Why Model and Photographer Adhiraj does not want to go to China?

During my 13-year long modeling career I got to travel to a lot of different places. However, one country I fell in love with at first sight was China! I really enjoyed every time I went to China! From Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, Chengdu to Zhangjiajie in Hunan province, where they shot the movie Avatar. I had traveled extensively throughout China and it’s one of the most beautiful places I have been … so beautiful that sometimes I wished to stay back in China!

I remember my first trip to China, taking a China Eastern Flight from Mumbai and landing in Shanghai. My agency manager Jen (name changed to protect identity) had come to pick me up from the airport. She had got a gift for me when she arrived at the airport. It was a goody bag that contained chicken feet, duck fat candy, some dried octopus and a lot of things that I had never seen in my life. It was on the way from the airport to the model apartment that she introduced everything with a detailed description.

My manager made sure that I was comfortable and Chinese people by and large are good hosts. Most people I met in China were extremely good, humble and hardworking. The agency owners on off days arranged some recreation activities for us. I would be paid on time and they would always be around to help. Shanghai was really something that I had never envisioned. I had never seen infrastructure like that before. In the evenings the lights in the city would be dazzling and it was a totally new experience.

I vividly remember an incident during my initial stay. We were having dinner in the apartment. My friend Steve (Name changed to protect identity) from Miami was asking Jen about the persecution of Falun Gong (Falun Gong is a peaceful spiritual practice banned in China and practitioners are being brutally persecuted for their belief till today). Jen kept saying with a lot of fear that she doesn’t want to talk about it. I was concerned about the sudden change of expression on Jenny’s face, frightened as if somebody was keeping tabs on her.

It has been eleven years since that incident. I had gone back to China quite a few times after that first trip, but now I can understand why Jen was so scared to voice her opinion.

After returning to India from one of my trips to China, I was introduced to the wonderful practice of Falun Gong (Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is an ancient cultivation practice of the mind and body based on the assimilation of the highest qualities of the universe- Truthfulness-Compassion-Tolerance! Through constant practice of five tranquil sets of exercises and reading the profound teachings in the book Zhuan Falun, a practitioner can achieve a state of purity, self-realization, selflessness, and true health amongst numerous other positive changes. Falun Gong is now practiced by millions of people worldwide!)

It’s been six years since I have been practicing Falun Gong and all that I can ever imagine coming out of this tranquil practice is absolutely positive and utmost wonderful things… things that have definitely changed my life for the best!

In the recent outbreak of the Pandemic, the entire world witnessed how citizen journalists, doctors, students and a lot of other people went missing, without a trace, something quite normal in China! There have been numerous cases of mysterious disappearances. The Chinese Communist party will silence any voice of dissent.

 It is not the first time that Wuhan has been the epicenter of breeding the Evil CCP Virus; it started way back in 1999 when Jiang Zemin started the brutal suppression of Falun Gong. The Organ Transplant Research Institute located in Wuhan is also infamously known for being the state-authorized organ transplant centerpiece for prisoners of conscience. For decades believers of Falun Gong, Tibetans, Muslim Uighurs, and many others are being held against their will in prisons, detention centers, labor camps as prisoners of conscience. They are tortured in the most horrific and brutal manner, brainwashed, kept in inhumane conditions, force-fed, and a lot more than we can comprehend … all this just to give up their righteous belief. As the Government wants by force to instill the ideologies of atheism in the citizens.

My love for the Chinese people has not diminished but I no longer felt safe to travel back to China. During the initial trips, I could access my social media accounts and emails, but by the time I made my last trip, it became more and more stifling. I couldn’t access any of my social media sites, my blog wouldn’t open and I could not write or share any experiences. Somehow, I couldn’t connect with the way I had felt earlier. I still do think about my days in Beijing … and all my friends that I had made during my earlier stay …

“The Autumn flowers have bloomed, beautiful ephemeral

Friends await in distant lands under dimmed lanterns

Remembering the taste of mooncakes from the festival

Be strong and courageous

… we meet on completion, our journey to the west !”

I might be lucky to be born in this country as I have my basic rights to believe. I can walk to the seaside or the park and practice Falun Gong unharmed!  I have the right to express myself and not be in constant fear that speaking the truth will end my life or that I might mysteriously disappear to a remotely located detention center or a forced labor camp … I do not fear my blood samples will be drawn forcibly so that I can be on a hospital or prison bed yielding to the heartless devils who would pull out my organs. However, deep inside I have a sense of urgency, a sense of regret that before being a citizen of my country …

“I am a temporary dweller of this world, boundaries there might be many but they are invisible … the only thing that’s visible is the bonds of sentient beings … living with faith and belief !”

 If the nations of the world don’t act out quickly against this brutal regime called CCP, maybe the next pandemic will lead us to a point of no return. From my personal experiences of traveling to China, I had met nice and kind people. People who always looked forward to helping others in every possible situation, they were warm and hospitable. Looking at the current state in China I often wonder about Jen and many others like her … and wish someday there will be a better world for them for me and for all of us … #worldpeace … #freetobelieve … #freetomeditate !!!

Adhiraj Chakrabarti