NEW YORK - The J. F. Kennedy International Airport, which has seen countless accounts of happiness and sorrow, witnessed another emotional scene on July 7, 2005. After over 1,500 days of separation, six-year-old Zhang Yanshan has finally flown over the ocean from Shenzhen city, China, to be re-united with her mother Huang Hongjian, who had been desperately looking forward to this day.
Face to face, the mother and daughter were finally able to feel the close relationship which was maintained over the past four years only by photos and telephone calls. Tears in their eyes, the reality in front of them seemed like a dream.
Forced to Leave Home
In July 2001, holding back her tears, Huang Hongjian was forced to leave her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter and husband behind, and brought her five-year-old son Weiwei to the U.S. Little Yanshan's father, Zhang Yuhui was a former reporter for The Epoch Times in China. When Falun Gong was persecuted, he spoke out for Falun Gong on the overseas Internet with the pen name of "He Shilao", and his articles were reprinted by many websites and newspapers, including the World Daily . In December 2000, the Chinese authority secretly sentenced him to forced labor of 10 years. Currently he is incarcerated in Sihui Prison in Guangdong province.
She remembered, "At that time my family was continuously harassed and threatened. To avoid further persecution, though not knowing any English, I had to leave China and give up my dear daughter. Little Yanshan hasn't felt her dad's hug since she was one year old. Since she was just over two years old, the wide Pacific Ocean has separated her from her me."
Huang Hongjian was a citizen of Macau, and was successful in publishing and real estate. She now lives in Flushing and supports herself and her son by casual labor. She said, "Life was extremely difficult when we came to the U.S. In New York, we lived in a room which was refurbished from a balcony, and we could only block the surrounding windows with cloth. In summer it was terribly hot, and the window would freeze with ice in winter. I have experienced many hardships in doing all sorts of work, but these were nothing. The most unbearable pain was the endless missing of my husband and daughter. "
Looking Forward to the Return of Family
Ms. Huang said he son Weiwei is as smart as his father, and she doesn't worry about his future in America. His biggest dream is to let his father take him to the library for reading.
Now that little Yanshan has finally come back to her, it has made Ms. Huang the pain of missing her incarcerated husband even sharper. Zhang Yuhui's family has not yet received any official document about the sentence, and their last allowed visit was during the recent Chinese New Year.
"Yuhui has been deprived of sleep for seven days at a time and was seriously tortured, and he is extremely thin now. But in his letter, he always encourages me to live well in however harsh hardships I encounter, and try to think more of others in everything I do. Wherever he is, Yuhui always brings comfort and peace to people around him. All the inmates in the prison who know him say that one would know that the persecution of Falun Gong is wrong after one meets him."
Thinking about Others, Without Hatred Or Complaint
Ms. Huang said she never regretted the belief that she and her husband have chosen. "Our family is lucky compared to those who have forever lost their parents, children, brothers and sisters in this persecution in China. My children can, from now on, breathe the free air on this free land."
On Sunday, July 9, what Ms. Huang was too patient to wait to show little Yanshan, was not the Statue of Liberty, but a performance to rescue the persecuted orphans in China shown at 8:00 p.m. in lower Manhattan. "I wish my two children would be people who care about others like their father. One day they will finally see their father, but in China a lot of children are no longer able to see their parents. However, as long as we try our best, their children will also gain the freedom as them."
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