Yu Chuyan （于春艳）, born in 1962, is a Falun Gong practitioner from Daqing, Heilongjiang Province, who was sentenced to three years and ten months in prison in 2025 — her second prison sentence connected to her practice. (Her name also appears in some English sources as “Yu Chunyan”; the Chinese name is the same.)
Yu, 63 at the time of her 2025 arrest, lived alone in a rented room near the Wanfeng market in Daqing’s Saertu District. On April 9, 2025, three fellow practitioners came to visit her at home; police from the Saertu branch suddenly broke in and detained all four, seizing computers, printers, and personal belongings. Yu was taken to the Daqing Detention Center. After criminal detention, formal arrest, and indictment, the Ranghulu Court sentenced her to three years and ten months; the charge was not stated. Her term runs to February 8, 2029, and as of late November 2025 she was still held at the Daqing Detention Center.
Nineteen years earlier, Yu had served a three-year term for the same practice. On October 20, 2006, police from the Ranghulu Longgang branch detained her at the snack shop she ran in the Guangsha residential area and searched her home. After she refused to name the source of her materials, police subjected her to torture, including forced ingestion of pepper water. She was held at the Daqing Detention Center for more than five months, during which she went on hunger strike and was force-fed. The Ranghulu Court sentenced her to three years, which she served at the Heilongjiang Women’s Prison.
Status note: As of the latest verified records (November 2025 case reporting; the August 2026 prisoner tally), Yu Chuyan is in custody serving her sentence.
Identity note: “Yu Chuyan” and “Yu Chunyan” are the same person — the Chinese name 于春艳 is identical in all sources. She is not the same person as Yu Chunxiang （于春香） of Dalian, whose name appears next to hers in the tally, nor as Yu Chunying （于春英） of Weifang, Shandong.