Together with the other six Falun Gong practitioners, Chen, who is 19 years old and specializes in playing the traditional Chinese instrument Pipa at the conservatory, burnt with gasoline at Beijing's Tiananmen Square on January 23, which was China's Lunar New Year eve.

More than 20 teachers at the school participated in the talks and vowed to continuously fight against the vicious cult.

Yu Ji, an official of the school, said that the cult has deeply poisoned young people like Chen and another girl student who is only 12 years old.

Liu Xiangyan, headmaster of the primary school affiliated to the Central Conservatory of Music, said that Chen Guo had started her music education since 11 years old.

The pretty girl was from Kaifeng City, central China's Henan Province.

After successfully competing with thousands of applicants nationwide, Chen entered into the prestigious school two years ago, Liu said.

Zhao Hanyang, Chen's instructor in the Chinese Music Department, greatly showed his sympathy for the girl who he said was destroyed by the cult.

"It's very difficult for the conservatory to cultivate a gifted student like Chen," said Zhao, who added that Li Hongzhi, ringleader of the Falun Gong cult, is striving for poisoning the younger generation.

Jiang Zhichao, a head of the department, said the school administration found that Chen is a Falun Gong practitioner. After repeated education from the school, Chen expressed that she would not join further activities of the cult.

However, her mother affected her again during the winter vacation, Jiang said.

Only with concerted efforts from families and the society, the education bodies could well cultivate the younger generation, he said.

Li deluded his disciples to believe in him and even kill themselves, however, he and his families fled to the United States and are enjoying the life, said Zhang Xiaosong, another teacher at the conservatory.

With the most treasured property of life, people should make their own contribution to the society and human beings. The credulousness of cults and destruction of life are extremely ridiculous, said Zhang.

The suicide incident has raised a new issue for educating young students, said Wang Cizhao, principal of the conservatory.

The work of the school must be combined with that of the families. The education administration bodies must clearly know about the current situation and the minds of the young students, who are sometimes spiritually fragile and easy to be influenced by unhealthy trends, said Wang.

Wang also said that his conservatory must do as much as possible in order to prevent this kind of tragedy from happening again.

(Xinhuanetnet 02/01/2001)