During the first two decade (1950s-1970s) when Chinese Communist Party started acting as a state, many internal policies failed and mislead the public to live under the harsh condition. Those policies include Great Leap Forward(1958-1962) and Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). These two political disaster were directly related to the misjudgment and personal ruling of Mao Zedong, who was the chairman of CCP. The Great Leap Forward was a campaign launched by CCP to quickly catch up and leapfrog over Great Britain and the United States. It was ended with a famine. The demographer Judith Banister estimated that the number of excess deaths over 1958–1961 was between 15 and 30 million (Yang).
The result of Great Leap Forward did not only create a series of economic disaster, but also political aftermath that Mao initiated Cultural Revolution to oppose people who against his wills. “Those who raised questions a little later about Great Leap policy practices, such as the defense minister Peng Dehuai (1898–1974), were persecuted as rightist opportunists. In such a political system, those who aspired to mobility on the political ladder of success watched for cues to Mao's preferences and eagerly supported everything that Mao liked”(Yang). “To fulfill his plan, Mao organized China’s urban youths, called the Red Guards, who shut down China’s schools and persecuted teachers and intellectuals, who were seen as carriers of bourgeois ideals. Torture was common. The Red Guards also destroyed cultural icons, such as art, architectural treasures, and cultural monuments, associated with pre communist China. The Red Guards, however, ultimately splintered into rival groups. They were disbanded in 1969 and sent into the rural hinterlands. The revolution ended after Mao’s death in 1976. It was estimated that 1,000,000 people died from the purges during Cultural Revolution” (Sullivan).
In China, these political disasters left a great trauma to Chinese people who later chose to stay away from politics. Although the new leader, Xiaoping Deng started a successful Chinese economic reform, the political voice of the public was being muted. After a decade of Cultural Revolution, the literacy rate was low and the elites were cautious of giving any sort of anti-CCP opinions in public.
Due to the pressure under the Cold War, as a communist country, CCP’s suppressive agenda was being cynically criticized by western democratic countries, such as the United States and Britain. This can be reflected upon the reports of Tianmen Square Massacre in 1989.In 1989, CCP fired the crowd of million young students, who protested for democracy and deemed the current party was too repressive (Britannica). Many western countries condemned the CCP’s response to the protest as a violation of human rights. Based on this event, we can see that the western audience intended to perceive CCP as a repressive and dictatorial government. Even after the collapse of cold war, western media still has the tendency to criticize the limited reform of CCP in human rights movements. Among the many rights, a highlight one is the freedom of speech. However, CCP officially stated its indifferent attitude towards religion faith and the right of religion freedom and tolerance.
Li was born in 1951, he spent his childhood in a tempo. As a dedicated disciple, Li invented Falun Gong, also known as Dafa in 1990.
Many critics suggest that the disciple of Falun Gong were “vulnerable group”, who are economically dependent, emotionally unstable, and civilian who had bad experiences with CCP (Ming, p9). Contrary to what the Chinese government claims, Wang Sibin and many others believe the deprivation suffered by the Socially Vulnerable Group is not caused by personal ineptitude, but rather by a deficient social structure. Based on the economic reform policy that Deng Xiaoping laid down in 1985, the CCP promised to let “some Chinese become rich first”. Under this policy, the gap between the rich and the poor became more distinguished. China was quickly growing into a country noted for its inequality.
At the beginning, CCP did not oppose Dafa and did not encourage it, either. However, with the rapid growth of Dafa disciples, who seemingly against the regime of CCP, the center of CCP decided to ban Falun Gong in 1988.
Citation:
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
Sullivan. "Cultural Revolution." The SAGE Glossary of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, edited by Larry E. Sullivan, SAGE Reference, 2009, p. 127. Gale Virtual Reference Library, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=kutztownuniv&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CCX3202200637&it=r&asid=ab31e35590d0efb461d0ec5dd8e87b54. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.
Yang, Dali L. "Great Leap Forward." Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, edited by Karen Christensen and David Levinson, vol. 2, Charles Scribner's Sons, 2002, pp. 447-449. Gale Virtual Reference Library, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GVRL&sw=w&u=kutztownuniv&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CCX3403701066&it=r&asid=cb120753d6cd1a1dc7ecff7c2b80654f. Accessed 27 Apr. 2017.
Notes from the 2010 Conference:
Divine Land Marching Band:
P31 “Divine Land Marching Band” learning music theory
Small meeting:
P 31 “Fa conferences and small meetings aren’t to be recorded, yet students from Sydney who were working on Shen Yun still made recordings, and repeatedly gave them to other practitioners.” Master condemned this act by saying “Whoever did such recording was doing something that undermines the Fa.”
Marketing:
Fei Tian Academy of the Arts
P29 The disciple asks if they can establish a branch of Fei Tian Academy of the Arts which is currently in California, the United States. The Master has a very interesting response to this question. He suggests that “Having one school in the U.S. that’s meant for Dafa disciples is plenty” He dispute the idea of establishing more schools for Dafa disciples. In addition, he deemed the name of Fei Tian, which means flying in the sky in Chinese. He stated that “Actually, you don’t need to use the name ‘Fei Tian’, since it is entirely disciples doing it, why not target ordinary society, admit the sons and daughters of ordinary people and clarify the truth to them, and save them, opening up more channels for people to receive the truth. ”
This is an interesting comment that Li had suggested that establishing schools for Dafa disciples may consume Dafa’s resources. His approach of cooperating with ordinary society is very interesting as well. In order to save more people, Li suggests his disciples to fit in with the ordinary society.
However, “my hope is that whichever area opens a school will establish it squarely in ordinary society, thus making for more interaction with ordinary society and allowing us to save more people. Let’s not start up schools for Dafa disciples.”
Shen Yun:
P30 The disciple stated that “She Yun performed in three cities in the San Francisco Bay Area, and only in San Francisco was the financial outcome quite poor.” Master replied that he “was not opposed to having performances at any certain locale, as long as there is no financial loss.” Then he shifted that “What we’re doing is saving people, and gods are participating, so the cultivation states of Dafa disciples are very important. Putting on Shen Yun performances is also cultivation.”
P26. The disciples asked if they can have the Divine Land Marching Band travel to a city in advance of a Shen Yun performance, so that the people there will learn about Falun Gong?
The master applied “You needn’t do that in Western society. I am presenting Shen Yun as an independent, world-class performing arts company, so you absolutely must not go and turn it into some kind of cheap product that people would hawk at a marketplace. I don’t need you to advance to the front lines ahead of the show, as I will handle the things in other dimensions myself.” There is a very contradictory of Master’s role as a marketing executive instead of a divine messenger for Dafa disciples. His immediate deny of Marching Band rally before the Shen Yun performance suggests that he tried to separate Shen Yun from the shadow of Falun Gong. He says “You needn’t insist on telling people that Shen Yun has ties to Falun Gong and make a big fanfare out of it. I don’t hide the connection, but I don’t intentionally delve into it either.” In other words, he tried to establish the reputation of Shen Yun as a world-class performing arts company with less degree of promoting Falun Gong. It’s hard to say if it is for promoting purpose or financial gain as Li understood without the pre-understanding of Falun Gong, Shen Yun performance would approach to more people and became more legitimate without religious purpose; therefore, more popularity and legitimacy. He once again used the example from Christian and Catholic, saying that those performer never claimed their faith before the show. No doubt that Li has studied the success of Christianity and used it as an example to market Falun Gong as well.
Epoch Times Newspaper:
P28 disciples asked if it is inappropriate to encourage people to quit the Party in the newspaper. The master used a reference of Christians and Catholics who composed many works but did not begin with the title “we’re Christians or we’re Catholics”. This reference suggests the unnecessary of the disciple identify themselves restlessly. Another interesting point from his reply was that he seemed to understand telling people directly to quit the Party seemed unprofessional and undermined the credibility of the paper. However, as a Master, he adapted the power of a man as limited and incapable of seeing the truth. He replied that “What I am saying is, our manpower is limited right now, so when you want to give this person a newspaper along with another set of materials, and at the same time encourage people to quit the Party, and clarify the truth, this presents a problem.”
Financial:
P30 Disciple asks “when our media are in need for funds, could we solicit donations in small amounts from ordinary people to support our business activities?” Master tried to separate religion from business matter. He stated that “Dafa has no media; Dafa is simply cultivation.” He claimed that “Since these are media of ordinary society, and the form they take is the same as ordinary companies, then what problem is there with soliciting donations. Just as ordinary businesses may need help, you can solicit support just the same” However, he insisted that “you cannot solicit support among our students.” According to Li’s response, we saw that he tried to separate financial matter apart from the religion itself by explaining the media was not created by Dafa disciples and the media is belonging to ordinary society.
Persecution:
P34 Disciple from Main land China greeted Li, “There is always the question of why there have been so few new Dafa disciples since the persecution started.” Li used a mysterious mythology to explain this phenomenon by adapting the extreme circumstance created unification. “It is precisely because the old forces locked up the entrance, and thus nobody could enter unless they had an exceptional circumstance or I specifically needed them. That is because, based on the old forces’ logic, the test has already reached its end, and the harshest period has passed; and having arrived at the persecutions final stages, the most sinister and treacherous environment posed by the test has already passed, and many of the evil people who were put in place have died. With that sort of evil environment being no more, those who recently entered Dafa will have a hard time establishing the mighty virtue that a Dafa disciple is supposed to have, and thus the old forces do their utmost to control who enters(virtually means joining Dafa).”
Li's Speech in 2010: https://falundafa.org/eng/eng/lectures/20100905L.html
