You are about to enter an innovative work of art that allows you move through time with an incredible scroll of hand-drawn artwork interspersed with short video interviews to elaborate on the scenes depicted. Follow the harrowing journey of a few brave men and women from 1999 through the 2000s — a period when millions of people went from peacefully meditating in nearly every park in China to being hunted down by police.
Scroll and with your cursor to move through the endless panning artwork.
Click on the individuals in each scene to hear their stories first-hand through documentary interviews.
When we first started to practice, there were thousands of us. We would fill up Cultural Square when we were doing the Falun Gong exercises. Seems like everyone was there.
Everything changed in 1999. It started with the awareness that we were being monitored. Then things escalated and you could feel a fundamental change in the attitude towards Falun Gong.
As arrests and abuse swept across China, some of us tried to let the public and government know what was happening. We thought it must have been a misunderstanding. We knew it was a risk to speak out, but we couldn’t let the lies go unchallenged.
We created secret printing presses and teams to hand out flyers and posters every night. It had a great impact, but how could we compete with the propaganda machine of the Chinese Communist Party.
Inevitably, we had to run or hide. Police were everywhere. You could be arrested at any moment on any day.
Nothing prepares you for the day when they finally take you. In prison, no one can help you. Faith is all you have left.
Some of us who survived our encounters with the police managed to eventually escape. It's a horrible choice to decide between your home and your life. For those of us who fled, we may never see our families again.
Wang Liansu was a prisoner of conscience from September 2001 until December 2013. He managed to secure travel documents to the US, and was finally reunited with his wife and adult son.
Zhang Zhongyu was detained 10 times for his continued belief in Falun Gong between 1999 and 2007. He now resides in Vancouver, Canada.
After his detention in 1999, Wei Lisheng was forced into homelessness. He managed to escape to Thailand in 2007 and eventually the US in 2012.
Wang Jianmin was imprisoned for 5 year and escaped to the US in 2013 with his wife.
Fang Siyi and her husband managed to escape to Thailand, leaving her young daughter with family. They were reunited in Thailand, and now reside in Finland.
Daxiong left China on a work trip to France. He never returned, and he now resides in Canada with his family, telling his story through art.
As the persecution of Falun Gong continues in Mainland China, the millions of Falun Gong practitioners around the world remain resolute in their belief that Truthfulness, Compassion, and Tolerance will win the end.