The Falun Gong Religion
This essay was written by Alex Ye and myself in a collaborative effort. The work was evenly divided between the two of us.
July 3, 2021
Falun Gong
In 1992, Li Hongzhi founded Falun Gong in the People’s Republic of China. The timing of the founding was important as this was amidst the Qi Gong “Boom” and the Buddhist “Dharma-ending period”. This is a time described in the Buddhist scriptures as an age of moral decline where Buddhism needed to be reevaluated. Falun Gong aspires to allow the practitioners to ascend spiritually. This is done through moral rectitude and a series of meditative exercises. There are three tenants of belief, Truthfulness (真, Zhēn), Compassion (善, Shàn), and Forbearance (忍, Rěn). Li Hongzhi outlined these tenants and practices in his book, Zhuan Falun.
Falun Gong is meant to be formless. Within the practice, there are no officials or administrators. There is also no system of membership, anyone who chooses to identify as a practitioner is one. Li Hongzhi is the spiritual authority for Falun Gong. While Falun Gong has no churches or places of worship, it is headquartered at the Dragon Springs Compound in New York. Originally, Falun Gong was accepted into the China Qigong Research Society as a Chigong religion, but they were driven underground by 1999 due to prosecution and Li’s unwillingness to adhere to government policies. Chinese authorities have since worked to portray Falun Gong as a well-organized, and thus threatening cult.
Falun Gong was admitted as a branch of Qigong in 1992. Li then toured major cities in China spreading the practices. That was until 1995 when Li refused to meet government regulations mandating all Qigong denominations establish communist party branches. Falun Gong withdrew from the China Qigong Science Research Association (CQRS) and the war on Falun Gong began. A state-lead newspaper published an article on Falun Gong portraying it as an “example of feudal superstition” (https://www.preceden.com/timelines/62454-falun-gong-history). The Chinese government began to investigate Falun Gong as a cult and persecution began.
By 1998, Falun Gong exceeded 70 million practitioners in China alone. As a result, attacks on the religion escalated in state-run media driving internal divisions among China’s political leadership. Practitioners responded to these criticisms through protests and seeking greater accuracy in reporting. In 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong followers assembled peacefully near the Zhongnanhai government compound to request official recognition. A group of five representatives met with Premier Zhu Rongji to present their requests, which Zhu agreed to. President Jiang Zemin, however, declared the same evening that the Communist Party must defeat Falun Gong, and began preparing for a crackdown.
The “6-10 Office” was then established and intended to carry out a comprehensive suppression of Falun Gong. This persecution began with the abduction of hundreds of practitioners from their homes. There were massive arrests, ransackings, and confiscations of Falun Gong materials, as well as thousands, taken by security forces into detention centers and sports stadiums (Chang, 2004). The government issues a nationwide propaganda campaign to slander the ideas of Falun Gong. These actions by the government lead to the forced perception of Falun Gong as the repugnant other in China.
According to an article published in the editorial pieces on the People’s daily and echoed on the PRC Consulate in Gothenburg, "Fraud, evil, secretive and anti-" are the four characteristics of "Falun Gong" which contrasts with the Three tenets of belief: Truthfulness (真, Zhēn), Compassion (善, Shàn), and Forbearance (忍, Rěn). In terms of fraud, Falun Gong was portrayed as being scammers. The evil described Falun Gong as talking about evil, practicing evil, and gathering evil forces. As soon as the concept of an evil spirit was introduced, many began to fear Falun Gong. There was also an idea of secrecy about Falun Gong, depicting them as people who practice and meet in secret. Lastly, the government made to depict Falun Gong as anti-science, anti-society, anti-government, and anti-human. This is the engagement of secular media in China from the state to the public sphere. They are out the change the perspective of the public of Falun Gong from a docile group of meditators to a violent, secret, cult.
Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji met with the protest leader on the April 25, 1999 protest. He was reportedly stunned to find among them fellow party officials, including a retired Railways Ministry officer (Chang, 2004). More troubling for the authorities was the size of the sect, which officially numbered 39 million followers, though Falun Gong claimed twice that number (Minghua). If Falun Gong is to be believed, it means the group is the largest voluntary association in China, with membership rivaling that of the Communist Party. With followers worldwide claimed by the sect to be 100 million in Taiwan, Singapore, the US, Canada, and Europe. As the sect's founder Li quoted: "I think the biggest concern is that the number of Falun Gong practitioners outnumbers the membership of the Chinese Communist Party. Even worse, Chinese Communist Party members are open practitioners of Falun Gong. (Chang)" Until it was banned, it was reported by Falun Gong devotees that they could be found in almost every park and on nearly every street corner in the PRC (Chang, 2004).
It's not productive to label cults. It's often used more as a pejorative term to shun the "other." To the CCP, Falun Gong is a Cult. Though it is not to say none of Falun Gong's followers aren't cultists, Falun Gong as a religion doesn't follow unorthodox teachings. They do not sponsor murder or suicides, but the state media are keen to portray them as repugnant others. Soon after the April 25th demonstration at the Zhongnanhai complex, government propaganda published horror stories about Falun Gong practitioners, such as a teenager who allegedly killed his parents with a foot-long knife because he thought they were demons (Chang, 2004). In another incident on the eve of the Lunar New Year alleged followers of the sect took the most radical act of defiance yet. Five people doused themselves with gasoline and set themselves ablaze. All the victims passed away. Among them is a mother with two daughters. There are great mysteries around this incident, but the state media affirms that these people are avid Falun Gong practitioners. By lighting themselves aflame, they would "go to the heavenly golden" paradise (CNN, 2001). In both of these cases, the government successfully made Falun Gong seems like a fundamentalist repugnant. That the sect is violent, murderous, deceptive, and out of touch. Falun Gong's response to the immolation incident insisted that the immolators could not be followers because both Li and the sect had consistently opposed any form of killing, including suicide, as a means of reaching salvation.
One interesting phenomenon I found researching for this presentation is that opinions online are drastically different if I choose to search in Mandarin compared to English. English publications are much more objective in a way that doesn't focus solely on the adverse effects of religion. The most interesting article I found on 织网空间, which is a mandarin site, is a Clinical study on Falun Gong-related mental disorders which states that 95% of the 42 patients show psychotic attacks and content of mental symptoms are closely related to Falun Gong (Shan, 2002). The controversial nature of Falun Gong's persecution is why we chose to present the matter. The clash between Chinese and Western media portrayal of Falun Gong is polarizing. Chinese state-run media is highly pushing Falun Gong as a cult while the outside sees the sect as nothing more than people practicing a meta version of Qigong. The fact a new religion took hold in an atheist state is an interesting form of modernity.
Falun Gong aspires to blend traditional Chinese cultural thought and modernity. Traditional Chinese cultural thought and modernity are two focuses of Li Hongzhi's teachings. Falun Gong echoes traditional Chinese beliefs that humans are connected to the universe through mind and body, and Li seeks to challenge "conventional mentalities", concerning the nature and genesis of the universe, time-space, and the human body. Falun Gong differentiates itself from Buddhist monastic traditions in that it places great importance on participation in the secular world. Despite modernity within Falun Gong, there is a strong fundamentalist interest in the ideas of purity. For example, all sexual relations outside of marriage and homosexual relations are regarded as immoral. There is also a belief that different ethnicities each have a correspondence to their own heavens, and that individuals of mixed race lose some aspect of this connection.
The Falun Gong religion has suffered a great deal of controversy in China. From their mixed-media portrayals to their relationship with the state, it is incredible the influence Falun Gong has. Their use of media and political strategy makes them a considerable impact on Chinese culture. Falun Gong is a product of modernity highlighted through the appeal to the modern world through media.
Sources
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“Banned in China, Some Falun Gong Fear New Hong Kong National Security Law.” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 27 July 2020, www.reuters.com/article/us-hongkong-security-falungong/banned-in-china-some-falun-gong-fear-new-hong-kong-national-security-law-idUSKCN24S02T.
Chang, Maria Hsia. The End Days of Falun Gong. Yale University Press, 2004.
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Lewis, James, and Huang Chao. “Falun Gong: Origins, Growth, Conflict.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 28 Feb. 2020, oxfordre.com/religion/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199340378.001.0001/acrefore-9780199340378-e-677#:~:text=Falun%20Gong%20was%20founded%20in,the%20Qi%20Gong%20groups%2C%20Li.
“Peaceful Protest of April 25, 1999: Falun Dafa.” Minghui.org, en.minghui.org/cc/86/.
reports, Staff, and wire. “Tiananmen Tense after Fiery Protests.” CNN.com - Tiananmen Tense after Fiery Protests - January 24, 2001, 24 Jan. 2001, web.archive.org/web/20070222110517/archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/24/asia.falun.03/.
为什么一些知识分子也被"法轮功"鬼迷心窍, 28 Sept. 2005, gothenburg.china-consulate.org/chn/ztlm/flgwt/t214098.htm.
为什么说法轮功是邪教, 28 Sept. 2005, gothenburg.china-consulate.org/chn/ztlm/flgwt/t214104.htm.
