User:John Carter/Falun Gong books

GROUND RULES FOR THIS PAGE.

• 1) This page is intended, for the beginning, to be used as a quotefarm, in more or less direct violation of guidelines, yes, but this is userspace. Specifically, at least initially, what is expected is that anyone who seeks to edit it will do so by adding a quotation directly from the source, to the draft article below, with appropriate citation. This would include at least in the beginning quotes from works about the subject itself, including discussion of the nature of the content according to independent sources. Once that is done, more of an effort to develop the content related specifically to the content of the book will likely be added, possibly with less emphasis on direct quotations. The majority of the articles included are of books. Some, like Jennifer Zeng, are closely related to books, so there would be some question what content goes where. Having them both here makes it a bit easier to determine that. I have also added a few other biographies of important people in the Falun Gong movement, and some media. Once all the material on the subject is gathered together, I am going to ask one of our better writers of articles, who is somewhat familiar with Falun Gong, or, perhaps, a member of our Guild of Copyeditors if he is unavailable, to copyedit the material. However, if we get enough material, that copyediting might well be enough to bring these articles to GA status rather easily.
• 2) All material to be added should be added as either a quotation or a very close paraphrase. Ideally, sentence by sentence citations might work best.
• 3) This page is in userspace, specifically, my userspace. As such, I can request any editor to no longer edit this page, and violation of that request is in general taken as a very serious offense in and of itself. I personally have no intentions of doing so, but, if people misbehave significantly, they might well be asked to leave.
• 4) If requested, this page could be broken up into separate articles per book, so that the individual contributions of the editors involved are kept in the record. But, please remember, at least initially, all the edits will simply be additions of quotes or close paraphrases, so the contributions wouldn't be that significant in the long run, so unless one intends to do a lot of edits here and is concerned abut their edit count, it might not be that big a deal.
• 5) There really isn't a lot of purpose to using the talk page initially, barring perhaps challenging the accuracy of a quotation or paraphrase. If you believe the paraphrase is inaccurate, or if the accuracy of a quotation is challenged, please use the {{verification needed}} template.
• 6) Also, I hope everyone realizes that this page is not intended to be permanent. It is more or less intended to be what it seems to be, a draft version of articles. However, if it proves successful, it could, I guess, potentially be used as a location for articles on other related topics to be developed, under the same groundrules.
• 7) I tend to think, for practical purposes, that the shorter articles and sources on the subjects should be the first consulted. They are in general the easier to deal with, and doing so is more likely to create a situation where a greater number of sources are cited in the content, a situation which is generally preferred around here. When a given source has been, basically, mined for all its worth, then we might add a {{check mark}} next to the item in the references section of that content. John Carter (talk) 18:38, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Bad Elements

Bad Elements

Author	Ian Buruma
Country	USA
Language	English
Genre	Contemporary History
Publisher	Random House
Publication date	November 2001
Media type	Print (Hardcover)
Pages	400 pp (first edition)
ISBN	0-679-45768-2
OCLC	367111
Dewey Decimal	951.05/7 21
LC Class	DS779.26 .B864 2001

Bad Elements is a book about contemporary Chinese history by Ian Buruma, published by Random House on November 21, 2001. The book's subtitle, "Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing", indicates the main focus of the book.

Bad Elements is divided into 3 parts: The Exiles, Greater China and the Motherland. The book has been cited as a source in at least 12 other published works.

Part 1: The Exiles

Chapter1: Exile from Tiananmen Square

The chapter Exile from Tiananmen Square deals with the student leaders who were involved with the organisation of the Tiananmen Square Protests in 1989. Buruma met and interviewed several of the student leaders and intellectuals involved, many of which are now living in the United States.

Chapter2: Waiting for the Messiah

Waiting for the Messiah deals with the influence of Christianity on the exile dissident movement. It contains interviews with dissidents such as...

Chapter5: China in Cyberspace

This chapter, China in Cyberspace, contains an analysis the Internet played in the recent development of the dissident movement. It features sections about...

Part 2: Greater China

Chapter1: Chinese Disneyland

Chinese Disneyland is the nickname given to Singapore by people cited by Burumna. The chapter focuses on the anti-XXX movement in Singapore, that has large ethnic Chinese population. Some of the people mentioned and interviewed are

Chapter2: Not China

The chapter Not China is about the dissident movement in Taiwan, officially a XXX Chinese province that was ruled by the Kuomintang until 2000.

References

• "Asahi Shinbun: Speaking out for China's 'cussed' characters," Asahi Shinbun, 18 January 2002.
• "Bad Elements," Kirkus Reviews, 15 August 2001.
• Baker, Phil, Pam Barrett, Travis Elborough, Nicolette Jones, Nick Rennison and Karen Robinson. "Paperbacks - Books," The Sunday Times (London), 14 September 2003.
• Baxter, Lew. "Book reviews: Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing: Broken in China," The Scotsman, 27 June 2002.
• Becker, Jasper. "Book review," South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 2 December 2001.
• Benfey, Christopher. "The emperor's new clothes: Ian Buruma on Japan: An entity constructed from without and within," New York Times Book Review, 9 November 2003, 7.15.
• Berthel, Ron. "Ring in the New and Old," Press-Telegram (Long Beach, CA), 6 January 2002.
• "Bitter and Bickering," The Economist, 17 November 2001, volume 361, issue 8248, p. 78.
• "Book explores the lives of Chinese dissidents," M2 Best Books, 22 May 2002.
• "Canberra Times: Ian Buruma," Canberra Times, 14 December 2008.
• Carroll, Mary. "Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing," The Booklist, 15 November 2001, volume 98, number 6, p. 544.
• Chen, J. "Bad elements: Chinese rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing," Choice, June 2002, volume 39, number 10, p. 1858.
• "China, the nervous dragon," Hindustan Times (New Delhi, India, 11 October 2010.
• Christoff, Peggy Spitzer. "Bad Elements," Library Journal, 1 September 2001, volume 126, issue 14, p. 208.
• Cousins, Sally and Charles Osborne. "The Sunday Telegraph (United Kingdom): Paperbacks," The Sunday Telegraph (London), 31 August 2003.
• Curran, Beverly. "The Yomiuri Shinbun/Daily Yomiuri: Face to face with China's rebels," Daily Yomiuri and The Yomiuri Shinbun, 24 March 2002.
• Davin, Delia. "The China syndrome," TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, 18 October 2002, issue 5194, p. 31.
• Derbyshire, John. "Finding Chinese dissidents across the world, mad and melancholy," The Washington Times," 25 November 2001.
• Dickson, Bruce J. "Dissecting dissent," Taipei Review, June 2002, volume 52, number 6, pp. 24-29.
• Dolinsky, Lewis. "Seeing China with his own eyes - and others'," The San Francisco Chronicle, 16 December 2001.
• Eagleton, Terry. "Dissidents in Disneyland." The Irish Times, 25 May 2002.
• Fenby, Jonathan. "This is not a deer," The Guardian (London), 8 June 2002.
• Foley, Dylan. "An informed portrait of China's rebels," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 25 November 2001.
• Forsmark, David. "Look at dissidents dispels myths about China," The Flint Journal (MI), 28 April 2002.
• Furst, Rudolf. "Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit: Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies," Perspectives, Winter 2004/2005, volume 12, number 2, pp. 81-84.
• Gilhooly, Rob. "Of nationhood and identity," The Japan Times, 3 February 2002.
• Gittelsohn John. "China: A Fight for Faith// Lessons: Leaders still wary," The Orange County Register, 20 October 2002.
• Golf, Sarah F., Mark Rotella, Lynn Andriani, Jeff Zaleski. "Bad Elements," Publishers Weekly, 24 September 2001, volume 248, issue 39. p. 76.
• Goodall, J. Lane. "Analysis Sees Signs of Revolt," Richmond Times-Dispatch, 6 January 2002.
• Gott, Richard. "Foreign affairs lite, with added Buruma." New Statesman, 10 June 2002, volume 131, issue 4591, pp. 48+.
• "The Guardian: Review: Listings: What's on in the world of books: Disputed territory: psychotherapy, the conflict in the Middle East, and voices from China," The Guardian (London), 6 July 2002.
• "The Guardian: Saturday Review: Paperbacks: Non-fiction:," The Guardian (London), 20 September 2003.
• Hilton, Isabel. "Books: Awkward Squad Finds God," Financial Times (London), 25 May 2002.
• Ikenberry, G. John. "Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing (Book)," Foreign Affairs, March/April 2002, volume 81, issue 2, pp. 195-196.
• "The Irish Times: Weekend: Just lie back and enjoy - Don't board the boat, plane or train - or hit the road - without a book-studded suitcase says Arminta Wallace, in a selective guide to what you might include," Irish Times (Dublin, Ireland), 15 June 2002.
• Johnson, Ian. "Bookshelf: The Courage of Their Convictions," Wall Street Journal - Eastern Edition, 26 November 2001, volume 238, issue 103, p. A17.
• Kattaoulas, Velisarios. "Rebels With a Cause," Far Eastern Economic Review, 31 January 2002, volume 165, issue 4, pp. 64+.
• Keeping a Flame Alive, The Irish Times, 8 June 2002.
• Kingston, Jeff. "The courage to endure," Tha Japan Times, 23 June 2002.
• Kurlantzick, Joshua. "Move Over, Confucius," The New Republic, 6 September 2004.
• Langfitt, Frank and Sun staff. "Whither the future of China?" The Sun (Baltimore), 18 April 2004.
• Lovell, Julia. "Books: The Past, Present and Future of Chinese Democracy." The Independent (London), 11 August 2002.
• Ma, Ying. "Making Sense of the Chinese (Book)," American Enterprise, June 2002, volume 13, issue 4, pp. 57+.
• Meacham, Bradley. "Behind Japan's Bad Times - Author Looks at the Forces That Shaped the Country - And Led to Its Current Troubles." Saint Paul Pioneer Press, 20 April 2003.
• Meacham, Bradley. "Look at Japan's history explains today's troubles," The Seattle Times, 6 April 2003.
• Mirsky, Jonathan. "Inside the Whale." New York Review of Books, 20 December 2001, volume 48, issue 20, p. 46+.
• Mufson, Steven. "The Dissident Diaspora," The Washington Post, 23 December 2001.
• Mufson, Steven. "Thorns in China's side," "The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), 6 January 2002.
• Nathan, Andrew J. "The dissenting life," The New Republic, 14 January 2002, volume 226, number 1, pp. 37-41.
• "New in Paperback," Houston Chronicle, 1 December 2002.
• "An Offer They Can't Refuse," Newsweek, 21 October 2002.
• "Our Editors Recommend," The San Francisco Chronicle, 30 December 2001.
• "Paperbacks - Nonfiction," The Times (London), 27 September 2003.
• Patten, Chris. "Chinese lessons for all of us - Books," The Times (London), 5 June 2002.
• Plummer, Simon Scott. "The Daily Telegraph: Dissent among the dissidents," The Daily Telegraph (London), 25 May 2002.
• Pye, Lucian W. "Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing by Ian Buruma," Foreign Affairs, March-April 2002, volume 81, number 2, pp. 195-196.
• "Reissue of Atwood book joins works by Buruma, Grisham," The Repository (Canton, OH), 23 December 2001.
• "Reportage winners," The Irish Times, 25 October 2003.
• Rufford, Nick. "Surviving the bamboo gulag - China," The Sunday Times (London), 12 May 2002.
• Shapiro, Judith. "Gang of one billion: A Veteran Asia hand talks with dissidents and exiles about the future of China," New York Times Book Review, 16 November 2001, 7.11.
• Shorrock, Tim. "Politics - China: Author Buruma Sees Collapse of Communist Rule." Inter Press Service English News Wire, 3 December 2001.
• Smith, P. D. "The Guardian: Saturday Review: Paperbacks: Non-fiction," The Guardian (London), 15 August 2009.
• "Socio-economic realities affect reading culture," The Kathmandu Post, 22 May 2011.
• St. John, Dwight. "Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing," Southern Humanities Review, Spring 2003, volume 37, number 2, pp. 190-194.
• "The Sunday Herald: 2002: who read what... and why," The Herald and the Sunday Herald (Glasgow, Scotland), 1 December 2002.
• Tepperman, Jonathan - "In Search of Chineseness," Newsweek" (Pacific Edition), 26 November 2001, volume 138, issue 22, p. 58.
• Thubron, Colin. "A complicated people," Spectator, 18 May 2002, volume 288, issue 9067, pp. 41+.
• Thubron, Colin. "Portrait of a people under siege - China," The Sunday Times, 27 July 2003.
• Tung, Timothy. "In Search of an Archetype," New Leader, November/December 2001, volume 84, issue 6, p. 23+.
• Walden, George. "China's dispersed dissidents," The Sunday Telegraph (London), 12 May 2002.
• Waldron, Arthur. "Cracks in the middle kingdom," Journal of Democracy, April 2002, volume 13, number 2, pp. 171-175.
• "Western Daily Press: Bad Elements: Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing," Western Daily Press (Bristol, England), 6 September 2003.
• "What's new in books includes what's old, too," The Beacon News (Aurora, IL)," 13 January 2002.
• Wireman, Billy. "Is Free-market Democracy in China's Future?" The Charlotte Observer, 21 January 2002.

Belinda Pang

Belinda Pang

References

• Beveridge, Dirk. "Macau Readies for Return to Rule by China," The Columbian (Vancouver, WA), 17 December 1999.
• Chung, Chow and Stella Lee. "Sect thrown out over empty book fair site," South China Morning Post, 19 July 2001.
• "Falun Gong leader denounces rival," San Jose Mercury-News," 12 August 2000.
• "Followers spar over sect's 'true master,'" The Deseret News, 4 August 2000.
• Lee, Stella. "Falun Gong tries to gag rival at book fair," South China Morning Post, 18 July 2001.
• Lo, Alex. "Conference plan splits local Falun Gong," South China Morning Post, 29 April 2000.
• Moy, Patsy. "Stand-off trio 'not members of sect,'" South China Morning Post, 23 July 2000.
• Wong, Edward. "Sit-in," South China Morning Post, 8 May 2000.
• Wong, Martin and Alex Lo. "Sect 20 rally for birthday," South China Morning Post, 12 May 2000.

Challenging China: Struggle and hope in an era of change

Challenging China: Struggle and Hope in an Era of Change

References

• Bush, Vanessa. "Challenging China: Struggle and Hope in an Era of Change," Booklist, 1 June 2007, volume 103, issue 19/20, p. 21.
• Hayford, Charles. Library Journal, 1 June 2007, volume 1323, issue 10, p. 133.
• Publishers Weekly, 23 April 2007, volume 254, issue 17, p. 44

China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know

China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know

Author	Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

References

• Cho, Allan. "China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know," Library Journal, 15 April 2010, volume 135, issue 7, p. 96.
• Donald, Stephanie Hemelryk. "China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know," Pacific Affairs, September 2011, volume 84, issue 3, pp. 548-550.
• "Here Comes China," Weekly Standard, 29 November 2010, volume 16, issue 11, pp. 35-36.
• Jay, Jennifer W. "China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know," The China Journal, July 2001, 66, pp. 207-208.
• McCormick, Barrett L. "untitled," Journal of Asian Studies, 1 February 2011, volume 70, issue 1, pp. 216-218.

The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong in China

The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong in China: A Rhetorical Perspective

Author	Ming Xiao (pseudonym)
Country	United States
Series	Studies in Rhetoric/Communication
Publisher	University of South Carolina Press
Publication date	2011
Pages	140
ISBN	9781570039874
LC Class	BP605

The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong in China: A Rhetorical Persepctive is a book published in 2011 by the University of South Carolina Press as a part of its "Studies in rhetoric/communication" series. The book examines Falun Gong as a "rhetorical exigency" as well as the rhetoric used by Falun Gong in its dissent from the Chinese government and leadership in the areas of politics, culture, religion, science, and health care, with particular attention to the use of tropes as ideological instruments. It is described by the publisher as a "firsthand account of the power of rhetoric to establish and challenge cultural controls in modern China."

Author

The pseudonymous author was a Chinese diplomat and a former official of the Chinese Ministry of Culture with an academic background in communication studies. She now is a teacher at "a private college in Pennsylvania."

Content

The author's analysis begins with a discussion of the political economy of reform, which she says created a Socially Vulnerable Group (ruoshi qunti) of individuals whose status in society placed them in a disadvantageous position. The author suggests that people in this situation found Li Hongzhi's message to have an instant and broad-based appeal. Falun Gong offered people not only the possibility of change from being a person at the periphery, but also the promise of physical and spiritual healing. By doing so, the author argues that this changed Falun Gong's adherents from victims to agents of change. Falun Gong placed itself in opposition to the Chinese Communist Party's authoritarian and scientism, which the author states contributed to the denail of humane concerns and individuality. Falun Gong came into conflict with the Chinese government arose in large part as a result of Li's teachings regarding cycles of time, particularly his apocalyptic statements that the current age would soon end and the existing order would be replaced by another one. The author states this placed him in direct opposition to the government's assumptions regarding the importance of stability and continuity. The government responded by invoking three key sychronie words to discredit the movement, wending (or stability), "zhengzhi douzheng" (or political struggle), and "xiejiao" (or cult), and introduced two concepts to justify their own intervention in the matter, "zhichi" (or support), and "yingzao wenming he kexue de shehui huanbng" (or create a civilized and scientific social environment). In the fifth and final chapter of the book, the author concludes that the middle-aged practitioners of Falun Gong are the latest in a chain of dissenters in the history of China wishing to exercise their basic human rights.

Critical reception

The text describing the rise of Falun Gong and its efforts to receive recgnition is interpretive, and does not attempt to offer a detailed historical analysis. The author does not provide any empirical evidence which would allow an analysis of the tactics of either side, or their level of popular support, and presents her own assumptions as fact. This simplicity of presentation weakens the author's contentions. She does not explain how and why the tactics taken by the Chinese government in suppressing the movement were as successful as they have been. Given the lack of attention paid in the book to the work of other scholars on Li Hongzhi and the rise and fall of Falun Gong, this book might be most useful to researchers and individuals interested in communications and rhetoric who do not have a detailed knowledge of this subject.

Bibliography

• "The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong: A Rhetorical Perspective," Reference and Research Book News," June 2011, volume 26, number 3.
• Lam-Easton, L. L. "The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong: A Rhetorical Perspective." Choice, October 2011, volume 49, number 2, p. 295.
• Thornton, Patricia M. "The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong: A Rhetorical Perspective," The China Journal, January 2012, issue 67, pages 225-227.
• "Books, Journals, and More Supplement," University Times, [1]
• University of South Carolina Press website
• Wu, Hui. "The Cultural Economy of Falun Gong: A Rhetorical Perspective," Rhetoric Review, 2012, volume 31, issue 1, pp. 92-95.

Dangerous Meditation

Dangerous Meditation: China's Campaign Against Falun Gong

Author	Mickey Spiegel

References

• Baehr, Peter. "Touched souls," TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, 28 November 2003, issue 5252, pages 24-25.

Erping Zhang

Erping Zhang

Falun Gong

Falun Gong

Author	Li Hongzhi

Falun Gong and the Future of China

Falun Gong and the Future of China

Author	David Ownby
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Pages	291
ISBN	9780195329056
LC Class	BP605

Falun Gong and the Future of China ia a book about the history of the Falun Gong from its inception to the time of publication.

Author

David Ownby is "a historian at the University of Montreal." "Mr. Ownby's 'fieldwork' for this book was done in the U.S. and in Canada. Doing it in China, though preferable, 'was not possible'. He confesses that he was afraid to pursue research that might get him barred from China. (Many of his colleagues don't admit this.)"

Contents

A History for Falun Gong

"The second chapter places Falun Gong in the context of the long history of popular Chinese religious movements spanning over two millenia, looking at the historical and sociological continuities between a certain type of religious movement ('redemptive societies'), including Falun Gong, from the perspective of the groups themselves, rather than using the distorting categories (sect, heterodoxy) used by different regimes of the Chinese state."

The Creation and Evolution of Qigong

"In the next chapter, Ownby situates the appearance of Falun Gong within the immediate context of the qigong boom of the 1980s and early 1990s: Falun Gong was one of thousands of post-Mao 'redemptive societies' which focused on qigong body cultivation regimens and, for a period, enjoyed the encouragement and protection of the high-level Party leaders."

The Life and Times of Li Hongzhi in China, 1995-1999

"Chapter 4 is a discussion of Li Hongzhi's biography and teachings, based on a careful and nuanced study of his published lectures and writings."

Falun Gong Outside of China: Fieldwork among Diaspora Practitioners

"This is followed in the next chapter by an analysis of Falun Gong practitioners among the Chinese diaspora, based on the author's own ethnographic fieldwork in Toronto, Montreal, Houston, New York, and Boston."

David Meets Goliath: The Conflict between Falun Gong and the Chinese State

"Chapter 6 is a discussion of the conflicting narratives produced by both Falun Gong and the Chinese state since the 1999 repression, which will be useful for readers trying to evaluate the wildly opposing claims made by both sides. Overall, Ownby accords more sympathy to Falun Gong sources..., while noting that, in an increasingly desparate attempt to keep the media's attention, their tendency to exaggerate and sensationalize has had the opposite effect of alienating journalists and dampening Falun Gong's credibility in the eyes of public opinion."

Conclusion: Unpacking Contexts

"The conclusion proposes to discard the dominant paradigm of modern Chinese historiography, which has stressed the role of revolution and modernization, and challenges historians and scholars of Chinese society and politics to reconsider the continued influence of religiosity in the narrative of contemporary Chinese history."

"Ownby... appropriately puts Falun Gong in the context of Chinese history and redemptive societies that survived on state tolerance and were crushed whenever their visibility and popularity appeared disruptive to the state." He addresses "Falun Gong within the context of 'Chinese popular religions' and the post-Mao state's 'ongoing search for political and cultural identity' rather than human rights discourse, Ownby ... sifts through conflicting evidence to explain why neither Falun Gong's development not the Chinese government's strong reaction were historical anomalies.""Tangential to this book is Ownby's call to examine the role of religion and religious and redemptive societies in the history of modern China." "The book includes extensive quotes from founder Li Hongzhi's writings as well as 'witness statements' from practitioners." "He emphasizes that religious groups in China such as Falun Gong must be considered in a different way than Buddhists, Daoists and Christians - the faiths which Chinese governments have long deemed to be 'real' religions. Unofficial religions have always atrracted millions of adherents. While Mr. Ownby insists that he is not describing an unchanging tradition, he shows that the roots of Falun Gong and its many predecessors are ancient, and that neither the Republican nor the Communist revolutions could suppress them.""The author discerns Falun Gong's two main threats to the Party, apart from the vast number of Falun Gong members in China and beyond. In a socialist society, a belief in individual cultivation and success is intolerable. More intolerable still is this: 'Insecure authorities can deal with dissent and fear on the part of the population, but being collectively ignored by the people poses a more difficult problem,' he writes." "He quotes from the testimonies of elderly women, sometimes Party members of many years, who have been harassed and tortured by the police but observed how much worse it is to be such a torturer than a moral Falun Gong member."

Reception

"Despite the book's title, China's future given the persistence of Falun Gong's adherents is not extensively addressed. Ownby's account, while strongly written, is perhaps most suited for academic collections." The book received three stars from Choice, and was highly recommended for all libraries. Ownby's book is a "comprehensive study of this fascinating and troubling subject, which has so many implications for China that his occasionally irritating, even tasteless, style doesn't blunt its importance. Mr. Ownby peppers his text with wisecracks, which belittle the problem.""He suggests that his academic colleagues avoid paying attention to Falun Gong 'for the same reason my teenagers don't eat their vegetables - it just doesn't look like something they want to get close to.'""But Mr. Ownby ably sums up the appeal of Falun Gong. He writes that Mr. Li had a vision of 'a lost, or neglected, spiritual tradition' which promises 'personal harmony with the very substance of the universe.'""Mr. Ownby says something so vainglorious that I can only assume he is joking. 'I wish Falun Gong practitioners and Chinese authories had been able to read this volume prior to April, 1999. Li Hongzhi might have known better than to take on Goliath, and Chinese authorities might have realized that their campaign against David was not worth the effort in terms of time, money, and above all lives.'""There is a better book on Falun Gong inside China: Ian Johnson's 'Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China.'""Falun Gong and the Future of China is a work directed at general readers and scholars alike, providing a rich context for interpreting the Falun Gong issue in terms of China's religious, political and cultural history, the challenges facing China at present, and the future evolution of a globalized Chinese society. Written in clear, engaging and often humorous prose, the work is an easy and most pleasant read, accessible to a broader general audience, without compromising on scholarly standards: synethezing materials from a bewildering range of fields (ancient history, peasant rebellions, religious revivals, Chinese medicine, the qigong movement, diaspora studies, the Internet in China, Communist Party politics, and more) and challenging historiographical traditions, the work engages with scholarly debates and offers new perspectives on the interpretation of Chinese history, making it of great interest to specialists as well. Indeeed, the author presents himself to the general public as offering the perspective of a professional historian on a highly sensationalized issue, and adroitdly pulls it off." "Ownby uses the Falun Gong issue as a prism through which the entire narrative of China's modern history should be rethought.""Overall, Falun Gong and China's Future is the best academic work on Falun Gong available today. I have only two minor criticisms: (1) the title is catchy but the book has little to say about China's future, except to imply that popular religion will play a big role; (2) Ownby and I disagree on the role of Li Hongzhi's ideas in leading to the conflict between Falun Gong and the CCP...."

Bibliography

• Dillon, Michael. "Falun Gong and the Future of China," TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, 11 July 2008, issue 5493, p. 31.
• "Falun Gong And the Future of China BOOKS & IDEAS iht.com/culture," International Herald Tribune, 23 August 2008.
• Y "Falun Gong and the Future of China," Publishers Weekly, 24 March 2008, volume 255, issue 12, p. 68.
• Kahn, Joseph. "Communism's Nemesis," New York Times Book Review, 24 August 2008, p. BR.11.
• Mickler, Michael L. "[untitled]", Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, November 2010, volume 14, issue 2, pp. 117-118.
• Mirsky, Jonathan. "Falun Gong and the Future of China." Far Eastern Economic Review, October 2008, volume 171, number 8, pp. 62-64.
• Noakes, Stephen. "Falun Gong and the Future of China/Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China/Falun Gong: End of Days/Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult?/Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution," Pacific Affairs, June 2010, volume 83, number 2, pp. 349-357, 228-229.
• "Nonfiction Reviews," Publishers Weekley,, 24 March 2008, volume 255, issue 12.
• Pacey, Scott. "Falun Gong and the Future of China." The China Journal, 1 July 2009.
• Y Palmer, David A. "Falun Gong and the Future of China," Pacific Affairs, Winter 2009/2010, pp. 714-716.
• Y Wong, H. T. "Falun Gong and the Future of China." Choice, April 2009, volume 46, number 8, p. 1567.
• You, Hong. "Falun Gong and the Future of China." The Journal of Religion, October 2011, volume 91, number 4, page 591.

Falun Gong: The End of Days

Falun Gong: The End of Days

Author	Maria Hsia Chang
Publisher	Yale University Press
Publication date	April 2004
Pages	188
ISBN	0300102275
LC Class	BP 605

Falun Gong: The End of Days is a book published in 2004 by Maria Hsia Chang about the Falun Gong movement written from the perspective of a political scientist. It was the first "balanced book-length account of the facts surrounding Falun Gong..." The "book provides the general public with an informative summary of the development of falun gong, its basic beliefs, the history of its repression by the Chinese state, and its connection with millenarian and sectarian traditions in Chinese religious history.""Scholarly literature on Falun Gong -- the spiritual movement loosely based on a mix of Buddhism, Taoism and traditional Chinese beliefs -- is think on the ground, a situation Maria Hsia Chang's book, Falun Gong: The End of Days, rectifies."

Author

Chang was at the time a professor of political science at the University of Nevada - Reno. Chang had been studying Chinese mass movements since 1980, with particular attention to the those associated with Chiang Kai-Shek and the Tiananmen Square protests.

Content

The book is divided into five chapters.

A Religious Sect Defies the State

The first chapter, "A religious sect defies the state," "outlines the story of falun gong from its foundation in 1992 to its continued repression today following the Zhongnanhai demonstration of 1999.""Maria Hsia Chang begins with a general overview of Falun Gong."

Chinese Religions and Millenarian Movements

"In chapter two, 'Chinese religions and millenarian movements,' Chang summarizes the history of Chinese religions, secret societies, and millenial and apocalyptic movements, including the Eight Trigram, Taiping and Boxer rebellions, and argues that the Chinese Communists tapped into China's millenarian tradition in order to gain power...." "[This is] a chapter on the history of millenarianism in China, with an explanation of why the Communists are so afraid of such movements. 'Having come to power by exploiting China's millenarian tradition, the Communist Party is only too mindful of the potency of such movements (p. 39)"

Falun Gong: Beliefs and Practices

"Falun gong teachings are described in chapter three, 'Beliefs and practices,' in which falun gong's cosmology, theology, and eschatology are outlined with ample reference to the writings of Li Hongzhi." "Chapter 3 outlines the sect's beliefs and practices, in a balanced but not particularly flattering way. Falun Gong is portrayed as anti-scientific and often comes across as absurd. Still, the author writes with admirable restraint. "

The State vs. Falun Gong

"The next chapter, "The state vs. falun gong," goes through the Chinese state's charges against falun gong.""[I]n chapter 4, she details the Communists' indictment of Falun Gong. Although she does so with a minimum of her own commentary, there are places where it is unclear whether the complaints are her own or those of the Communists. For example, in (or after?) a discussion of the Public Security Bureau's findings about the cult, she says, 'Instead of being compassionate, [sect leader] Li Hongzhi is disapproving of homosexuals," -- hardly an argument one would expect to hear from the Public security Bureau. At the end of the chapter, she gives her own dismissive views of the government's case, even saying (without elaboration) that 'for almost every one of its accusations against the sect, it can be argued that the Communist Party has been equally, if not more, guilty' (p. 123)".

The Persecution of Other Faiths

"Chapter five, 'The persecution of other faiths,' begins with a critique of the 'rule of law' purportedly called on by the CCP to deal with falun gong, and argues that the accusations made against falun gong could just as well be made against the CCP itself. It then discusses the vast social dislocations in contemporary China that create a fertile soil for the emergence of apocalyptic movements such as falun gong, and describes how the persecution of falun gong is part of a larger policy to eradicate underground religious groups, several of which are presented." "Finally, Chang concludes that, in the face of widespread social dissatisfaction, the fear of millenarian uprisings is the main motivation for the CCP's fierce suppression of falun gong - but its intolerance of 'heterodox' faiths only reinforces their politicization into oppositional movements, increasing the likelihood of the CCP 'reaping the fate' it so dreads.""The final chapter comes as a bit of a disappointment. Much of it has little to do with Falun Gong, and there is scarcely any attempt to pull together what the movement is. 'Falun Gong is quite innocuous.... Although some of the sect's various ideas may seem 'weird,' 'cranky,' 'incredible,' or 'bizarre' to outsiders, by and large its followers are taught to be good people and to uphold high moral standards" (pp. 133, 134). One wishes that the author had dug a bit deeper and had more fully evaluated the creed in terms of its socially constructive and socially damaging characteristics. In particular, the fact that this largely female movement is based on an anti-feminist set of beliefs cries out for expalanation and analysis."

The book begins with a description of Falun Gong's founder, Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong, with "its roots in Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism," "hoped to provide people from all walks of life with a moral fiber missing in today's society by inspiring them to focus on individual (internal) action (and inaction)." It goes on to discuss the beliefs of Falun Gong, including its beliefs regarding cosmology, karma, reincarnation, UFOs, the anticipated end of the world, and "self-immolation, which have alarmed many observers." . She concludes by proving that it is beyond doubt that "the Chinese government has overreacted by engaging in horrific human rights abuses against a fairly innocuous movement that actually has a sympathetic following within the Chinese leadership."Chang is said to have been "unsparing in detailing the illegal and deceptive methods the Chinese government has used to repress Falun Gong." "At the same time, she explains why the authorities fear such a movement, situating the repression of Falun Gong in the broader context of China's persecution of certain other religious faiths and its history of revolts led by millenarian movements. The author relates how rapid change, disillusionment with the increasingly irrelevant official Marxist ideology, and growing corruption in China have made many people feel anxious for some moral and spiritual anchor."

Reception

"This is an objective and scholarly account of one of the most challenging mass phenomena to emerge from China in recent years." "Chang, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Reno, presents a highly readable account of the origins and beliefs of the group.""Chang is unspring in detailing the illegal and deceptive methods the Chinse government has used to repress Falun Gong.""At the same time, she explains why the authorities fear such a movement, situating the repression of Falun Gong in the broader context of China's persecution of certain other religious faiths and its history of revolts led by millenarian movements.""The author relates how rapid change, disillusionment with the increasingly irrelevant Marxist ideology, and growing corruption in China have made many people feel anxious for some moral and spiritual anchor." "Political scientist Chang provides a brief and accessible introduction to Falun Gong that places the movement in political and historical context, and she offers a critique of the Chinese government's policy toward religion that raises important questions about relations between quasi-religious groups such as Falun Gong and modern states." "Her overview of religious and millenarian movements in Chinese history makes it clear that ostensibly apolitical groups have had profoundly political impacts, and this lends credence to at least one rationale for the Chinese government's hostile reaction to Falun Gong.""At the same time, her analysis of the extent to which hostile government reaction has transformed religious and quasi-religious groups into revolutionary political movements amounts to a cautionary tale for modern states and a compelling argument for a practice of religious freedom that extends beyond mainstream and established religions."It is "carefully balanced and clearly written", and was expected to appeal to both the specialist and novice readers. Although Falun Gong's "core idea - that the end of the human race is near - is hard for Westerners to take seriously. But Chang gets past this problem by laying out the Falun Gong's belief system as an anthropologist would. Her review of the history of secret societies in China, meanwhile, makes clear why the government takes the movement so seriously." It was described as "an ideal volume to educate the academic and general public about this crucial movement," and was recommended for general readers and public libraries.. "However, the journalistic style and sources of the book underlie the need for a thorough academic study of the phenomenon.""This very accessible book is certainly worth reading and recommending to students. It is a valuable resource on the subject, although with a better index, it would have been more so.""[The] limitations do mean that any researcher's main sources have to be journalistic accounts of the events. But an over-reliance on the Internet means there is no way of tracking down most of the news stories used by Chang to give strength to her arguments.""In the end, however commendable the effort, one feels a bit disappointed with the result. The text is at times too simple. For example, Chang offers a rapid overview of the history of religion in China, with rigid subdivisions that last all currency long ago. The source material has been selected in a haphazard and sometimes sloppy manner. Still, by reading this compact volume one undoubtedly learns a lot about Falun Gong, and wonders why the Chinese government marshals such resources against it."

Bibliography

• Carroll, Steven. "Non fiction - Books," The Age (Melbourne), 29 May 2004.
• Christoff, Peggy Spitzer. "Falun Gong: The End of Days," Library Journal, 1 April 2004, volume 129, number 6, p. 109.
• Conradi, Peter. "Striking the Gong - China," The Sunday Times, 23 May 2004.
• Derbyshire, John. "In China, spiritual hunger, state power collide.(BOOKS)." The Washington Times, 25 April 2004.
• Hastings, James. "Growing Pains: Two views of how the world's largest nation is coping with the prospect of change." The Washington Post, 9 May 2004.
• Lam-Easton, L. L. "Falun Gong: the end of days." Choice, October 2004, volume 42, number 2, p. 309.
• Noakes, Stephen. "Falun Gong and the Future of China/Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China/Falun Gong: End of Days/Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult?/Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution," Pacific Affairs, June 2010, volume 83, number 2, pp. 349-357, 228-229.
• Palmer, David A. "Falun Gong: The End of Days by Maria Hsia Chang." The China Quarterly, March 2005, number 181, pp. 181-183.
• Peerman, Dean. "China Syndrome," The Christian Century, 10 August 2004, volume 121, number 16, p. 28.
• Pye, Lucian W. Falun Gong: The End of Days (Book)," Foreign Affairs, September/October 2004, volume 83, number 5, pp. 164-166.
• Y Rotella, Mark. "Falun Gong: The End of Days." Publishers Weekly, 22 March 2004, volume 251, number 12, p. 80.
• Y Sala, Ilaria Maria - "Cult Status," Far Eastern Economic Review, 28 October 2004, volume 167, issue 43, pp. 68-69.
• Y Schroeder, Steven - "Falun Gong: The End of Days," The Booklist, 15 March 2004, volume 100, number 14, pp. 1245-1246.
• Y Seymour, James D. - "Falun Gong: The End of Days," Political Science Quarterly, Winter 2005/2006, volume 120, issue 4, pp. 719-720.
• Spitzer, Peggy. "Falun Gong: the End of Days." Library Journal, 1 April 2004, volume 129, number 6, p. 109.
• Wilson, David - "Falun Gong: The End of Days," South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 5 September 2004.
• Winterton, Bradley. "The moon jumped over the sky," TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, 25 February 2005, issue 5317, p. 12.
• Yan, Zhonhu. "Falun Gong: The End of Days - Maria Hsia Chang," Journal of Chinese Philosophy, September 2006, volume 33, number 3, pp. 459-461.

Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult?

Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult? is the title of both a book and a documentary film by Danny Schechter.

Book

Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult?

Author	Danny Schechter
Publisher	Akashic Books
Publication date	2001
Pages	287
ISBN	1888451270

"An informative recent collection, 'Falun Gong's Challenge to China,' underlies, among other things, why this sect elicits such a head-cracking response: if politics is indeed just about force, dissent is bound to be treated as an assault on authority and met, not with arguments, but with batons or worse."

Reception

This book adopts a "journalistic approach accompanied by a somewhat less objective tone" than later books like those by Ownby, Palmer, and Chang.

Film

Falun Gong's Challenge to China
Written by	Danny Schechter
Production company	Globalvision

The film version won the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award for excellence in journalism in the Documentaries (all other markets) category.

Bibliography

• "2000 Sigma Delta Chi Awards" The Quill, June 2001, volume 89, number 5, pp. 38-40.
• "AP, Washington Post, Kansas City Star take top awards," Associated Press Archive, 24 April 2001.
• Y "Books and Arts: China's lost decade," The Economist, 3 March 2001, volume 358, number 8211, p. 77.
• Cunningham, Philip J. "When does a faith become a cult?", The Japan Times (Tokyo), 30 January 2001.
• "Movie Digest," New York Daily News, 11 May 2001.
• Musetto, V. A. "Chinese Fare Is Better as Takeout," New York Post, 11 May 2001.
• Noakes, Stephen. "Falun Gong and the Future of China/Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China/Falun Gong: End of Days/Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult?/Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution," Pacific Affairs, June 2010, volume 83, number 2, pp. 349-357, 228-229.
• "The old men and the sea of democracy," The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 10 February 2001.
• Peerman, Dean. "China Syndrome," The Christian Century, 10 August 2004, volume 121, number 16, p. 28.
• Rahn, Patsy. "Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or 'Evil Cult'?", Nova Religio, April 2003, volume 6, number 2, pp. 393-394.
• Steinberger, Michael. "Books in Brief: Nonfiction." New York Times Book Review, 28 January 2001, p. 19.
• Thornton, Patricia M. "Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice of 'Evil Cult'?", The China Quarterly, December 2002, number 172, pp. 1068-1069.

Gail Rachlin

Gail Rachlin

References

• Abendschein, Dan. "Falun Gong activists make appeals," The Whittier Daily News (CA), 29 December 2007.
• AFP. "US tells China to ease off on Falungong, The Straits Times (Singapore), 4 October 2000.
• Ahmed, Saeed. "Falun Gong -- Peace of Mind -- And Persecution: Practitioners Report Both," The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution, 19 May 2001.
• "Banned sect's mass deaths in dispute," The Holland Sentinel (MI), 5 July 2001.
• Baxter, Lew. "The old men and the sea of democracy," The Scotsman, 10 February 2001.
• Bell, Charles W. "N.Y.ers feel the Falun Gong spirit," New York Daily News, 21 May 2005.
• Bodeen, Christopher. "China sentences U.S.-based Falun Gong member for spying," Associated Press Archive, 13 December 2000.
• Byrne, Caroline. "Falung Gong Head Cancels UK Trip," AP Online, 24 August 1999.
• Carlson, Peter. "For Whom the Gong Tolls, The Washington Post, 27 February 2000.
• Chambers, Steve. "Bridgewater woman arrested in China," The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), 5 February 2000.
• Chambers, Steve. "Chinese ritual arises in N.J.," The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), 4 May 1999.
• Chambers, Steve. "Faithful speak in defense of Falun Dafa," The Times Union (Albany, NY), 15 May 1999.
• "CHINA - Gong, but not forgotten." The Economist (US), 29 April 2000.
• "China vows action on lead poisoning," aljazeera.net (Doha, Qatar), 3 September 2009.
• "Chinese agency mocks Falun Gong's presence for UN human rights session," Xinhua News Agency, 31 March 2000.
• Cragin, David. "Falun Gong members protest trial," San Jose Mercury News (CA), 25 November 2000.
• Dorgan, Michael. "Imprisoned Falun Gong followers reported dead (Knight Ridder Newspapers), 4 July 2001.
• "The Falun Gong Controversy," The Washington Post, 6 September 1999.
• "Falun Gong Is Not a Cult, Adherents Say," The Columbus Dispatch, 23 July 1999.
• Falun Who? Followers Take Their Case to 'Little City Halls,'" The New York Observer, 19 February 2001.
• Gutierrez, Hector. "Those Who Risked Their Lives Are Honored (Local)," Rocky Mountain News, 11 April 1997.
• "How About a Poem by a Father who Hasn't Killed," Wyoming Tribune-Eagle (Cheyenne, WY), 12 February 2002.
• Hutzler, Charles. "Cop Kick Falun Gong Protesters," AP Online, 11 May 2000.
• Hutzler, Charles. "Tight Security in Tiananmen Square, AP Online, 24 January 2001.
• Krista, Alix. "This man claims to be teaching an ancient method of spiritual healing," The Times (London), 14 August 1999.
• Kynge, James. "Asia-Pacific: China attacks Falun Gong in media," Financial Times (London), 31 January 2001.
• Lattin, Don. "Falun Gong Derided as Authoritarian Sect by Anti-Cult Experts in Seattle," The San Francisco Chronicle, 29 April 2000.
• Lederer, Edith M. "Falun Gong launches campaign to pressure China to lift ban," Associated Press Archive, 7 October 1999.
• Leicester, John. "Change of heart or brainwashing? In Chinese jail, a New Yorker renounces Falun Gong," AP Worldstream, 8 January 2002.
• Leicester, John. "China gives reporters glimpse of labor camp dubbed 'living hell' by critics," Associated Press Archive, 23 May 2001.
• Lev, Michael A. "Chinese crackdown on Falun Gong draws ire as religious repression." Chicago Tribune, 14 February 2002.
• Lev, Michael A. "Crackdown on Falun Gong signals China's vulnerability," Chicago Tribune, 25 April 2000.
• Lowry, Rich. "Chinese repression -- American style," Record-Journal (Meriden, CT), 4 December 2004.
• McDonald, Joe. "Spring Protest Prompts Crackdown," The Columbian (Vancouver, WA), 29 July 1999.
• Park, Steve. "U.S. cities to snub sect - Letters oppose the Falun Gong," The Washington Times," 8 April 2002.
• Reed, Bill. "An exercise of faith," The Gazette (Colorado Springs, CO), 2 June 2005.
• Rosenberg, Eric. "U. S. Won't Help Arrest Sect Leader," Albany Times Union (Albany, NY), 30 July 1999.
• Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "Protesters set themselves on fire," Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, 24 November 2001.
• "Tracing Falun Gong's roots in the US (Features)(Ideas)," The Christian Science Monitor, 6 January 2000.
• Tsukimori, Osamu. "Falun Gong asks Bush to help free U.S. member (A)(World)(China)," The Washington Times, 8 September 2001.
• Weiner, Rebecca. "Grassroots conservatism comes of (new) age." Tikkun, 1 January 2000.
• Winfield, Nicole. "Summit's eve," The Herald-Star (Durham, NC), 6 September 2000.

Jennifer Zeng

Jennifer Zeng
Born	(1966-10-19)October 19, 1966 Sichuan, China
Nationality	Chinese
Alma mater	Peking University
Occupation(s)	Author, Activist

Jennifer Zeng (born October 19, 1966) is a mainland Chinese-born human rights activist and author, best known for her practice of Falun Gong, the subsequent government suppression of the movement, and the book she wrote about her experience regarding Falun Gong: Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman's Fight for Freedom and Falun Gong.

Early life and education

She was born in Sichuan province, which she later left to attend Peking University, where she earned a master of science degree in biochemistry.

Falun Gong

She became a practitioner of Falun Gong in 1997. Later, when the government of the People's Republic of China began to arrest people involved with the group, she was among them. She was in fact arrested four times, and sent to a labor camp, the Beijing Municipal Women's Re-Education-Through-Labor Camp, for rehabilitation. Zeng relates that at the camp she was physically and mentally abused, subject to attempted brainwashing and even faced electroshock treatment. She has also stated that while at the camp, on those days when there were visitors, she and the other detainees were forced to play cards or play basketball for the visitors to see.

Asylum and activism

In 2001, she fled to Australia, and now lives in Sydney as a refugee. Her daughter later followed her there for her own safety. Since arriving in Australia, she has spoken out about the Australian government's lack of protection of practitioners there, alleging that the government does not wish to insult or anger China. A specific instance which she recounted to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation involves how an official of the Chinese government once walked out of the Chinese embassy in Canberra and slapped a female Falun Gong practitioner on the face. The women responded that, in Australia, she had the right to be there and to continue practicing Falun Gong. The official responded saying that he was a Chinese diplomat. As such, no one particularly cared what he did, because Australia could not do much to him.

She published her book Witnessing History in 2005. The book describes the difficulties she has faced in practicing Falun Gong in China, and even since she left China. The book has been described by a reviewer in the Midwest Book Review as "a necessarily harsh assault on a nation that does not respect human rights", and by June Sawyers in Booklist as "an often harrowing, powerful reminder of what can happen when government power runs unchecked".

External links

• Speech delivered at Free Speech Society, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 4, 2007

John Liu

John C. Liu 劉醇逸
Liu at the 2009 West Indian Day Parade.
New York City Comptroller
Incumbent
Assumed office January 1, 2010
Mayor	Michael Bloomberg
Preceded by	Bill Thompson
Member of the New York City Council from the 20th District
In office January 2002 – January 2010
Preceded by	Julia Harrison
Succeeded by	Peter Koo
Constituency	Queens: Flushing, Queensboro Hill, Mitchell Gardens, Kissena Park, Harding Heights, Auburndale; part of Whitestone
Personal details
Born	(1967-01-08) January 8, 1967 Taiwan
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Jenny Liu
Children	Joey
Residence(s)	Flushing, New York, United States
Alma mater	Binghamton University
Profession	Politician
Website	Office of the Comptroller

John Carter/Falun Gong books
Traditional Chinese	劉醇逸
Simplified Chinese	刘醇逸
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Liú Chúnyì

John Chun Liu (born January 8, 1967 in Taiwan) is a New York City elected official, currently serving as New York City Comptroller and running for the 2013 mayoral race. Liu previously served on the New York City Council representing District 20. He was elected to the City Council in 2001 to represent northeast Queens, and was re-elected in 2003 and 2005.

Liu entered the New York City Comptroller election in 2009 and won the race on November 3, 2009, becoming the first Asian American to be elected to a city-wide office in New York City. He was succeeded in the City Council by pharmacist Democrat Peter Koo. Koo, along with Democrat Margaret Chin, a Council member from Manhattan, comprise the Asian-American delegation of the Council.

Liu's campaign fundraising practices are under investigation for violations of campaign finance law and possible use of foreign funds. Two individuals tied to the Liu campaign have been arrested on charges of wire fraud and obstruction of justice.

Biography

At the age of five, he moved with his family to the United States from Taiwan. Chang F. Liu, his father, was a Master of Business Administration student and bank teller who worked 12 hour days. In honor of John F. Kennedy, Liu's father changed his sons' names to John, Robert, and Edward, and his own name to Joseph. Although both his parents spoke Chinese, Liu cannot speak it himself.

He attended PS 20 in Queens and the Bronx High School of Science to 1985, doing community organizing and volunteer work in his spare time.

He attended Binghamton University where he majored in Mathematical Physics and graduated in 1988. He worked as a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers and served as President of the North Flushing Civic Association before his election to the City Council.

Liu is married to Jenny Liu, an engineer, and has one son, Joey. He resides in Flushing, near where he grew up.

Political career

Elected to the New York City Council in 2001 to represent District 20, the northeast Queens area (Flushing, Queensboro Hill, Mitchell Linden, Murray Hill, Holly, Kissena Park, Harding Heights, Auburndale, part of Whitestone), Liu is the first Asian American to be elected to the City Council. He served as the Chairperson of the New York City Council's Transportation Committee and also served on the committees on Education, Consumer Affairs, Health, Land Use, Contracts, Oversight & Investigations and Lower Manhattan Redevelopment.

In March 2009, Liu announced that he was running for the post of New York City Comptroller. Liu has raised $3 million for his political run, more than his competitors.

Beginning in May, Liu picked up several endorsements. The Village Independent Democrats, The Queens County Democratic organization, the local Americans for Democratic Action chapter and the Working Families Party, 1199 SEIU union local and the Uniformed Firefighters Association endorsed him. On September 1, the United Federation of Teachers endorsed Liu.

In the September 15 Democratic primary, Liu was the front-runner, ending up with 133,986 votes, or 38 percent of the vote. Because he did not manage to reach 40 of the vote, a run-off election was required between Liu and runner-up David Yassky, who received 30 percent of the vote in the primary. Two weeks later, Liu won the run-off by taking 55.6% of the vote against Yassky.

In the general election on November 3, Liu won the comptroller election with 76% of the vote, a total of 696,330 votes. Republican candidate Joseph Mendola came in second with 19.3% of the vote. After he was officially sworn in to the post, Liu became the first Asian American to hold a city-wide political office in New York City.

Asian Political Leadership Fund

Liu is one of the leaders of the Asian Political Leadership Fund, a federally-designated 527 fund whose purpose is to promote political leadership from within the Asian American community.

Controversy

Fundraising irregularities

Investigations into the fundraising practices of Liu's election campaigns found numerous irregularities, including the use of straw donors and undisclosed bundling. A New York Times article in October 2011 documented several inconsistencies: after canvassing 100 households that were listed as having donated to the campaign, 24 irregularities were found, including donations from individuals who claimed they never donated, whose employers donated in their names, and several purported donors who did not appear to exist and could not be found. Campaign finance laws stipulate that each individual donor must fill out donor cards themselves, and that individuals who "bundle" donations must be disclosed. Liu's donor records, however, did not disclose the identity of bundlers, and included multiple instances where several donor cards were written by the same hand. Many of the irregularities in Liu's campaign were connected to the Chinese business community in Queens. In New York City, every dollar donated to a candidate is matched with $6 in taxpayer money.

Following publication of the New York Times article, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating the irregularities in Liu's campaign. In November 17, 2011, one of Liu's fundraisers, 46-year-old Oliver Pan (潘心武, Pān Xīnwǔ), was arrested on charges of wire fraud from illegal donations. Pan was approached by an undercover FBI agent posing as someone who wanted to donate US$16,000 to Liu, which was over the city donation limit was only $4,950 for individual contributions. Pan then arranged for 20 fictitious donors to make donations to Liu's campaign with the money provided by the undercover FBI agent.

Initially in the first half of 2011 Liu has already received more than $1 million from fund raising contributions to his mayor run for supposedly 2013.

In light of the allegations of campaign finance fraud, Liu hired former state attorney general Robert Abrams to conduct a review of his campaign finances. However, in November 2011, Liu asked Abrams to suspend his inquiry in light of the ongoing FBI investigations. Abrams resigned on November 17.

In February 2012, a treasurer with the Liu campaign was arrested. 25-year-old Jenny (Jia) Hou was charged with using straw donors to circumvent campaign finance laws and gain more matching funds from taxpayers.

Foreign fundraising issue

In late 2009, Manhattan federal prosecutors launched an investigation into the possibility that foreign money had flowed illegally into Liu's campaign for comptroller.

Pan is the president of a company called "Golden Arrow Property" (金箭房地產有限責公司). Oliver Pan's office is in 35 East Broadway, New York room 506 handles finance, banking, insurance and real estate. He also has an office in Mendham New Jersey. Some people in the Chinese community believe Liu is being framed. Pan's funding activities extended beyond Liu, as he was listed as a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign. Ru Mei-hua (盧美華 Lú Měihuá), director of planning for John Liu, helped him rise from a councilman 10 years ago to a major political force mainly connecting Liu to a network of Asian American businessmen in NY. She has been considered a key to understanding the fund raising details from donors, but denied requests to be interviewed.

See also

• Government of New York City

External links

• Oliver Pan conspiracy to commit wire fraud complaints
• Animation on Donation controversy

External links

• Official New York City Comptroller Website
• Asian Political Leadership Fund

Li Hongzhi and His "Falun Gong"

Li Hongzhi and His "Falun Gong": Deceiving the Public and Ruining Lives

Li Hongzhi and His 'Falun Gong': Deceiving the Public and Ruining Lives is the title of a book published in China. Jiang Zemin gave a copy of the English language version of the book to then-President of the United States Bill Clinton after a meeting the two had in September 1999.

The book is roughly 150 pages in its English translation.

References

• "Clinton Given Falun Gong Book," AP Online, 12 September 1999.

Oracle Bones

Oracle Bones: A Journey between China's Past and Present

Author	Peter Hessler
Publisher	HarperCollins
ISBN	0060826584

References

• "100 noteworthy books from 2006," Charleston Gazette (WV), 31 December 2006.
• "2006: The Star's 100 noteworthy books," The Kansas City Star, 19 November 2006.
• Armstrong, David. "Finding their Niche in a Changing China," San Francisco Chronicle, 20 May 2006.
• Ascher-Walsh, Rebecca. "Oracle Bones," Entertainment Weekly, 28 April 2006, issue 874/875, p. 140.
• Associated Press. "Well-known authors are among finalists," The Miami Herald, 16 November 2006.
• "Author's pieces paint portrait of China today," The Virginian-Pilot, 25 June 2006.
• Banville, John. "Great Summer Reads," South China Morning Post, 30 July 2006.
• Barrett, T. H. "Imre Galambos: Orthography of Early Chinese Writing: Evidence from Early Chinese Manuscripts (Budapest Monographs in East Asian Studies 1.) viii, 184 pp. Budapest: Department of East Asian Studies, Eotvos Lorand University 2006, 963 463 811 2," Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, February 2007, volume 70, issue 1, pp. 186-187.
• Becker, Alida. "Red Highways," New York Times Book Review, 28 February 2010, p. BR.6.
• "Best Nonfiction 2006," The Christian Science Monitor, 28 November 2006.
• "Bestsellers List," The Times-Tribune, 23 May 2007.
• Blais, Jacqueline. "New in paper," USA Today," 7 June 2007.
• "Book bits - Gifted kids saving the world, a look at crimes against humanity, three books about childhood, and readers' picks," The Christian Science Monitor, 6 March 2007.
• Bosker, Bianca. "China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power," Far Eastern Economic Review, October 2007, volume 170, issue 8, pp. 74-75.
• Brayfield, Celia. "Get your kicks on route 312 - Travel," The Times (London), 30 June 2007.
• "China, past and present: Sifting the sediments," The Economist (London), 30 May 2006.
• "Chinadaily.com.cn: Migrant workers' moving stories," Chinadaily.com.cn, 4 August 2006.
• Clifford, Nicholas. "The Long March," Commonweal, 11 August 2006, volume 133, issue 14, pp. 26-28.
• Cribb, Tim. "Oracle Bones - A Journey Between China and the West," South China Morning Post, 28 January 2007.
• Dugdale, John. "The Guardian: Review: Non-fiction: Paperbacks: Oracle Bones: A Journey between China and the West, by Peter Hessler (John Murray, pounds 9.99)," The Guardian (London), 24 February 2007.
• Ermelino, Louisa. "Lost in Beijing," Publishers Weekly, 17 April 2006, volume 253, issue 16, pp. 26-27.
• Faison, Seth. "Books - China in the spotlight, and on the nightstand," St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN), 4 August 2008.
• "FEATURE - Best nonfiction 2008," The Anchorage Press (AK), 15 September 2008.
• Freeman, Jay. "Oracle Bones: A Journey between China's Past and Present," The Booklist, 15 April 2006, volume 102, issue 16, p. 23.
• Fung, Mark T. "Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present," The China Business Review, September/October 2005, volume 33, issue 5, p. 86.
• GateHouse News Service. "Your guide to beach-blanket books," The Holland Sentinel (MI), 10 July 2008.
• Gluckman, Ron. "Serve the People: A Stir-Fried Journey through China," Far Eastern Economic Review, November 2008, volume 171, issue 9, pp. 69-71.
• Hayford, Charles W. "China Rising Again," Library Journal, 15 August 2006, volume 131, issue 13, pp. n/a.
• Hayford, Charles W. "Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present," Library Journal, 15 April 2006, volume 131, issue 6, p. 93.
• "Honorable Mentions: 2006," New York, 18 December 2006, volume 39, issue 45, p. 63.
• Hoover, Bob. "Tomes on Dust Bowl, Neuroscience score with awards judges," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 21 November 2008.
• "The Irish Times: Paperbacks," Irish Times, 17 March 2007.
• Israel, Lynn. "Seeking a perfect gift?" Columbia Daily Tribune, 19 November 2006.
• Israel, Lynn. "Show me China," Columbia Daily Tribune, 22 April 2008.
• Italie, Hillel. "'Echo Maker' wins fiction prize," The Columbian (Vancouver), 19 November 2006.
• Italie, Hillel. "National Book Award nominees surprising," Press-Register (Mobile, AL), 15 October 2006.
• Italie, Hillel. "Powers wins book award," The Repository (Canton, OH0, 17 November 2006.
• Kagan, Richard C. "Nation on the Move," Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities, 30 April 2006.
• Laing, Olivia. "The Observer: Review: Books: Oracle Bones Peter Hessler John Murray pounds 9.99," The Observer (London), 18 February 2007.
• Lemieux, Kelly. "China surges on with new power," Rocky Mountain News, 9 June 2006.
• Lynch, David J. "'Oracale Bones': China Revealed," USA Today, 27 April 2008.
• Martin, Claire. "Hessler Awarded $500,000 GRANT - Man of 'Letters' nets big number," The Denver Post, 20 September 2011.
• McDonald, Hamish. "China's fast march - NONFICTION," The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 September 2007.
• McDonald, Hamish. "Rock star poets and revolutionary verse," The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 May 2007.
• Morrison, Don, Pico Iyer, Aryn Baker, Bryan Walsh, Peter Ritter, et. al. "10 Best Asian Books of 2006 (and the Year's Best Movies Too)," Time International, 25 December 2006/1 January 2007, volume 168, issue 26/27, p. 106.
• Mufson, Steven. "'Oracle Bones' excavates some gems," The Times (Trenton, NJ), 25 June 2006.
• Oon, Clarissa. "To Beijing, with love," The Straits Times, 24 August 2006.
• "Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Pst and Present," Kirkus Reviews, 1 March 2006.
• "Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present," Publishers Weekly, February 27, 2006, volume 253, issue 9, p. 45.
• Peters, Ed. "Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present," South China Morning Post, 30 April 2008.
• Pierleoni, Allen. "Summertime, and the reading is easy," The Sacramento Bee, 11 June 2006.
• Power, Brian - "The Forecast in Diaster," Spectator, 24 June 2006, volume 301, issue 9281, p. 40.
• Reading, Peter - "Oracle Bones (Book Review)," TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, 26 October 2001, issue 5143, p. 31.
• Restall, Hugo. "China: The Balance Sheet/Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present," Far Eastern Economic Review, July/August 2006, volume 169, issue 6, pp. 57-59.
• "Review: Holiday Reading: Summer books: What We'll be Reading," The Observer (London), 2 July 2006.
• "Review: Sunny spells," The Guardian (London0," 17 June 2006.
• Revzin, Mike. "China loosens its ties to the good earth," The Christian Science Monitor, 2 May 2006.
• Rue, Charlene R., Sara Maxine Taffae, Alicia Kathryn Ahlvers, Raymond W. Barber, et. al. "Notable Books: The 2007 Selection of Titles," Reference & User Services Quarterly, Summer 2007, volume 46, issue 4, pp. 49-51.
• "A scientific tale wins National Book Award," The Daily News (Batavia, NY), 18 NOvember 2006.
• "Social Sciences," Library Journal, 15 November 2009, volume 134, issue 19, p. 69.
• Spence, Jonathan. "Letters from China," New York Times Book Review, 30 April 2006, 7.11.
• Spurling, Hilary. "The Observer: Review: Books: CHINA: Of empires and dynasties," The Observer (London), 20 August 2006.
• "Star Tribune Best of 2006," Star Tribune: Newspaper of the Twin Cities, 26 November 2006.
• Strawn, John. "The payoff is slight in Jan Wong's 'A Comrade Lost and Found" At a loss in the new China," The Oregonian, 12 April 2009.
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• Thorn, Patti. "Book lover's Express rolls in," Rocky Mountain News, 9 December 2006.
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• Turakhia, Vikas. "New in paperback," The Express-Times (Easton, PA), 12 July 2007.
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• Williams, Graham. "In Short NonFiction," The Sunday Morning Herald, 24 June 2006.
• "Young China hand," South China Morning Post, 28 May 2006.
• Zoninsein, Manuela S. "Ming meets modernity in the shadow of a giant - CHINA HOLIDAYS," Weekend Australian, 26 July 2008.

Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution

Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution

Author	Ian Adams, Riley Adams, and Rocco Galati
Publisher	Stoddart Publishing Company
Publication date	2000
Pages	158+
ISBN	0773732705

Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution is a book published in 2000 about Falun Gong in China. "This volume offers a quickly written study of Falungong by and for non-specialists."

Authors

Of the authors, the only one who has any particular experience with China, its history and politics, or new religious movements in general is Rocco Galati, whose experience seems to have been limited to having "lived in China" earlier.

Content

The book contains four chapters.

The first chapter, which has been called the "most intriguing" one, "The Rise of Falun Gong," puts together a biography of Li Hongzhi. It indicates how "more than four decades of Chinese communism ... left [the] world's most populated country starved for a spiritual dimension to life."

The second chapter, "The Long Night of Falun Gong," focuses on the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese government. "The authors argue that the harsh policy against Falun Gong results from the personal political interests of Jiang Zeming, President of the PRC. Jiang needs to prove himself a strong leader and crushing Falun Gong serves this purpose. Falun Gong is, in this light, 'a timely political gift to Jiang.'"

The third chapter, "The Theories and Practices of Li Hongzhi," discusses Falun Gong as it is revealed in Li Hongzhi's books. "The authors discuss Li's theory of the "Law Wheel (falun)," and his frequent references to life beyond Earth, tracing the roots of Li's theories to Buddhism, Daoism, the qigong tradition and western myths such as the lost Atlantis."

The fourth chapter, "The Future of Falun Gong," presents the authors' opinions regarding the future of Falun Gong in China. This chapter "expresses pessimism that official hostility to the movement will not change in the near future, the west is unlikely to accept it, and, most importantly, the guru is not with his martyr-followers."

Reception

David Ownby said that the first half of the book "offers a competent overview of the rise of Falungong and its founder, Li Hongzhi, and of the first few months of the Chinese state's campaign to suppress Falungong." He goes on to say that while "one cannot expect Power of the Wheel to be a definitive source even on important details of the movement's history, ... the authors cover their topic with a minimum of distortion and a sure-handed grasp of many of the important issues." "The second half of the book, however, is either repetitive or irrelevant. The authors simply run out of material and resort to superficial generalizations about Chinese history and culture, or progrnostications about Falungong's and China's future (built on the superficial generalizations). The book is unsuitable for classroom use and too sloppy for specialists." Chao Shen-Yi says of the book, "Has the authors investigated just one of the stations [in Falun Gong's network], we would have a better idea how the network operates."The book also lacks footnotes. The last chapter "is slightly marred by sentences such as "China could never for one moment relax its vigilance or falter in its resolve to keep the world at bay. The Chinese have always thought that someone was out to get them" (p. 121). The authors use 'China" or 'the Chinese' when they really mean the policy of the Chinese government and comments like this become stereotypic." This book has also been said to adopt a "journalistic approach accompanied by a somewhat less objective tone" than later books like those by Ownby, Palmer, and Chang. Despite its drawbacks, "this book has collected valuable information and is written in a clever manner. It provides a useful introduction to Li Hongzhi and the theories behind Falun Gong. It is good reading for general readers who are interested in Chinese religious traditions and movements, and gives a contemporary account of how they conflict with the current Chinese state."

Bibliography

• Noakes, Stephen. "Falun Gong and the Future of China/Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China/Falun Gong: End of Days/Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult?/Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution," Pacific Affairs, June 2010, volume 83, number 2, pp. 349-357, 228-229.
• Y Ownby, David. "Power of the wheel: the Falun Gong revolution." International Journal, Spring 2001, volume 56. number 2, p. 369.
• Peerman, Dean. "China Syndrome," The Christian Century, 10 August 2004, volume 121, number 16, p. 28.
• Y Shin-Yi, Chao. "Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution," Pacific Affairs, Winter 2001/2002, volume 74, number 4, pp. 591-592.

Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China

Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China

Author	David A. Palmer
Publication date	2007
Pages	356
ISBN	0231140665

Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China is a book in which "Pamer (Chinese Univ. of Hong Kong) investigates the historical development of Qigong, a set of somatic, breathing, and meditation exercises that were extracted from traditional Chinese sources, such as Taoist inner alchemical and Buddhist practices."

Author

"Palmer himself practiced qigong at the beginning of this project."

Content

"There are many well-told and richly documented stories woven into this book: 'grandmasters' rose and fell, some going into exile after persuading vast numbers of devout followers with their incrediable claims: experts studied children with 'extraordinary powers' (telekinesis, seeing with the ears, changing the molecular composition of water in a sealed container); top leaders of the military, science, medicine, and sports sectors struggled among themselves to build the Qigong sector and fend off the attacks of skeptics; endless research associations were formed; and the 'evil cult' of Falungong, with its combination of kooky dogma and effective political confrontation, emerged, grew, and internationalized. All this and much more is gorgeously recounted and documented by Palmer.""At the outset of the book, Palmer announced his decision to follow the Qigong movement from a general and historical perspective, although he has practiced enough Qigong to recognize its power over his own experience of reality. As readers, we gain from this scholarly decision.""[Palmer] shows how eager the scientific establishment in China was to embrace Qigong." "Palmer tells the story of the qigong boom largely through the lens of four particular schools of qigong. Yan Xin's Yan Xin qigong, Zhang Hongbao's Zhonggong, Liu Shanglin's Zangmigong, and Li Hongzhi's Falun Gong. His detailed discussion of the high-level debates in the 1980s and 1990s concerning the suitability of qigong practice (which continued until the 25 April 1999 demonstration by the Falun Gong) provides a rich context for understanding the eventual showdown between the state and Falun Gong.""In the history of qigong in the People's Republic, Plamer argues that since the early 1950s the fate of qigong has been linked to the vicissitudes of CCP politics and China's political and social transformations.""Training manuals and a journal published internally by the popular group Zhonggong and newsletters from a denomination in Heilongjiang enrich discussion in Chapter 7 of the propogation and organisational strategies deployed by denominations."

Criticism

"Palmer insightfully analyzes how a secular health regimen became a mass charismatic religious movement that erupted into full-scale conflict with the state with the rise and repression of Falun Gong." "Palmer is an anthropologist, and his interpretation elucidates why many Chinese people were drawn to Falun Gong, and why the CCP is threatened by this movement." "This volume... [i]s a powerful historical, political, cultural, and sociological analysis of the Qigong movement and its relationship to the state.""It will be indispensible for religious studies, but perhaps more importantly, for Chinese studies, international relations, political science, and all researchers concerned with human rights and religious freedom.""Summing Up: Essential. All levels.""David Palmer shows definitively how such fevers should be studied. His meticulously researched and thoughtfully analyzed history demonstrates the intimate connections of apparently apolitical ideologies and experiences to the broadest struggles within the national government. He shows how the great 20th-century swing from Utopian socialism to the values of the free market made itself felt in the aspirations, beliefs, and miseries of millions of ordinary Chinese, especially those who turned to Qigon as they turned away from the socialist collective.""This nearly comprehensive history of the movement provides an extremely revealing perspective on reform-era culture in China, far beyond a narrow interest in self-cultivation and healing techniques." "Utopianism is a major theme of the book.""Palmer argues persuasively that the reform era was characterized by a general turn toward the personal; Qigong techniques 'could produce a radical transformation in the practitioner's relationship with his or her body and with the world, and a sense of connection with cosmic power that was absent in the alienated routines of disenchanted socialist-industrial culture' (p. 298). Meanwhile, national leaders in fields like 'somatic science' were able to envision a future in which Qigong would bridge the opposition between the material and the spiritual, the subjective and the objective, the whole and the part, and allow humankind to make an 'evolutionary leap, from the 'kingdom of necessity' to 'the kingdom of freedom' (p.111). Adepts of various kinds are quoted at length voicing their hopes for a vast evolutionary transformation of all humans, aided by the 'extraordinary powers' possible through Qigong.""Palmer meets many more goals with this study than can be discussed in this review. He shows how a focused study of a defunct fad in a faraway place can lead us to the largest cultural problems of modernity and knowledge. I intend to teach the book in courses on China, embodiment, science, and knowledge, and I would also recommend it for anthropologies of religion. For all these fields, Qigong Fever is an elegant model of how to learn from history.""David Palmer has produced a brilliant piece of scholarship on the qigong movement and a major contribution to our understanding of the politics of science, culture and religion in the People's Republic." "Palmer's work is pluridisciplinary-historical when reconstructing the origins of qigong in the 1950s, sociological when interpreting the appeal and activities of the major qigong [sic] schools, anthropological when carrying out fieldwork among qigong practitioners...."... [I]t is to be hoped that this excellent book reaches a wide readership, as it is an arresting reflection on how body, science, and Utopia can come together in China in a highly combustible form.""Palmer does a fine job of contextualizing the hostilities [[between the Chinese state and Falun Gong], showing them to be 'a dramatic turn in a story that has been unfolding since the first days of the People's Republic' (p.281)"."Palmer argues convincingly that the popularity of qigong was made possible not only by the charisma of masters and the appeal of popular movements, but also by extensive support for qigong from the media, military elites, and senior leaders of the State Council. The sustained interpenetration of the state and qigong denominations leads Palmer to conclude that "[t"he qigong episode... forces us to abandon a conflictual model that places state authority in opposition to the autonomy of individuals and popular groups" (p. 292); here he agrees with recent studies of Chinese civil society. This is not the only trope to be problematised by Palmer's work. In revealing coexistence, interpenetration and, in some cases, intedependence, he encourages the reader to question any insistence on opposing tradition and modernity, or science and the mystico-spiritiaul.""The book is well researched and uses a wealth of Chinese-language materials.""...Palmer's work benefits from the fact that he began his research several years prior to the crackdown on Falun Gong."

Bibliography

• Cohen, Kenneth S. "Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China." American Ethnologist, volume 36, issue 1, p. 205.
• Dunn, Emily. "Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China." Asian Studies Review, September 2008, volume 32, number 3, pp. 431-432.
• Y Farquhar, Judith. "Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China." American Anthropologist, March 2009, volume 111, number 1, pp. 121-122.
• Lim, Chee-Han. "Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China." The China Journal, 1 January 2008.
• Noakes, Stephen. "Falun Gong and the Future of China/Qigong Fever: Body, Science and Utopia in China/Falun Gong: End of Days/Falun Gong's Challenge to China: Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult?/Power of the Wheel: The Falun Gong Revolution," Pacific Affairs, June 2010, volume 83, number 2, pp. 349-357, 228-229.
• Y Ownby, David. "Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China," Pacific Affairs, Winter 2007/2008, volume 80, number 4, pp. 970-971.
• Phillips, Mary. "Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China by David A. Palmer," Review of Religious Research, September 2007, volume 49, number 1, pp. 101-102.
• Y Reece, G. J. "Qigong fever: body, science, and utopia in China." Choice, November 2007, volume 45, number 3, pp. 487.
• Sivin, Nathan. "Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopica in China. (Book review)" Journal of Social History, Summer 2009, pp. 1069-1071.
• Thornton, Patricia M. Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China." History of Religions, volume 49, issue 4, p. 426.

The Religion of Falun Gong

The Religion of Falun Gong

Revenge of the Forbidden City

Revenge of the Forbidden City: The suppression of Falungong in China, 1999-2005

Author	James W. Tong
Publisher	Oxford University Press
Publication date	2009
Pages	288
ISBN	9780195377286
LC Class	BP 605

Revenge of the Forbidden City: The Suppression of Falungong in China, 1999-2005 is a book relating the history of the Falun Gong spiritual movement from 1999 to 2005. It indicates the government's goal in its actions was not just to stop public activities of Falun Gong, but also to convert those who had come to accept its principles, and indicates the numerous and diverse means it employed to do so.

Contents

The book is in ten chapters. The first chapter describes the 1999 demonstration at Zhongnanhai, and the government's immediate preparation to suppress Falun Gong. It follows with two chapters about the internal political processes which led to the banning of Falun Gong in China and the crackdown on its practitioners. Chapter 4 discusses the government's media campaign against the movement and its teachings. The following chapter relates the efforts of the state to get people to leave Falun Gong, through methods ranging from persuasion to incarceration. The next two chapters describe the organizational structure created by the government for the suppression of Falun Gong and the national, regional, and local levels. The following two chapters evaluate the success of the government's campaign. The final chapter presents "the well-planned and well-executed suppression of the Falun Gong as clear evidence of the detremination and power of the party leadership when challenged." Although the government does not use its totalitarian capabilities often, they still have them.

Reception

The book was recommended for advanced research collections in contemporary China.

Bibliography

• Laliberte, Andre. "Hands in prayer shackled by state," Times Higher Education, 25 March 2010, issue 1940, p. 52.
• Lowe, Scott. "Review: Revenge of the Forbidden City: The Suppression of the Falungong in China, 1999-2005" Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, May 2012, volume 15, number 4, pp.124-125.
• Nathan, Andrew J. "Recent books on International Relations: Asia and Pacific: Piracy and the State: The Politics of Intellectual Property Rights in China/Revenge of the Forbidden City: The Suppression of Falungong in China, 1999-2005," Foreign Affairs, March/April 2010, volume 89, number 2, pp. 172-173.
• Ownby, David. "[untitled]," Perspectives on Politics, June 2010, volume 8, number 2, pp. 652-654.
• Peek, J. M. "Revenge of the forbidden city: the suppression of the Falungong in China, 1999-2005." Choice, May 2010, volume 100, number 11, p. 938.

Sandstorm

Sandstorm
Directed by	Michael Mahonen
Written by	Michael Mahonen
Produced by	Rebecca Boudreau Michael Mahonen
Starring	Lili Li Angela Huang Steve Hong Cheng Guang
Edited by	Danielle Zhu David Chai Corban Hu
Production companies	Requisite Films New Tang Dynasty Films
Distributed by	Wildcat Releasing
Release date	January 1, 2004 (2004-01-01) (NYIFVF)
Running time	76 minutes
Country	Canada
Language	Mandarin
Budget	$5,000

Sandstorm is a 2009 Canadian drama film written, directed, produced, and casted by Michael Mahonen. The film was first produced and screened at festivals beginning in 2004 but was not commercialy released until 2009. It has been described as a "parable about China's crackdown on the spiritual movement Falun Gong".

Plot

"The film is prefaced by title cards that explain how, throughout history, mankind has had to pay the price for its shortsightedness and inhumanity through natural and man-made disasters that have come as a direct response to bad behavior." The film "follows the metaphysical awakening of Hetian Ying (Rong Tian), a midlevel police officer trapped in his home by a 12-day sandstorm. With no water or power, dwindling food supplies and a sick wife (Zeng Ziyu), Hetian is haunted by a missing daughter and flashbacks to his brutal interrogration of a schoolteacher charged with being an adherent of the spiritual movement Falun Gong." "'I expect to see deaths,' says Hetian’s superlatively ugly superior, insisting on a daily quota of spiritual 'transformations.' It’s clear from the beginning, however, who will be transformed and who will not."

Cast

• Lili Li as The Practitioner
• Angela Huang as Young Policewoman
• Steve Hong as Supervisor
• Cheng Guang as Young Policeman
• Rong Tian as Hetian Ying
• Zeng Ziyu as Tong Mou
• Annie Li as Mei Mei

Production

"The pic was reportedly produced for less than $5,000, and it looks it." Mahonen, "like the majority of his cast and crew, is a Falun Gong practitioner". "Special effects are limited to jaundiced shots of buried cars and sand-barred buildings, while the indoor setting and focus on advocacy over action inspire claustrophobia and spurts of melodrama". As John Anderson said in Daily Variety Gotham, "... Michael Mahonen seems more intent on creating a pro-Falun Gong message than in converting the skeptical -- or anyone looking for plausible storytelling."

Release

The film screened at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in 2004 and the Long Island International Film Expo in 2005. It was released in New York on Sepetember 4, 2009.

Reception

"Mahoney's movie is preaching to the choir, and even they might have a problem." "Admittedly, followers of Falun Gong will revel in the vicarious vengeance wrought against Beijing via bad-karma-fueled weather,... Finding a crossover aud, however, will be no day at the beach for the pic, which opens Sept. 4, more than five years after first hitting the fest circuit."

Critical response

A review in The Epoch Times, which has been tied to Falun Gong, described the film as "a compelling and ultimately uplifting film" which "accurately and sensitively portrays the dire situation in post 1999 mainland China, following the order from former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin to systematically wipe out the popular practice."

Awards and nominationss

• 2004, won Grand Jury Prize for 'Best Director' at New York International Independent Film & Video Festival
• 2005, won Humanitarian Film Award at Long Island International Film Expo

References

• The Village Voice
• Variety Aug 20 2009
• NYC Movie Guru
• Epoch Times Jun 17, 2004
• Epoch Times Sep 13, 2004
• Honolulu Advertiser (subscription required)
• NDTV Sep 18 2009 (Mandarin)
• Renminbao Oct 30 2004 (Mandarin)
• Epoch Times Nov 5 2004 (Mandarin)
• Epoch Times Mar 8 2006
• Creative Loafing Tampa Sep 15 2004
• Roanoke Times Apr 13 2005
• Epoch Times Nov 14 2004
• Epoch Times Oct 1 2004 (Mandarin)
• Epoch Times Oct 28 2004 (Mandarin)

• Y Anderson, John. "Sandstorm," Daily Variety Gotham, 25 August 2009, p. 37.
• Y Catsoulis, Jeannette. "Weathering Memories of Rough Interrogation," New York Times, 4 September 2009, p. 8. [2]
• Lee, Nathea. "CamNCon: Michael Mahones, the Film Maker (Sandstorm), [3]
• Savitz, Masha. "Sandstorm - A Story of Reckoning, Repentance, and Redemption." The Epoch Times, 2 September 2009.
• [4]

Sima Nan

Sima Nan

References

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• Bay, Fang. "China, at 50, on a long march to modernity," U. S. News & World Report, 4 October 1999, volume 127, issue 13, pp. 35-36.
• Bay, Fang. "A Chinese taste of that new-time religion," U. S. News & World Report, 22 February 1999, volume 126, issue 7, p. 46.
• Becker, Jasper. "Report of second sect crackdown rejected," South China Morning Post, 20 August 1999.
• Becker, Jasper. "Witch hunters sense victory: Anti-Falun Gong activists hail Beijing's crackdown," South China Morning Post, 8 August 1999.
• "Beijing cult-buster aids Canadian embassy," Globe & Mail (Toronto, Canada), 31 January 2000.
• Bodeen, Christopher. "China restricting political websites amid scandal," AP Worldstream, 21 March 2012.
• Chan, Cheris Shun-ching. "The Falun Gong in China: A sociological perspective," The China Quarterly, September 2004, issue 179, pp. 665-683.
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• "China Daily: Doctor faces new challenge after fast," China Daily (Beijing), 10 May 2004.
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• Pinghui, Zhuang. "'Even Hollywood movies cannot compare to this'", South China Morning Post, 12 April 2012.
• Pomfret, John. "China Girds For a Battle Of the Spirit: Ruling Party Fears Religious Challenge," The Washington Post, 10 January 2000.
• Pomfret, John. "Chinese leaders fear rise of spiritual fervor," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (PA), 25 July 1999.
• Pomfret, John. "Cracks in China's Crackdown: Falun Gong Campaign Exposes Leadership Woes," The Washington Post, 12 November 1999.
• Pomfret, John. "Many People in China Search For a Plce to Put Their Faith," The Washington Post, 23 July 1999.
• Randi, James. "Million Dollar Madness (Brief Article)," Skeptic (Altadena, CA), 22 September 1999.
• Randi, James. "'Twas brillig... Million dollar madness," Skeptic (Altadena, CA), 1 January 1999.
• "Rights-China: Religious Sect Now the 'Evil Enemy,'" INter Press Service English News Wire, 4 November 1999.
• Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "Falun Gong's chief critic is no simple government toady," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 22 November 1999.
• Schoof, Renee. "China keeps up heat on banned sect, adding a new weapon - comic books," Associated Press Archive, 20 August 1999.
• Schoof, Renee. "China Turns to Comic Book to Fight Sect," The Charlotte Observer (NC), 21 August 1999.
• Schoof, Renee. "China Uses Comics Vs. Banned Sect," AP Online, 20 August 1999.
• Schoof, Renee. "Comics Ridicule Falun Gong Sect," Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA), 22 August 1999.
• "Slowly fasting," Beijing Review, 3 June 2004, volume 47, issue 22, pp. 44-45.
• Spencer, Richard. "The Daily Telegraph: China casts off a century of shame," The Daily Telegraph (London), 2 August 2008.
• "A Star Turn for China's Cult Buster," The New York Times, 20 November 1999.
• Taylor, Ron. "World Week," The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA), 12 May 2004.
• "Top Hit: Top 10 Blog Postings on Bokee.com," China Daily, 3 February 2007.
• UFOria, Bigfoot Grip Beijing as China Delves Into Unknown," Herald News (West Paterson, NJ), 19 April 2000.
• "U.S.-China: Religious Cult Defies Communist Crackdown," Inter Press Service English News Wire, 29 October 1999.
• "Will the Real Qi Please Stand Up?", Skeptical Inquirer, September 2000.
• Wiseman, Paul. "Falun Gong stays quietly defiant China's ban fails to kill movement," USA Today, 29 October 1999.
• Xu, Jian. "Body, discourse, and the cultural politics of contemporary Chinese qigong," The Journal of Asian Studies, November 1999, volume 58, issue 4, pp. 961-991.

South of the Clouds

South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China

Author	Seth Faison

References

• Baird, Susan G. "South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China (Book)," Library Journal, 1 October 2004, volume 129, issue 16, p. 102.
• Cohen, George. "South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China," The Booklist, 1 October 2004, volume 101, issue 3, pp. 296-297.
• Johnson, Ian. "South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China," Far Eastern Economic Review, January/February 2005, volume 168, issue 2, pp. 69-70.
• Lindell, Kristina. "Book reviews." Asian Folklore Studies, 1996, volume 55, issue 2, p. 363+.
• "New books," New York Review of Books," 21 April 1994, volume 41, issue 8, p. 41+.
• "South of the Clouds: Exploring the Hidden Realms of China (Book)," Publishers Weekly, 6 September 2004, volume 251, issue 36, p. 57.
• Spring, Madeline K. "Book reviews: China," Journal of Asian Studies, August 1997, volume 56, issue 3, pp. 773+.
• Weinberg, S. "Books of 2004," Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, January/February 2005, volume 28, issue 1, pp. 8-17.

Wild Grass

Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China

Author	Ian Johnson
Publisher	Pantheon
Publication date	2004
Pages	336
ISBN	0375421866
LC Class	323

Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China is a 2004 book by Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Ian Johnson. The book details the stories of three ordinary citizens of China whom the Chinese government considered nuisances, and whose treatment by the government indicates the Chinese government's nervousness at the least manifestation of opposition.

Contents

The book is divided into three sections, each telling the story of one individual.

Ma Wenlin

Ma Wenlin is a self-taught lawyer who represented farmers in lawsuits against the government regarding the government's tax rake-offs. At the time of publication, Ma Wenlin was serving time in prison.

Zhang Xueling

Zhang Xueling petitioned the government for information relating to the death of her mother, a Falun Gong practitioner, while she was in police custody.

Fang Ke

Fang Ke was at the time an architectural student who opposed the raising of historic buildings in Beijing.

Reception

Johnson is described as focusing "each personal story on the courageous decision to oppose rather than acquiesce to the caprices of officialdom. Johnson is described as a perceptive observer, who "ably depicts the personal cost borne by individuals subjected to the authoritarian policies of the communist regime." The book has been described as "accessible, engaging background reading for sophisticated researchers." In comparison to Ownby's Falun Gong and the Future of China, Jonathan Mirsky said, "There is a better book on Falun Gong inside China: Ian Johnson's 'Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China.' This book is based on Mr. Johnson's courageous tracking of Falun Gong for which he received a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Often far from Beijing, where other reporters rarely venture, Mr. Johnson uncovered the lives and fates of a handful of ordinary Falun Gong members. Not only do they come alive on the page, but Mr. Johnson makes most of Mr. Ownby's main points. Many Chinese wonder, Mr. Johnson observes, 'why people bothered to stand up for something they believe in.' But as an ordinary working man confided, 'No one can talk about these things. But a lot of people know.'"

Bibliography

• Blecher, Marc. "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China," The China Quarterly, June 2005, issue 182, pp. 435-437.
• Bork, Ellen. "Asian Blues," The Weekly Standard, 19 July 2004, volume 9, issue 42, pp. 34-36.
• Chanda, Nayan. "The Longer March: Hidden heroes fight for the rights they've been promised." The Washington Post, 11 April 2004.
• Geracimos, Ann. "Vermont hike, Irish diaspora, China. (BOOKS)" The Washington Times, 11 April 2004.
• Gilley, Bruce. "China Hands; Wild Grass Books/Nonfiction." International Herald Tribune, 26 May 2004.
• Grage, Doris. "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China." The China Business Journal, 1 November 2004.
• Hillman, Ben. "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China," The China Journal, January 2006, number 55, p. 185.
• Hilton, Isabel. "People power." New Statesman (1996). 29 August 2005.
• Kennedy, Scott. "Divining China's Future. (Book Review)" World Policy Journal, 22 December 2004.
• Levine, Steven I. "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China," Library Journal, 1 February 2004, volume 129, issue 2, p. 110.
• Mirsky, Jonathan. "Chinese whispers," TLS, the Times Literary Supplement, 27 August 2004, issue 5291, page 11.
• Pye, Lucian W. "[untitled]," Foreign Affairs, March-April 2004, volume 83, number 2, p. 174.
• Rotella, Mark, Sarah F. Gold, Lynn Andriani, Michael Scharf, and Emily Chenoweth. "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China," Publishers Weekly, 12 January 2004, volume 251, issue 2, page 43.
• Saich, Tony. "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China," The Journal of Asian Studies, May 2005, volume 64, number 2, pp. 445-446.
• "Season's Readings." The Boston Globe. 26 November 2004.
• "Small signs of political reform in China; Three stories of ordinary Chinese citizens inspired to take up local activism demonstrate the challenges of reforming the world's largest country.(FEATURES)(BOOKS)". The Christian Science Monitor, 29 June 2004.
• Taylor, Gilbert. "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China." The Booklist, 1 February 2004, volume 100, number 11, p. 938.
• Whittaker, Peter, Louise Gray, Malcolm Lewis, Chris Brazier. "Wild Grass: China's Revolution from Below. (Brief Article)(Book Review)". New Internationalist, 1 September 2005.
• "Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China," Kirkus Reviews, 15 December 2003.

Witnessing History

Witnessing History - One Woman's Fight for Freedom

Author	Jennifer Zeng
Publisher	Soho; Allen & Unwin
Pages	368
ISBN	1569474214
Dewey Decimal	323,44

Witnessing History - One Woman's Fight for Freedom is an autobiographical book of the author's life in China, her involvement with Falun Gong, and the Chinese government's efforts to eradicate Falun Gong in China. "[I]n 'Witnessing History,' Zeng provides a rare first-person record of a controversial period in recent Chinese history, and remains throughout staggeringly humble."

Contents

The book relates that the author became a practitioner of Falun Gong after having been cured of the Hepatitis C she received as a result of a blood transfusion. "Zeng, an investment consultant, turned to falun gong after the difficult birth of her daughter and a botched medical procedure left her weakened and depressed." "The practice improved her health and outlook almost immediately." "Like other practitioners, Zeng couldn't believe the government would go as far as it did to crack down on something so seemingly harmless and beneficial, until she found herself under arrest in 2000." She was placed in a detention center three times, and then a re-education through labor facility for almost a year. Sleep deprivation, beatings, sometimes at the hands of other prisoners, and electrocutions were common at the camp. "After stubborn resistance for a year, Zeng finally pretended to 'reform,' and when released, managed to escape to Australia." There is also an description of a "horrifying account of violent force-feeding while prisoners were on a hunger strike." The book offers "a hair-raising first-person look at China's brutal concentration camps (Zeng spent a year in one), where prisoners were beaten, electrocuted, deprived of sleep, forced into hard labor and subjected to constant 'reform' propaganda, aka brainwashing."

Reception

"... Zeng delivers a straightforward account of the Chinese's government's suppression of Falun Gong that began in the mid-1990s and continues today>" "While she declares her story personal, the well-researched text propels the book beyond mere memoir." Her early life is treated with "unwieldy speed - Zeng's adoption of Falun Gong, and her resulting awakening, receive a scant 20 pages - once she's in detainment, her writing is redolent with detail>" "Her accounts of daily injustices are heartbreakingly frank." "Zeng is described as being an evangelist for Falun Gong, and the evangelism in the book can be off-putting. But the reader "can only be outraged by China's blatant abuse of human rights."The book's descriptions of the author's abuse and torture at the hands of the Chinese government "constitutes an often harrowing, powerful reminder of what can happen when government power runs unchecked." The material that carries the greatest emotional weight is the author's description of her own, internal, struggles between repudiating Falun Gong, in which she strongly believed, and getting released, or her commitment to telling the truth. In the book, the author is unflinching in her judgment of her own behavior. "Throughout her narrative, one can trace the trail of political and personal growth: Her drive to share her experience leads her to fake a reform, flee China, and seek asylum in Australia. It is a remarkable, believable evolution."

While it does not provide definitive answers to questions about the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong or the determination of Falun Gong practitioners to defy the government, it does shed some light on the issues involved and also offer a "hair-raising first-person look at China's brutal concentration camps." "China watchers should be attentive to this simply written but invaluable report from the front."

Bibliography

• Bradley, James. "Fight for freedom to believe - REVIEW," The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 June 2005.
• Burke, Kelly. "Cute toy rabbits belie ordeal of Chinese labour camps," The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 December 2001.
• Forbes, Cameron. "Persecuted for believing," Weekend Australian, 16 March 2002.
• GR. "Five by Five," Newcastle Herald (Australia), 10 May 2006.
• Y Hanus, Julie. "Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman's Fight for Freedom," Utne, May/June 2006, issue 135, p. 28.
• "Harrowing Ordeal," Inner-West Weekly, 21 April 2005.
• Kaye, Lorien, Owen Richardson, and Dianne Dempsey. "For Kids/Memoir/Fantasy/Non-fiction/Journalism/Memoir." The Age, 16 April 2005.
• McMillan, Alister. "Zheng Zeng - Writers from China's diaspora." South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 27 November 2005.
• Neill, Rosemary. "The Face," Weekend Australian, 26 February 2005.
• Oberg, Terry. "A state of torture." The Courier Mail, 12 March 2008.
• Sawyers, June. "Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman's Fight for Freedom." The Booklist, 15 February 2006, volume 102, number 12, page 40.
• Sprogis, Elvira, ed. "Bestsellers - books," Newcastle Herald (Australia), 14 May 2009.
• "Witnessing History. (Brief article)(Book review)" Internet Bookwatch, 1 January 2008.
• "Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman's Fight for Freedom," Kirkus Reviews, 1 May 2006.
• Y "Witnessing History: One Chinese Woman's Fight for Freedom." Publishers Weekly, 30 January 2006, volume 253, issue 5, page 48.

Zhuan Falun

Zhuan Falun

Author	Li Hongzhi

Zhuan Falun (Turn the dharma wheel) is the primary scripture of Falun Gong movement launched by Li Hongzhi at January 4, 1995. "When Zhuan falun appeared in 1994 it was published and distributed by China Television Broadcasting Publishing Company. The unveiling ceremony for the publication of Zhuan falun took place in January 1995 in the auditorium of the University of Public Security in Beijing."

"While practitioners grant Zhuan Falun a primacy among all Li's textual productions, as he instructs, his other writings and speeches proliferate and are continuously being translated. In this, Falun Gong resembles many new religions where priority is given to preserving all the Master's words without discrimination."

Content

Penny quotes Li explanation about the way the book was created from edited version of his lectures:

All of it is my words, every sentence is my words, and they were transcribed from the tape recordings word by word, and copied down word by word. It was done with the help of my disciples and students. They transcribed my words from the recordings, and then I revised the book over and over again.

"The book is made up of 9 "lectures" of "talks" (depending on translation). Each one is subdivided into between five and ten sections.": According to Penny "Li's lecturing style was not lucid... he raises topics only to drop them, and then repeats what he said in a later place and in a different context. Li digresses, tells anecdotes whose relevance is often unclear, and jumps between apparently unrelated issues." Penny says Li would respond "the issues he is discussing cannot be restricted by small-minded, mundane, and merely human considerations of clarity and structure." Li says in the book that reading it is as powerful as "attending one of the lectures, since his power imbues it. He says specifically that it will help to open a practitioner's Celestial Eye, and assist a practitioner in giving up smoking, and can be used to consecrate a Buddha statue." With an open Celestial Eye one would see each word in the book is a Buddha and in English translation Saint Mary or Jesus.

Reception

[In 1996] "Established bookstores and small book carts throughout Beging sold Li's text... Such a publication followed the1990s boom in qigong text which are reminiscent of early sectarian traditions of baozhuan (precious volumes)." By 1996 the magnum opus "became a runaway bestseller" and Falun Gong "claimed millions of followers throughout mainland China". 1992-1994 public lectures were profitable for Li personally, and the book was a financial success for Falun Gong. Initially the authorities supported and funded Falun Gong organization central and regional branches ("stations") which sold the book. "An article appeared in Guangming Ribao on June 17, 1996, which took Zhuan Falun as an example of the growing number of publications since 1992 that could be described as "feudal superstition" (fengijan mixin) and "pseudoscience" (wei kexue)." The book was banned in 1996 by the authorities "the sales continued underground through agents purportedly authorized by Li himself." From ban till April 1999 the director of Wuhan chapter sold "millions of Falun Gong books and audiovisual products".