Candlelight Vigil Commemorates Falun Gong Victims of Persecution

WASHINGTON—Bai Shuyuan still remembers her parents’ late-night conversations two decades ago.The parents thought she was asleep, and her father would retell some of his experiences in Chinese prison to her mother in the only bedroom the family had.“Silent tears soaked my pillow when I heard that my dad fainted many times because of torture,” Bai told The Epoch Times. She was only 11 then.Her father is a practitioner of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice grounded in the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance. In August 2002, he was arrested in China for holding and distributing Falun Gong materials.He was released from the Tianjin No.1 Prison three years later.In prison, he was subjected to a torture method called “sitting on a small stool.”The stool is 2 inches tall, 2 inches wide, and 4 inches long. He was forced to sit on it for an entire day; the flesh on the buttocks would be rubbed raw.After a night’s rest, a thin scab would begin to form, but the next day he had to sit on it again, tearing open the wound so that the scabbed area became a mass of raw, bloody flesh.In October 2023, Bai’s parents managed to escape China to Australia. A year later, Bai left Singapore for the United States. The family hasn’t been united for years.Bai was one of the hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners at an annual candlelight vigil in Washington on July 23. Her thoughts were with her father and those who are still being persecuted in China.Bai Shuyuan, a Falun Gong practitioner, before a candlelight vigil at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on July 23, 2026. Terri Wu/The Epoch Times‘Making History’For years, Falun Gong practitioners have gathered in the capital of the United States in July, just like they did 27 years ago.When the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) launched nationwide arrests of Falun Gong practitioners overnight on July 20, 1999, the first thing that practitioners in the United States thought of was to visit their elected officials. And as the CCP’s campaign began with torture and killing, the first annual candlelight vigil in Washington took place in 2000.Back then, many congressmen and senators hadn’t heard of the spiritual practice, which is rooted in traditional Chinese culture. Now, the persecution of Falun Gong in China, especially the killing of practitioners for their organs, is common knowledge.Mary Manthey, a Falun Gong practitioner from Michigan, speaks to reporters during a candlelight vigil at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on July 23, 2026. Terri Wu/The Epoch TimesMary Manthey from Ann Arbor, Michigan, was there to urge the senators from her home state to co-sponsor a bipartisan Senate bill that would bar individuals involved in forced organ harvesting from entering the United States and freeze their U.S. assets.She took up the spiritual practice in 2018 and has come to Washington every July since. As a teacher, she said Falun Gong helped her be more patient with her students.She knows a few Chinese practitioners in Michigan who were persecuted in China. One suffered for eight years in a Chinese prison because he told others about the persecution. Even she had a taste of Chinese surveillance: a Chinese stranger took pictures of her when she was raising awareness of the persecution last weekend.“Where are the pictures going? Are they going to go back and start affecting me here as an American?” she told The Epoch Times.Anton Khmelev, a Falun Gong practitioner from Middletown, N.Y., before a candlelight vigil at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on July 23, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch TimesLike Manthey, Anton Khmelev has made attending the one-day July activities in Washington an annual tradition. He joined the candlelight vigil from Middletown, New York state.To him, joining the events is “the least thing we can do” in supporting Falun Gong practitioners in China and raising awareness of what’s going on there.This year’s vigil moved from the Washington Monument grounds to the Lincoln Memorial, where practitioners now stood in the shadow of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. They also have a dream: a China free of persecution one day.Khmelev said he felt “very, very peaceful” energy at the historic location. He thought the Falun Gong practitioners were showing their plea to end the persecution in China to America.“I feel like we are really making history happen,” he told The Epoch Times. “Hopefully, the sun will set over this persecution, and we won’t have to come here again.”Bystanders of the candlelight vigil took notice.Nicco Adams before a candlelight vigil at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on July 23, 2026. NTD“This is something that is very important in our history, but also just the history of humanity,” Nicco Adams told NTD, Epoch Times’ sister media outlet, adding that ending the persecution is an issue that is important to know and support.Lester Colebrooke before a candlelight vigil at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on July 23, 2026. NTDLester Colebrooke has a message for Falun Gong practitioners in China: “Stand strong. Don’t give up. You are setting the pace for what the future of China is going to be. Stay fighting and stay strong. That’s where the future of China lies.”As dusk fell over the Lincoln Memorial, Bai held her candle and thought of her father. She still hoped for the day when Falun Gong practitioners in China could practice freely.Sam Wang and Sherry Dong contributed to the report.