In the afternoon of January 23, Liu Siying, fifth-grade pupil of a primary school in central China’s Henan Province, led by her mother to Tian’anmen Square with a beautiful dream of entering the “Falun World”. There, they set themselves ablaze.

“The flame could not hurt you. It will only pass through your body and you will reach the paradise in a twinkling.”

“That is a wonderful world, you could at least become a ‘religious king’ and many people would serve you.”

She later told the nurse that she had to recalled all the remarks by her mother and other Falun Gong practitioners to encourage herself to start the fire.

However, the flames changed all. The much pain and fear made the young girl cry “Mom”, “Uncle, Help! Help me!”

She failed to reach “paradise”. She was rescued by the police and was rushed to Jishuitan Hospital, China’s most famous hospital for treating burn patients.

The hospital diagnosed the girl with burns to 40 percent of her body, heavy aspiration injuries in trachea and fourth-grade burns to the face, a healthy girl has become a life-long physically impaired person in an instant.

Liu has been a well behaved girl. Her mother taught her to practice Falun Gong last March and she became acquainted with a number of Falun Gong practitioners.

The practitioners often praised her as being clever and saying that she could become a “religious king” in “paradise”.

Doctors of the hospital said it was after 16 hours at the hospital that her shock caused by the burn was preliminarily controlled. Liu’s head was bandaged and her burnt left hand hung in front of her chest after undergoing a skin-transplant operation.

Though her trachea was cut to be equipped with a endotracheal tube, she could utter words clearly. A Xinhua reporter recorded the following conversation between Liu and the nurse:

“Why did you choose to commit self-burning?”

“Going to the paradise.”

“Where is the paradise?”

“I don’t know.”

“What’s that world like?”

“A wonderful world.”

Pausing for a while, Liu said that it is a world “with gold everywhere and the road to the paradise is also built with gold.”

“Why gold is everywhere there?”

“My uncles and aunts practicing Falun Gong told me.”

“Are you sure that you could reach that world?”

“I’ve not thought of the question. It depends on how hard I practice the Falun Gong.”

“How do you get to the paradise?”

“Physical body remains here and the spirit leaves.”

“How do you know that?”

“From book Zhuanfallun (Turning the Wheel of Law) and learnt from Mom.”

“Why did you fail to reach that world?”

Keeping silent for a while, she murmured “mom fooled me.”

“Do you still believe in Zhuanfalun?”

She tossed her head with “no” and asked the nurse “could you help me find mom?”

“Your mom is in this hospital,” the nurse replied. Nobody has the courage to tell her the truth -- her mother died of serious burns. Nurses said that the girl loves music and toy babies. The nurses sent an electronic music bear as a gift for her. And during the conversation, she sang the song of “Watch Dragon Boat” -- her favorite song.

After singing the song, she told the nurses “I feel hungry.” Before the self-burning on the eve of the Spring Festival, she was busy collecting gasoline with other adult practitioners and had only eat a small bowl of soya-bean milk during the day.

After she was in hospital, she had not been able to eat anything for days because of a serious injury in her trachea.

“Siying, what you want to do after you complete treatment in the hospital?”

“Study hard! Study hard!” she repeated again.

In her class, Siying had always got high marks and she had told her classmates that “entering into the year of 2001, the new century, the grass is green, the spring is new and we should try to bring more new things in the new spring.”

Now she is in a hospital bed. Doctors said that all her fingers may have to be amputated.

The spring is coming, Siying, could everything become better again?

(People’s Daily 01/31/2001)