As part of my journalism 201 class, I conducted a series of interviews on Falun Gong with ISU Chinese students. The resulting article was to be on the conflicting view points expressed.
I committed to either seeing this paper published in the press or to at least putting it up on my Web site. My journalism professor suggested I approach Ethos, and I did so. They did not express any special interest in publishing the paper, or a revised version. I believe that since my contact with them, they have put out an article on the local Falun Gong. The Iowa State Daily has also published several articles on the Falun Gong.
Since both the Iowa State Daily and Ethos have run articles on the Falun Gong, I feel there is little chance that my article will be published by them (even though no article out so far in the Daily or Ethos has covered exactly the same ground). Therefore, I'm putting up the article on my own site. (And, as it would take heavy editing to put this article into a form ready for publication, I don't feel that putting it up here should preclude publishing it somewhere else.)
--David Faden, dfaden@iastate.edu, August 16, 2001
David Faden
January 9, 2001
Julia Jiang brought a folder full of pamphlets along with her to the first interview. The pamphlets claim to document abuses by the Chinese government against Falun Gong practitioners. One pamphlet contains three images of a middle-aged woman. The first shows the woman looking into the camera, her face brightened by a broad smile. In the other two pictures, the woman's face is dead. She lies like a corpse in a hospital bed; a wide, plastic tube connects her neck to a square box. According to the text accompanying the photos, the Chinese police arrested the woman for practicing Falun Gong. She was returned to her parents from the police's custody with a broken neck.
It is hard to be sure which stories of abuse of Falun Gong practitioners in China are true, Professor Shu-min Huang of ISU's anthropology department wrote in an e-mail interview. "There is no Amnesty International or comparable organizations in China. The Chinese government has the habit of manufacturing facts to serve political purposes, such as the official claiming that no students were killed in the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. But [beware] of the similar strategy used by Falun Gong to drum [up] sympathy and support."
"We are pleading to the whole international community and all kind hearted people to help us to stop the persecution... peacefully," said Julia Jiang, ISU food science and human nutrition research assistant and Falun Gong practitioner.
"Falun Gong is a... kind of evil," said Wang Bingbing, president of ISU's Chinese Students and Scholars Friendship Association.
In July of 1999, the Chinese government outlawed the Falun Gong spiritual movement and began cracking down on its practice. Local Chinese student Falun Gong practitioners are seeking to bring attention to the situation in China. Other Chinese students support the Chinese government's view.
According to the "Falun Gong 101" Web page of Massimo Introvigne, managing director of the Center for Studies on New Religions, Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, is the largest qigong organization in China. Li Hongzhi, who is usually referred to as Master Li, founded Falun Gong in 1992. Introvigne defines qigong as "a complex of techniques for physical and spiritual well-being, with a tradition in China predating the Christian era."
"Qigong [is] the science of breath," said Michelle Qin, a 20-year-old junior in computer engineering originally from northern China. "It can help people to be healthy. It really works. It's kind of magic."
"Qigong [is] a mysterious phenomenon" which "counters explanation," said Bingbing. "I think there is something qigong can do but science can't explain." However, Bingbing said, Falun Gong "is not a real qigong."
"[Falun Gong] is a mixture of Buddhist philosophy (primarily), Daoist cosmology, and Confucian social ethics," wrote Shu-Min Huang.
The main differences between Falun Gong and other qigong practices are "the unique authority of Master Li as the only living person authorized to define what exact techniques are to be used, and the claim that all previously secret teachings should now be disclosed," wrote Introvigne. "It also emphasizes, contrary to what groups tolerated by the Chinese regime claim, that it is essential" to cultivate one's morality by following the principles of Zhen, Shan, and Ren: truth, compassion, and forbearance.
Falun Gong is unique in China because it combines the physical part and the spiritual part, said Julia Jiang. Another local practitioner, Laura Chen, said, "One thing that impressed me deeply was the fundamental characteristic: truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance."
"At first, this qigong claimed itself as a way to make people strong," Bingbing said. "Later they claimed to make people's [morals] strong" through truth, compassion, and forbearance.
The principles of truth, compassion, and forbearance are common sense rules in China, Bingbing said. "Our parents, our teachers always taught us to treat" people kindly, to act with forbearance "when we are treated unfairly," and to be honest.
Many people thought it was a "good thing" when Falun Gong took on these principles as its own, Bingbing said. "Unfortunately, the organization of Falun Gong didn't act [on its] own principles."
Bingbing shared a couple of stories about Master Li.
"At one of [the Falun Gong] meetings," Bingbing began, "Some practitioner asked [Master Li], 'Why is your hair so black?'" Master Li is nearly 40, Bingbing said, and doesn't have a single white hair.
According to Bingbing, Master Li told the practitioner that his hair was black because he practiced Falun Gong. "Later, from [Master Li's] medical record, they found some kind of proof that Master dyed his hair."
Another time, Bingbing said, Master Li claimed to "postpone the Earth's explosion." "Around 2 years ago," Bingbing said, "many people believed that the Earth would explode..." According to Bingbing, Master Li said that he postponed the Earth's explosion "maybe 20 years" at the request of the president of China.
"This is nonsense," Bingbing said.
These are "quite famous examples," Bingbing said. "Most of my information, I get from the media. From the government newspapers, TV, maybe the Web sites -- CC-TV... Chinese Central Television."
According to Huang, the majority of Chinese citizens get their news "mostly from government propaganda. Literally, all newspapers and radio and television broadcasts are controlled by the government."
The ISU chapter of Falun Gong meets for a few hours every Sunday night to perform Falun Gong exercises and to discuss their beliefs. On Nov. 26, Julia Jiang was the first to arrive.
Julia Jiang set her copy of the book "Zhuan Falun" on one of four tables pushed together to fill the center of the room. The edges of the book's blue cover have been smoothed down to soft white paper and are slightly crinkled. Gold Chinese characters once ran across the book cover, but they have been gradually rubbed away. Julia Jiang carries the book with her everywhere. "Zhuan Falun" helps her with her daily life, she said.
The books "Zhuan Falun" and "China Falun Gong" contain the central teachings of their author, Li Hongzhi, founder of Falun Gong. Both books are now banned in China.
Xinyu Ding, graduate student in aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics, and his wife Yinghua Gao were the next of the local Falun Gong practitioners to arrive. They sat down next to each other at the table.
"After I came to [the] USA, I went to a Chinese church," Gao said. "[I] wanted to seek belief, but when I [went] to read the Bible, I [had] some questions which the Bible could not answer..." Gao said that this made her seek Falun Gong. "When I finished reading the book [Zhuan Falun]," Gao said, "all my questions [were] answered."
Though mainland China is tightly controlled, some news of what is really happening leaks out, said Julia Jiang. She mentioned the case of a man resting dying of cancer in a Chinese hospital. According to Julia Jiang, a Chinese reporter asked the dying man to say that it was practicing Falun Gong which caused his illness. The man refused, Julia Jiang said.
Xiaojing Pan, Ph.D. in chemical engineering, and her husband Bing Yuan, senior in computer science, arrived with a tape player.
Soon, Julia Jiang's tape of Falun Gong exercise music was playing. The high pitched instruments' tones rose and fell like a smooth chant in rhythm to the clack of wood against wood and the ting of bells. A voice from the tape expounded commands in Chinese.
The practitioners stood still about the room, their eyes closed. Occasionally, in response to the voice rising from the tape player, they moved their arms in graceful arcs, alternately stretching and relaxing, their movements in near unison.
Julia Jiang sat down to quietly explain the purposes of the exercises the other practitioners were doing.
The first one is called Buddha showing 1000 hands, Julia Jiang said. It is designed to open the energy channels of the human body, she said. When a person stretches, blocked energy is opened, she said. When people relax, Julia Jiang said, they let energy in. People feel really hot when doing this type of exercise, she said.
Julia Jiang's sister, Margaret Jiang, also a graduate student in food science and human nutrition, and Laura Chen arrived in the midst of the exercises. Chen brought along her baby to the meeting.
Chen and Margaret Jiang joined the other exercisers. The baby crawled along on the floor, giggling. Julia Jiang playfully corralled the child.
Yuan opened his eyes and walked over to the room's thermostat. Is the room's temperature comfortable? he asked. The exercisers said that they felt warm.
"Falun Gong is an anti-society, anti-science and anti-humanity cult," wrote Qiu Xuejun, information officer of the Chinese embassy of New Zealand. "It is easy for people with background of good scientific training and higher learning to see through the absurdities of Falun Gong teachings. To my knowledge, Falun Gong practitioners among students are rare; I am not aware of even a single case of Chinese students practicing Falun Gong in New Zealand."
Even though other people sent him some "textbook of Falun Gong," Bingbing said, he has "never touched the stuff" because he doesn't "think it's a good thing."
"I have one classmate who practices Falun Gong and an aunt who also practices Falun Gong," Bingbing said. "And even when the government didn't ban Falun Gong, I found these two, you know, just don't react normally. My impression of them [is] that they just looks like retard... I don't know... Maybe it's a common character of those people who insist on Falun Gong."
" I think maybe [my aunt] practice Falun Gong just because other people persuaded her to practice it", Bingbing said. "This is why so many people practice Falun Gong..."
"After she practice the Falun Gong, I found [my aunt]... changed a lot," Bingbing said. " She didn't believe the hospital anymore."
According to Bingbing, "Master Li once said, 'If you have the illness, it's because... of your debt, because of your sin in your previous life...'"
"They believe that life is in cycle and in cycle... If you finish a cycle, then you can start another cycle," Bingbing said.
According to Bingbing, Falun Gong practitioners believe that if you have illness in one cycle, it is because you did a "wrong thing in the previous cycle" so you shouldn't go to the hospital to cure it.
"That's one of the major reasons why the government wants to ban [Falun Gong]," said Bingbing.
"Falun Gong has done great harm to the health and safety of the people," wrote Xuejun, information officer of the Chinese embassy of New Zealand. "According to statistics on hand, over 1500 persons died as a result of practicing Falun Gong by committing suicide, or delaying treatment in hospitals or being killed, and many more are suffering from psychological problems."
"I think the main reason [for the ban] was that [Falun Gong] was too popular," Julia Jiang said at the first interview. "There were about 100 million people practicing prior to the crackdown. The Communist Party only has 60 million members... Another reason is our practitioners come from all walks of life. That includes government officials, army [personnel], party members... The government was frightened of this."
"In 1999, the Chinese regime launched a new campaign against spiritual and religious groups, and Falun Gong was targeted as a superstitious and reactionary group by a press campaign," wrote Introvigne on his "Falun Gong 101" Web page. "Unlike other groups, Falun Gong reacted with an unauthorized demonstration of more than 10,000 followers outside Beijing's Zhongnanhai, the residence of China's top leaders, the largest such demonstration in recent Chinese history."
"Arrests" and "vilification" are the "party's natural reaction to any form of dissent it interprets as antagonistic," wrote Michael Lestz in his article "Why Smash the Falun Gong?" published in "Religion in the News." Lestz is chair of the history department at Trinity College.
"When the party identifies a target for destruction, it readily flips into a Stalinist/Maoist mode of operation to isolate and destroy 'the enemy,'" Lestz wrote. "The press campaign, scare stories about weird practices of Falun Gong believers, forced recantations by prominent followers, and the campaign to undermine the credibility of Li Hongzhi are familiar elements of the political practice of the [People's Republic of China] and in this case they are being applied to the Falun Gong in a way designed to intimidate all but the most zealous."
The practitioners finished their exercises and sat around the central table.
"Master Li tells us [the] main task of outside practitioners is to spread [the] truth," Ding said.
"[The] media is free in America, but in China [there is] one voice," Pan said.
"In China, [students] hear only one voice," Yuan said. "[They] don't hear the other side of things... but when they hear the other side, they change their minds."
It's difficult for students to believe the government is wrong, said Gao.
In one case, Ding said, he met an undergraduate in computer engineering who was initially afraid of Falun Gong because she thought Falun Gong was evil. She thought that Falun Gong would convince her to kill herself or her parents, Ding said.
According to Ding, after 3 months of study, her view changed. Now she reads the Falun Gong books everyday, Ding said. Ding was speaking of Michelle Qin.
"I kind of believed [the Chinese] news before," Qin said. "[They] gave a lot of examples of people who died because of Falun Dafa... [I] kind of believed it because it looks real."
Qin works with Ding. She said she just happened to ask him what his religion was. According to Qin, Ding told her that she wouldn't believe it -- that he was a follower of the spiritual movement that had just been banned in China. He gave her a copy of "Zhuan Falun," she said, and told her to read it.
"From the beginning of the book, Master Li says this is the way to practice yourself," Qin said. "[I] think Falun Dafa is a very good belief; [it] tells people how to be good. That's why so many people practice in China."
"The young [Chinese] people here, they don't like politics," Qin said. "For graduate students here, they're going back to China. That's why some are so strongly against [Falun Gong]."
"I'm proud of being Chinese," Qin said, "but I don't like [the] government."
To point out that what one's leaders did is wrong shows love for one's country, Chen said. "If an American points out that what Clinton has done is wrong, that doesn't mean [that American] wants to overthrow the government," she said.
"The government says that Falun Gong has a political aim," Ding said. "I was a member of the Communist Party -- still am. I love the government." There's no conflict between the communist viewpoint and the practice of Falun Gong, Ding said. "[I] can't go against [my]self."
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Lestz's article "Why Smash the Falun Gong?" is available online at http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/RINVol2No3/Falun%20Gong.htm.
Introvigne's "Falun Gong 101" Web page is at http://www.cesnur.org/testi/falung101.htm.
The Chinese of Embassy of Washingtion has a Web page devoted to Falun Gong; this Web page is at http://www.china-embassy.org/issues/faluncult.htm
The main Web site of Falun Gong is located at http://www.falundafa.org/.