Pingjie Liu and Xingwu Zhang, the parents of Feather Zhang of Sunset Park, have been isolated from their in a detention center in China for two years for practicing Falun Gong, a form of breathing meditation.

By Elisha Pappacoda

While people joyfully celebrate Jan. 1 as the start of a new year, Feather Zhang, a Chinese immigrant living in Sunset Park, will mark this New Year's Day as the second anniversary of the imprisonment of her parents in China.

The Zhang family, like 70 million others in China, practice Falun Gong, a form of breathing meditation conceived of by Li Hongzh under the motto "Truthfulness, Benevolence, Forbearance."

Similar to tai chi, Falun Gong is an ancient form of qigong — a practice believed to refine the mind and body through physical activity and meditation.

According to Zhang, her mother, Pingjie Liu and father, Xingwu Zhang, both 60 years old, have been isolated from their family in a detention center where they work more than 10 hours a day in the men's and women's Jinan City Labor Camp.

"I'm really worried about my mother," Zhang said. "If you cannot finish your labor, your stay is extended. They have to work very, very hard no matter how old you are."

Zhang, who has not seen her parents in over eight years, recently gave birth to a son.

She says her brother, who remains in China, was not allowed to slip a picture of the newborn to his incarcerated grandmother.

Although its practitioners do not consider Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a religion or political party, the Chinese government outlawed the practice back in 1999.

"There are no donations, no temples — we don't have anything that religion must have. We only have a group of people practicing in the park," Zhang said.

But the seemingly innocent practice meaning “Law Wheel Qigong” has scared, angered and frustrated the Chinese government to the point of reported book burning and blockages of websites that teach the principles of Falun Gong.

“They want to make people hate Falun Gong in China,” Zhang said. “People don’t have any chance to read the book or know what Falun Gong is. The only source they get is from the government — they want the people to be afraid.”

Stories of arrests, torture and unexplained deaths in custody have spread from China throughout the world.

But the government views Falun Gong as a dangerous cult, whose practitioners outnumber registered Communists, and whose members commit suicide and refuse medical treatment.

Zhang calls the accusation “ridiculous.”

“We are required that people cannot kill anything, even themselves, so it’s totally not allowed in this practice,” she said.

Zhang remains scared to go back to her homeland, where she says her name is on a list of practitioners who will be arrested if caught.

“Once you tell them, they try to put them into the jail,” said the 33-year-old mother, whose entire family practices Falun Gong. “My parents want to tell me not to go back.”

But Zhang’s fear has slowly turned into sheer determination. She is no longer afraid to speak out to the media regarding her parents’ imprisonment, and feels that public attention will only help her cause — and possibly protect her parents’ lives.