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Witnessing History: One Woman's Fight for Freedom and Falun Gong
One woman's harrowing story of imprisonment and survival in the face of the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong
On May 23, 2000, the Chinese government sentenced Jennifer Zeng to reeducation through forced labor. Her fellow inmates were drug addicts, prostitutes, and traffickers in pornography. Jennifer's only crime was her belief in the three tenets of Falun Gong: Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
Struggling with a life-threatening illness and a need to understand her place in the world, Jennifer had immersed herself in many Western and Eastern philosophies before finally finding the answers she was seeking in Falun Gong. A few short years later her newfound faith saw her blacklisted and imprisoned in a purpose-built labor camp. Jennifer was forced to squat for hours in the blistering sun, endure hours of physical and verbal abuse, and knit garments until her hands bled to feed the booming Chinese economy. During this time Jennifer saw many fellow Falun Gong practitioners tortured. Some died, many more remain in the camps today.
This is the powerful and moving story of how a bright, successful young scientist and happily married mother survived detention and torture, only to be forced to flee her family and homeland to seek asylum in Australia. A raw and compelling memoir, one which provides a fascinating glimpse into everyday life in China, Witnessing History also exposes a bureaucracy still struggling to disentangle itself from the constraints of Mao's Cultural Revolution.
On May 23, 2000, the Chinese government sentenced Jennifer Zeng to reeducation through forced labor. Her fellow inmates were drug addicts, prostitutes, and traffickers in pornography. Jennifer's only crime was her belief in the three tenets of Falun Gong: Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance.
Struggling with a life-threatening illness and a need to understand her place in the world, Jennifer had immersed herself in many Western and Eastern philosophies before finally finding the answers she was seeking in Falun Gong. A few short years later her newfound faith saw her blacklisted and imprisoned in a purpose-built labor camp. Jennifer was forced to squat for hours in the blistering sun, endure hours of physical and verbal abuse, and knit garments until her hands bled to feed the booming Chinese economy. During this time Jennifer saw many fellow Falun Gong practitioners tortured. Some died, many more remain in the camps today.
This is the powerful and moving story of how a bright, successful young scientist and happily married mother survived detention and torture, only to be forced to flee her family and homeland to seek asylum in Australia. A raw and compelling memoir, one which provides a fascinating glimpse into everyday life in China, Witnessing History also exposes a bureaucracy still struggling to disentangle itself from the constraints of Mao's Cultural Revolution.
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First published March 1, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 28, 2010
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.
Thank you Jennifer Zeng for opening my eyes.
February 28, 2026
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.
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.
October 22, 2020
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.
July 3, 2022
Eye opening
January 5, 2008
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.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews