Falun Gong And The Future Of China

Author : David Ownby
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780199716371
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.74/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Falun Gong and the Future of China written by David Ownby and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2008-04-16 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On April 25, 1999, ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the guarded compound where China's highest leaders live and work, in a day-long peaceful protest of police brutality against fellow practitioners in the neighboring city of Tianjin. Stunned and surprised, China's leaders launched a campaign of brutal suppression against the group which continues to this day. This book, written by a leading scholar of the history of this Chinese popular religion, is the first to offer a full explanation of what Falun Gong is and where it came from, placing the group in the broader context of the modern history of Chinese religion as well as the particular context of post-Mao China. Falun Gong began as a form of qigong, a general name describing physical and mental disciplines based loosely on traditional Chinese medical and spiritual practices. Qigong was "invented" in the 1950s by members of the Chinese medical establishment who were worried that China's traditional healing arts would be lost as China modeled its new socialist health care system on Western biomedicine. In the late 1970s, Chinese scientists "discovered" that qi possessed genuine scientific qualities, which allowed qigong to become part of China's drive for modernization. With the support of China's leadership, qigong became hugely popular in the 1980s and 1990s, as charismatic qigongqigong boom, the first genuine mass movement in the history of the People's Republic. Falun Gong founder Li Hongzhi started his own school of qigong in 1992, claiming that the larger movement had become corrupted by money and magic tricks. Li was welcomed into the qigong world and quickly built a nationwide following of several million practitioners, but ran afoul of China's authorities and relocated to the United States in 1995. In his absence, followers in China began to organize peaceful protests of perceived media slights of Falun Gong, which increased from the mid-'90s onward as China's leaders began to realize that they had created, in the qigong boom, a mass movement with religious and nationalistic undertones, a potential threat to their legitimacy and control. Based on fieldwork among Chinese Falun Gong practitioners in North America and on close examinations of Li Hongzhi's writings, this volume offers an inside look at the movement's history in Chinese popular religion.

Author : John Wong
Publisher : World Scientific
ISBN 13 : 9814493686
Total Pages : 60 pages
Book Rating : 4.80/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Mystery Of China's Falun Gong, The: Its Rise And Its Sociological Implications written by John Wong and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 1999-12-15 with total page 60 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Party and state leadership in Beijing was rudely awakened to the fact that the state bureaucracies in charge of public security had no idea of Falun Gong's leadership and its functions on April 25, 1999, when reportedly ten thousand followers in front of Zhongnanhai staged a peaceful and quiet sit-in. Since then the world media has reported events and probable causes for the government to outlaw what was determined to be a religious cult that could disturb peace and stability in China.In this paper, analyses are made of the background and political implications of the sect that had one time dominated the front page of all major newspapers in the world. The authors address themselves to questions such as: What is the nature of Falun Gong? Is it a religious sect, a cult, or a quasi-religious social movement with a hidden political agenda? Is it traditional qigong of a sort that packages well-established belief systems of Buddhism and Taoism? Is it a money-making scheme that satisfies the yearning for spiritual fulfillment for the elderly, the unemployed and the retired? Or is it all of those? Will the Falun Gong phenomenon repeat itself in the future? Was the government crackdown an over-reaction or was it expected? These issues are discussed by the authors in separate sections of this paper.

Author : Benjamin Penny
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226655016
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Religion of Falun Gong written by Benjamin Penny and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-04-13 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Concentrates on the beliefs and practices of Falun Gong members.

Author : Benjamin Penny
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 0226655024
Total Pages : 278 pages
Book Rating : 4.24/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Religion of Falun Gong written by Benjamin Penny and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-03-01 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 1999, a mere seven years after the founding of the religious movement known as the Falun Gong, the Chinese government banned it. Falun Gong is still active in other countries, and its suppression has become a primary concern of human rights activists and is regularly discussed in dealings between the Chinese government and its Western counterparts. But while much has been written on Falun Gong’s relation to political issues, no one has analyzed in depth what its practitioners actually believe and do. The Religion of Falun Gong remedies that omission, providing the first serious examination of Falun Gong teachings. Benjamin Penny argues that in order to understand Falun Gong, one must grasp the beliefs, practices, and texts of the movement and its founder, Li Hongzhi. Contextualizing Li’s ideas in terms of the centuries-long Chinese tradition of self-cultivation and the cultural world of 1980s and ’90s China—particularly the upwelling of biospiritual activity and the influx of translated works from the Western New Age movement—Penny shows how both have influenced Li’s writings and his broader view of the cosmos. An illuminating look at this controversial movement, The Religion of Falun Gong opens a revealing window into the nature and future of contemporary China.

Author : Gordon G. Chang
Publisher : Random House
ISBN 13 : 1588360210
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.12/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Coming Collapse of China written by Gordon G. Chang and published by Random House. This book was released on 2001-09-15 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China is hot. The world sees a glorious future for this sleeping giant, three times larger than the United States, predicting it will blossom into the world's biggest economy by 2010. According to Chang, however, a Chinese-American lawyer and China specialist, the People's Republic is a paper dragon. Peer beneath the veneer of modernization since Mao's death, and the symptoms of decay are everywhere: Deflation grips the economy, state-owned enterprises are failing, banks are hopelessly insolvent, foreign investment continues to decline, and Communist party corruption eats away at the fabric of society. Beijing's cautious reforms have left the country stuck midway between communism and capitalism, Chang writes. With its impending World Trade Organization membership, for the first time China will be forced to open itself to foreign competition, which will shake the country to its foundations. Economic failure will be followed by government collapse. Covering subjects from party politics to the Falun Gong to the government's insupportable position on Taiwan, Chang presents a thorough and very chilling overview of China's present and not-so-distant future.

Author : Long Tu
Publisher : Dundurn
ISBN 13 : 0978498232
Total Pages : 203 pages
Book Rating : 4.38/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Pagoda of Light written by Long Tu and published by Dundurn. This book was released on 2008-11-25 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the 1990s, brothers Bai Xiaojun and Bai Shaohua began cultivating the spiritual practice of Falun Gong. Then the government made this illegal, and Xiaojun was persecuted to death for his beliefs, while Shaohua, whose story is told here, became subjected to years of illegal imprisonment and torture by the Chinese Communist Party.

Author : Maria Hsia Chang
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300133170
Total Pages : 198 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Falun Gong written by Maria Hsia Chang and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world first took notice of a religious group called Falun Gong on April 25, 1999, when more than 10,000 of its followers protested before the Chinese Communist headquarters in Beijing. Falun Gong investigates events in the wake of the demonstration: Beijing’s condemnation of the group as a Western, anti-Chinese force and doomsday cult, the sect’s continued defiance, and the nationwide campaign that resulted in the incarceration and torture of many Falun Gong faithful. Maria Hsia Chang discusses the Falun Gong’s beliefs, including their ideas on cosmology, humanity’s origin, karma, reincarnation, UFOs, and the coming apocalypse. She balances an account of the Chinese government’s case against the sect with an evaluation of the credibility of those accusations. Describing China’s long history of secret societies that initiated powerful uprisings and sometimes overthrew dynasties, she explains the Chinese government’s brutal treatment of the sect. And she concludes with a chronicle of the ongoing persecution of religious groups in China—of which Falun Gong is only one of many—and the social conditions that breed the popular discontent and alienation that spawn religious millenarianism.

Author : Noah Porter
Publisher : Universal-Publishers
ISBN 13 : 1581121903
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.02/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Falun Gong in the United States written by Noah Porter and published by Universal-Publishers. This book was released on 2003 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, has been described in many ways. It has been called qigong, one of many schools of physical exercises that aim at improving health and developing supernatural abilities. Scholars and mainstream media have referred it to as a spiritual movement or religion, although practitioners claim it is not a religion. It has been called a cult, in the pejorative sense rather than in a sociological context, by the Chinese government and by some Western critics. In the writings of Li Hongzhi, the founder of Falun Gong, it is referred to in different ways, though primarily as a cultivation practice. The question of how to define Falun Gong is not just an academic issue; the use of the cult label has been used to justify the persecution of practitioners in China. To a limited degree, the Chinese Government is able to extend the persecution overseas. How society defines Falun Gong has implications for action on the level of policy, as well as the shaping of social, cultural, and personal attitudes. This research project addresses what Falun Gong is through ethnography. Research methods included participant-observation, semi-structured ethnographic interviews (both in-person and on-line), and content analysis of text and visual data from Falun Gong books, pamphlets, and websites. Research sites included Tampa, Washington D.C., and cyberspace. In order to keep my research relevant to the issues and concerns of the Falun Gong community, I was in regular contact with the Tampa practitioners, keeping them abreast of my progress and asking for their input. My findings are contrary to the allegations made by the Chinese Government and Western anti-cultists in many ways. Practitioners are not encouraged to rely on Western medicine, but are not prohibited from using it. Child practitioners are not put at risk. Their organizational structure is very loose. Finally, the Internet has played a vital role in Falun Gong's growth and continuation after the crackdown.

Author : Zhisheng Gao
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781531004712
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.17/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Unwavering Convictions written by Zhisheng Gao and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gao Zhisheng was one of Beijing's most successful lawyers. Self-taught and brought up in poverty, he came to prominence through his defense of individuals persecuted by the Chinese government for their religion and practice of Falun Gong, before being detained, tortured, and imprisoned himself by the same regime. These pages are not an easy read, because they detail the regime's attempts to break one of the greatest spirits of our time. Despite this, Gao Zhisheng's unwavering convictions, profound beliefs, and commitment to humanity shine through.

Author : Xiao Ming
Publisher : Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN 13 : 1611172071
Total Pages : 211 pages
Book Rating : 4.72/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong in China written by Xiao Ming and published by Univ of South Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-11-16 with total page 211 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emerging in China in the early 1990s, Falun Gong is viewed by its supporters as a folk movement promoting the benefits of good health and moral cultivation. To the Chinese establishment, however, it is a dissident religious cult threatening political orthodoxy and national stability. The author, a Chinese national once involved in implementing Chinese cultural policies, examines the evolving relationship between Falun Gong and Chinese authorities in a revealing case study of the powerful public discourse between a pervasive political ideology and an alternative agenda in contention for cultural dominance. Posited as a cure for culturally bound illness with widespread symptoms, the Falun Gong movement's efficacy among the marginalized relies on its articulation of a struggle against government sanctioned exploitation in favor of idealistic moral aspirations. In countering such a position, the Chinese government alleges that the religious movement is based in superstition and pseudoscience. Aided by her insider perspective, the author deftly employs Western rhetorical methodology in a compelling critique of an Eastern rhetorical occurrence, highlighting how authority confronts challenge in postsocialist China.