many Falun Gong practitioners died under the harsh conditions. Zheng Zeng was lucky. Thousands of others remain deprived by an oppressive Chinese government of their freedom of speech and assembly and the freedom to believe as they choose. This is the testament to her ordeal and theirs.
Jennifer Zeng was born in Sichuan Province, China, in 1966. She now lives in Australia.

Genres: Memoir, Religion, Asia, Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[Fen · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book, I'm horrified that this sort of treatment of a countries citizens goes on in this day and age.
Thank you Jennifer Zeng for opening my eyes.

[Signe · Rating 5 out of 5]

I always give memoirs five stars because a person has taken the time to record the memories of their life as they see it, so how could I rate that?

This is one woman's journey through post Tiananmen Square China repression as a practitioner of the Falun Gong sect.

Not an expert on Far East Qigong or anything, so wasn't particularly interested in her practice, but more in how the CCP chose to persecute this group of people who, as she reports, were very peaceful.

I imagine it is all the worse there now with social credit scoring and wrap around surveillance.

As Jennifer has noted on her social media, this trend is coming in the West with Palantir and the other tech bros, Bill Gates, corporate/government mainstream "news" reporting propaganda everyday, etc.

More people need to wake up to the fact that a group of predatory wealthy people want to institute a technocracy that will be far worse than Communism. Palantir in Gaza was a trial run. The biometric systems are well along the way to being set up in the US for similar or worse than China. The Republican/Democrat divide is illusory. It's the same people buying out the government, so it's a uniparty with the goal of dividing people to keep them at odds and weaker while the agenda is made "convenient" "ethical" "commonsense" "for safety" etc. For example, when "RealID" was rolled out post 9/11, it was roundly put down as invasive overreach by the Federal Government. Now DHS Secretary Noem lied to the American people and said "you can't fly without it" then under oath testifying before Congress said "it's not necessary to fly".

To push the convenience factor, however, now they charge $40 some odd dollars to "process" you if you don't have it. See how that works? Velvet chains.

Sounds crazy, but then so does Jennifer's story if it weren't all true.

Thank you for sharing your experience Jennifer. So glad you made it out alive. God bless you.

[Logan Streondj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story of her journey to Falun Gong and all the hardships she and her fellow compassionate practitioners faced at the hands of the CCP.

[Anomilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eye opening

[Emily Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book really enlightened me to what was going on in China, but it's not a 'light' read. Not for the faint of heart. Thank god she gets out of China in the end.