Tales Across The Sea

4 Responses to “Where Angels Fear to Tread: Falun Gong!”

1. xgz Posted: May 1st, 2009 at 8:25 pm

   1 We’re drifting more and more towards politics. Let me try to stay on the cultural side of the story as much as possible. It seems to me that there had always been some sort of rudimentary mysticism component of Chinese culture throughout its history. But for the most part it’s not different from other forms of superstition, perhaps just a little more “mysterious.” The Star Wars “may the Force be with you” really distilled it and westernized it. Back in the late 70’s and early 80’s, there was also a blind reverence of anything to do with science and technology. But the population was largely ignorant of real science. So the combination of ignorance, the belief that anything “scientific” is good, and the tradition of oriental mysticism, led to some very bizarre popular practices. In succession, we went through waves of injecting chicken blood, drinking red fungus tea, exercise of swinging arms, and finally “qi gong.” Each wave swept through the whole China like a craze, with everyone doing it – our family didn’t escape it either. Imagine that at one time every family in Beijing had a jar of red fungus for drinking. It was all through person-to-person network. We got the red fungus from our neighbor. The foreigners would never learn about this. In the west we have the stock market bubble, and then the housing bubble. This episode from late 70’s to early 80’s in China was quite similar and can be thought of as a “superstition bubble.” Each new superstition that replaced the old one was a little more sophiscated, and swept over more people, and at the same time went a little crazier. Qi gong was the last wave, and Falun Gong was the apex of the qi gong wave. Falun Gong was actually quite late on the scene. There were already many very influential qi gong masters with millions of followers when Falun Gong was started. The difference was, that most qi gong masters only claimed health benefits, but Falun Gong talked about the salvation of the soul. So it is much closer to a religion. The trigger for the government crackdown was when two scholars published an article on a newspaper in Tianjin criticizing Falun Gong as superstition. Falun Gong followers gathered at the city government demanding that the newspaper retracts the article. I don’t know what led to violence there. Falun Gong claimed that they were beaten. Evidently they couldn’t get it resolved in Tianjin so Falun Gong leaders called for a protest in Beijing. Then came the crackdown. I don’t think the Chinese government is taking them more seriously than any other organized bang-hui (gangs and groups). It’s just a very big one and has more influence overseas. The founder Li Hongzhi is said to have made millions from donations of his followers.

2. Mei Posted: May 2nd, 2009 at 12:50 am

   2 Ha, I remember drinking the red fungus tea! It actually tasted good in the beginning. Looking at the layer of rubbery fungus floating on the surface of the water, growing thicker each day, was also interesting. We also did a bit of arm swinging. But we never injected chicken blood! A friend told me that when her father came to stay with her in the US (about 10 years ago), he insisted on doing his several variations of exercise each morning, with old-fashioned arm swinging being one of them (which by then had evolved into a vigorous shaking of both arms in a particularly impressive style). One day while her father was doing his arm-swinging on their porch, my friend noticed that a small group of kids had gathered in the garden area, and they were taking turns worshiping (拜) the old man on the porch! I agree with xgz’s observation about Falun Gong — it really feels like a continuation of such previous practices, but the level of organization got the government uneasy.

3. Lara Posted: May 3rd, 2009 at 1:46 am

   3 Author Comment Wow, watching the fungus grow thicker each day…ew. No grosser than eating Brie or bleu cheese, I suppose, but watching the stuff grow! What was red fungus tea supposed to do for you, anyway? Is qi gong related to tai chi? I first encountered Falun Gong in Australia, where a bunch of people (many caucasians) were sitting meditating in a park, with music emanating from a boombox. It strongly resembled Buddhism (which appears to be a fairly profitable religion, if I can judge from the gold in the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple in Singapore – see the entry “Monks in Malls” on the Singblog). So it’s the combination of organization with strident anti-government howling that gets Falun Gong so disliked, I take it. I must remember that when I start my own profitable cult.

4. Lara Posted: May 3rd, 2009 at 1:53 am

   4 Author Comment Oh, and xgz, yes, we are treading on politics. But that’s what happens when religions and governments intersect – how the government reacts to the religion tells you a lot. If GWBush caters to the rabid conservative nutso Republicans because they threaten to call down their true-believer minions’ ire against him, we see a government held hostage by religion. And to some extent people’s faith in their governments partakes of religious fervor, too. Just look at personality cults – of GWBush, Ronald Reagan, Mao, Stalin, J.F.Kennedy. It’s sacrilegious to point out their flaws (or at least that’s how the media paints those who do). I’m tempted to add Obama to the list, but I REALLY want to believe he’s that wonderful!