As early as the 1990s, there was a major event that happened in China which spread fear among people. The press exposed the false religion of Falun Gong. In 1992, Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, was founded by Li Hongzhi in mainland China. The religion promotes truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance, and cultivates its followers to practice qigong, which is a traditional Chinese meditation that translates to “energy work”. However, in 1999, Falun Gong was banned by the Chinese government because it was revealed as “evil” or “false” religion. There were 200 people that burned themselves in the national Tian’an Men Square in Beijing, the capital of China. This event damaged the reputation of Falun Gong and the Chinese government officially demolished the Falun Gong organizations in 1999. After that, the leader of Falun Gong fled to the United States and sought religious protection from the American government.
Growing up in southeastern China, I was told that Falun Gong was an evil religion that endangered people’s wealth, lives, and family relationships. As I thought Falun Gong would be a historical event, I was surprised by the spread of Falun Gong’s preaching in the United States. In 2015, when I went to the New York Chinese Ambassador court, I noticed that there were Falun Gong practitioners who protested the persecution of the Chinese government. Besides the feeling of surprise, I was more curious about the truth of the Falun Gong religion. If it is proved as a false religion, how come it continuously attracts followers? If it is actually a benevolent religion, then why did the Chinese government turn against it? In addition, since the United States supports freedom of religion and offers protection to religious minorities, how did the United States react when the nature of Falun Gong was proved harmful. Or if it was proved harmless, why did the Chinese government ban it? These serious questions stuck in my head. Therefore, being driven by the desire of knowing the truth, I was determined to examine the founder of Falun Gong, Li’s speeches that he gave in the United States.
Before making any conclusion about the nature of Falun Gong, several documents suggested the doctrine of Falun Gong was based on Buddhism, Taoism, and as anti-gay and anti- mixed-races. According to a nonprofit organization, The Cult Education Institute (CEI), Falun Gong was proved as a destructive cult instead of religion (Ross). CEI is a nonprofit organization which studies and raises the awareness of destructive cults. CEI states that Falun Gong was anti-gay and anti- mixed-races. Li wrote in Volume II of Zhuan Falun, “The disgusting homosexuality shows the dirty abnormal psychology of the gay who has lost his ability of reasoning at the present time''(Lubman). In addition, he also openly despised mix-race people as “intellectually incomplete”. These two points of the doctrine indicate that Falun Gong was against human will. However, in contrast, another scholar of Falun Gong’s research suggested that the main ideology focus of Falun Gong was on freedom of speech and religion, as well as the fight for human rights (Ming p8). As scholar Ming discussed, Falun Gong had its political dissatisfaction to the Chinese government; many of the Falun Gong members were in a disadvantageous financial position and either unemployed, unskilled, or retired. This indicates that Falun Gong attacked a specific group of people who appeared to be more vulnerable.
Although Falun Gong’s doctrine encouraged people to abandon their worldly desires, many people exposed the personal wealth of Li which proved the hypocrisy of the religion. After Li fled to the United states, he successfully received green card and purchased a house in New York City. Based on Falun Gong, the practice should be both emotional and physical detachments from the ordinary world, such as, emotion, wealth, fame, and power. On the contrary, some practitioners witnessed Li s personal residence and possessions like his expensive imported car (Jiang). This implies that Li was accumulating his wealth through his preaching, which further proved Falun Gong as a false religion. Although the Chinese government officially banned Li’s teaching since 1999, Li had never stopped preaching and his group was continuously growing. After Li settled in the United States, he traveled to numerous places including United States continents, Canada, Switzerland, Singapore, New Zealand, and Australia. At each location, Li would open a conference for promoting Falun Gong with his devoted followers. To find the reason of Li’s successful religious recruitment, one of his latest speeches which took place in Manhattan, New York on September 5, 2010 would be examined as a way to decode his true motives and way of manipulation.
Citations:
Jiang, Zhanyi. Cult Education Institute. Li Hongzhi In My Eyes, 14 Mar. 2012,
forum.culteducation.com/read.php?13,107720,page=2.
Lubman, Sarah. "A Chinese Battle on U.S. Soil." Cult Education Institute, 23
Dec. 2001, www.culteducation.com/group/1254-falun-gong/
6819-a-chinese-battle-on-us-soil.html. Accessed 10 Mar. 2017.
Ming, Xiao. The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong in China : A Rhetorical
Perspective. Columbia, S.C, 2011. EBSCO, Columbia, S.C,
eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/detail/detail?vid=2&sid=512a878e-69a2-42ff-a20d- d3523d18a790%40sessionmgr4009&hid=4205&b
Ross, Rick. "Is Falun Gong a Cult?" Cult News Sponsored by the Cult Education
Institute, 9 Jan. 2009, cultnews.com/2009/01/is-falun-gong-a-cult/.
Impressive work here! I appreciate the way you already have developed a clear idea of where you will go with this project. What you outline here is very ambitious!
ReplyDeleteReligious faith, because it derives from deeply held personal values and because it has been deeply intertwined with human activity from the very beginnings of society, is a driving force for political and legal and social behavior. Social movements, when based on religious faith, can capture the imagination of the reading public. Stories of cults are widespread throughout human history - from every culture.
It is very difficult to characterize any religious as "false" because all religions are based upon articles of faith - which are not "provable" in any scientific sense. It is much easier to discuss religions in the context of whether they are deemed "legitimate" in the public eye. Be careful of drawing a distinction between any faith's "real" nature compared with another's. The United States is known for the Constitutional separation between church and state - which was the direct result of the founders being scared of the prospect of a dominant denomination oppressing those outside of the faith, as had happened often in history. When a religious movement impacts the law or the political process in this country, that makes it news.
I would like to discuss your idea more! This is very well organized post representing significant work. Let's keep talking about how to find an appropriate artifact to serve as basis for your critical analysis. Let me know how I can help!