"An Orphan's Sorrow" by Dong Xiqiang, oil painting, 48"x 48" (2006)



Perhaps the least known victims of the persecution in China are children, such as this young girl, who holds the only remains of her parents — their ashes. Her father’s jacket cloaks her small frame, and is likely her only protection against the coming winter. Inspired by documented events, the painting distills in the child’s tormented gaze, as with the dark tones that engulf her, the collective suffering of many her age. Untold numbers of children have seen their parents taken away merely on account of their beliefs. The parents of thousands of such children are known to have been murdered to date. Many children thus orphaned face the further burden of institutionalized discrimination; for their own or their parent’s practice of Falun Gong, children are often chastised by teachers or classmates and even, in some cases, barred altogether from schooling. The writing at left identifies the wall as that of a forced-labor camp, where her parents were likely killed.