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As our nation becomes ever more diverse, we as Americans are learning more about the challenges those from other countries face. In the first part of a three-part series, KSMU's Benjamin Fry visits a graduate student in Springfield who must balance class with the stress of a family crisis in her home country.

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Jin Pang

Jin Pang and her mother both practice Falun Gong, a spiritual discipline which involves meditation. Photo courtesy Jin Pang.

Jin Pang

Holding rallies has been one of the ways Pang has raised awareness of the plight of Falun Gong practitioners in China. She's seen here at a demonstration on the Missouri State University campus last September. Photo courtesy Jin Pang.

Jin Pang

Jin Pang with her mother and father, both of whom were arrested last July. Her father has since been released, but Pang says her mother is still being held in a detention center. Photo courtesy Jin Pang.

(Music playing from a Falun Gong incantation music box)

The soothing chants and steady beats emanate from Jin Pang's music box as she becomes immersed in the spirit of Falun Gong.

Pang says she practices the ritual to renew her mind and body, and as a reminder of her native Chinese culture.

"The truthfulness, compassion and forbearance are the backbones of the teaching," Pang said.

Pang is in her second year as a graduate student at Missouri State University's business college.

She came to the United States after getting her bachelor's degree at Qingdao University, which has an exchange program with MSU.

Pang grew up not far from there in Weifang, a city of over one million people.

However, she says she knows every corner of the city and where the best restaurants and theaters are.

Pang says she heard about MSU from her English teachers in college.

"They really wanted me to come here and experience the different environment. I can have a good English environment, not only for my English but also for my major study," Pang said.

That meant leaving her parents, who may have felt nervous about their daughter going off to study on the other side of the world.

But there was reason for Pang to be nervous.

Nervous about the safety of her parents.

"During the past ten years I was worried about my mom, because every day a group of thugs could come into our house and take my mom away," Pang said.

Unfortunately for Pang, that moment came last July, just a week before the Olympics.

"It was like a nightmare for me"

Pang says she called home to check in on her parents.

"Nobody answered the phone, I just kept calling and calling but no one answered"

A few agonizing days later, Pang got word from her family.

Her dad called her and said their house had been ransacked and he and her mother had been arrested.

After a month her father, who is a policeman himself, was set free.

But as for her mother...

"Nobody can get a chance to see her, even my dad," Pang said.

Pang says she knows where her mother is being held.

She was able to hire a lawyer who was allowed to talk to her mother at the detention center for half an hour.

And the reason her mother is still being held while her father was set free?

Pang says it's because her mother practices Falun Gong and her father does not.

In 1999, the Chinese government denounced the practice as a dangerous cult, and since then has arrested thousands.

Dennis Hickey is a Missouri State political science professor whose research focuses on China.

He says Falun Gong practitioners can be found throughout the world but only those in China face persecution.

"No other government in the world really is concerned about the Falun Gong. They operate in our country, Taiwan, elsewhere; but they do seem to drive the Chinese Communists up the wall," Hickey said.

Pang says she thinks the government acts the way it does because it sees the movement as a threat to its legitimacy.

"Because of the jealousy of the popularity and also because of the conflicts of ideology," Pang said.

Since her mother was taken, Pang says she's dealt with the stress by writing articles and raising awareness about the treatment of Falun Gong practitioners.

She says she's found a very respectful and receptive audience at Missouri State University.

"They show their kindness and they want to help you any way they can do," Pang said.

For now, Pang holds tight to the principles of Falun Gong while holding out hope for her mother's release.

"I want to tell my mom, just like she told me before: no matter how we're treated, we have no hatred, no pessimism. Just treat everybody well"

For KSMU News, I'm Benjamin Fry.

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