Minghui Online tells lies about my wife’s death

My name is Suo Wubin and I’m 62 years old, a retired worker of LYC Bearing Corporation based in Luoyang, Henan Province. I live at Tonglezhai Village of Jianxi District in Luoyang and my wife is Liu Xiangzhen. She died of myocardial infarction on January 7, 2009, at the age of 60.

The death of my wife made the entire family sad and I cried a lot those days. But before the first anniversary of my poor wife’s death and when I was still in mourning, Minghui Online published an article about my deceased wife and me with fabricated facts, which salted at my green wound. I think they take me as the cannon fodder in the name of making bitter complaints for my wife and me.

Here is the screenshot of the article published on Minghui Online:

After my wife Liu Xiangzhen passed away on January 7, 2009, Suo Xiaoxia, my eldest daughter, asked me to live with her for a while so that I wouldn’t be lonely. One day in middle October that year, I was taking a walk on Songshan Road in Jianxi District, a fellow practitioner surnamed Mei saw me and shouted at me: “Old Suo, come over here.” At a corner of wall, after looking around nervously she taking out a leaflet from her pocket and said in a low voice: “Minghui Online has an article about you and your wife.” “What did they say?” I asked. She put the leaflet into my hand and said: “Here you are, take it home and read it yourself.” Then she hurried away.

After reading the article, I was shocked. “Oh my, how can they tell such lies and stir up trouble? I can speak out of conscience that the things they put down in the article are nothing but nonsense.”
My wife Liu Xiangzhen had suffered hypertension and heart disease. She had taken drugs and injections but was not cured completely and she had always been weak. In early 1999, she got to know Falun Gong and heard that Falun Gong could “remove illness and build up health”, help you to “be a good person”, and make you “reach Consummation”. Under the deception and spiritual control of Falun Gong, she became obsessed with it and regarded it more important than her own life. During her practicing of Falun Gong, she had heart attacks sometimes and when our children took her to hospital, she would sit cross-legged and shouted at them: “The disciples of Dafa are afraid of nothing and we can purify our body by practicing and removing karma.” If she got better, she attributed the credit to Falun Gong and would do whatever she believed right for Falun Gong. In order to show her determination to achieve further advancement and her devotion to the “Master”, she would save money from groceries to buy a large amount of books, CDs, badges, and pictures about Falun Gong and join other fellow practitioners in distributing pamphlets. She had been so obsessed with it.

To be honest, under the influence of my wife, I also believed in Falun Gong at that time. And I retired and had nothing to do at home, feeling empty and lonely. So I participated in the practice, too. After the government banned Falun Gong as a cult, I used to tell others this was unfair and unjust.

At half past nine on the evening of January 7, 2009, my wife had a heart attack. She lay on bed, sweating a lot. Her face was pale and her body was shaking. She had difficulty in breathing and the children decided to send her to hospital. But I prayed in silence: “Master, please bless your disciple, please bless my wife Liu Xiangzhen.”

Things got worse and our children called 120 for ambulance. The Affiliated Hospital of Henan University of Science and Technology sent an ambulance and my son, three daughters, and two nephews accompanied my wife to hospital. At half past ten on the evening of January 7 and one hour after she reached the hospital, my wife passed away. Suo Zhongxin, one of my nephews asked the doctor about the cause of death and the doctor told him: “She had coronary heart disease and she wouldn’t have died if she took medicine on a regular basis.”

Our son and daughters cried after losing their mother and Suo Xiaoxia, our eldest daughter, cried over her mother’s body: “Mom, Falun Gong killed you.”

But, instead of being a responsible organization, Falun Gong published an article on Minghui Online and blamed the CPC and the government for the death of my wife. Minghui Online published such an article without investigation to deceive the public; I don’t know why they would do such a thing. I used to be a “disciple of Dafa” and we should be honest about things so as to take things as they really are. I felt ashamed of and angry at the fabrication and malicious lies that Minghui Online has told.

Firstly, I’m responsible in saying that it is a fact that Liu Xiangzhen had practiced Falun Gong for a long time. I know it, my family knows it, and some fellow practitioners and neighbors know it. But neither my wife nor I had been punished by law or received any disciplinary punishment. We hadn’t met with any officials in Jianxi District and no governmental official had visited us at home. Then, how can the “evil CPC harass and threaten” us? How can the “evil CPC persecute her to death”?

Secondly, the article published on Minghui Online said they “searched for and confiscated by force” all the books and things about “Dafa” but that was not the truth. My beloved wife passed away and I started to doubt about Falun Gong for the first time. At the mentioning of their mother, my son and daughters said it was Falun Gong that had killed their mother. So they wanted to burn all the books, materials, and CDs; but I stopped them. I wanted to keep these things in memory of her. After my wife passed away, I cried a lot at seeing the books she had read before. Son and daughters didn’t want to see me so sad and, with my approval, Suo Xiaoxia my eldest daughter and Suo Hongwei my son contacted with the Village Committee of Tonglezhai for the handing in of all the books, materials, CDs, and other things about Falun Gong through them to superior authority. What I say are facts and my son, my daughters, my nephews, and the village committee can all testify for me. The fact is that we were willing to turn in the books and materials and Minghui Online told a lie about their “confiscating by force”. I don’t know what the source is for this that Minghui Online depends on.

Thirdly, as a former “disciple of Dafa”, I have several questions for “Master” Li Hongzhi and Minghui Online:

The first question is: Liu Xiangzhen, my wife, had practiced Falun Gong for ten years and followed the requirements of “Master” Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong on “making further advancement and real cultivation”, doing good things and accumulating virtue. She practiced hard from early morning to late at night. But why hadn’t she “remove karma” and purify body but died miserably of illness at an early age?

The second question is: Liu Xiangzhen, my wife, had practiced Falun Gong for years and followed the instructions of “Master” Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong on “publicizing Fa”, “clarifying truth”, and “saving people”. She usually went out at night to distribute pamphlets at the risk of violating the state laws. When she was dying, where was the “numerous law bodies” of “Master”? If you don’t protect such a devoted disciple as Liu Xiangzhen, what kind of people will you protect?

The third question is: Liu Xiangzhen, my wife, died of illness and that’s a fact. Why will Minghui Online make use of a deceased person to deceive others and to blame the CPC and the government for it? What’s your real intention?

The fourth question is: I was willing to go to the law education class and it helped me to tell right from wrong, to get rid of the obsession with Falun Gong, and to experience the warm feelings in this world. I wonder where the author of the article published on Minghui Online got the news about taking me by force to the “brainwashing class”. What do you really want?

(Kaiwind, February 12, 2010)

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Data/02/201102/t124930.htm 

 

Cang Dingjie becomes psychotic due to Falun Gong

Wang Wanying, 61 years old, lives in Panhuang Town in Yandu District, Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province. Cang Dingjie, her son, had gone so far after practicing Falun Gong that he made both his parents and neighbors panic by threatening to kill them. Here’s the account by Wang Wanying:

Cang Dingjie used to be such a good boy, obedient, thoughtful, smart, and diligent. He was admitted into Suzhou Institute of Silk Textile Technology in 1989 and it was a big event at the village at that time. All the villagers were happy for him. At his graduation in 1993, Cang Dingjie started to work at Yancheng Huamao Composite Silk Factory. He was a responsible,diligent and professional young man, receiving not only the approbations of factory director and section chief, but also awards every year.

In 1997, Cang Dingjie met with Falun Gong. He studied very hard every day, reading those books in blue cover, lots of them. He told us that he bought them from Xinhua Book Store. We thought he was preparing for the self-study examination. But later on, his father heard it from others that my son was practicing Falun Gong. We talked to him and said he should concentrate on the self-study examination. But he said: “These are good books; after I practice it, I don’t have to see doctor when I fall ill, for the Fashen of my Master will protect me.” Just like that, he read these bad books, sit cross-legged and went out to do those things day and night. He refused to work anymore, often saying that “going up to higher level”, “going to heaven”, and “achieving Consummation”, and he was only in his 20s at that time. None of us could understand him.

Shortly after, we found that he stopped reading newspapers and watching TV. He usually got up to practice at midnight and slept during daytime. I talked to him and he said: “You ordinary people don’t understand it, I do what the Master tells me to do.” He said our level was too low and he would bring us up to higher levels, telling us to read the books about Falun Gong together with him. I said, “I’m unlettered, how can I read your books?” He said: “I’ll teach you. Only Falun Gong can make people achieve Consummation, achieveAscension in Broad Daylight, and help people remove all kinds of diseases. I had poor vision because of my karma. Look at me, I don’t have to wear glasses to see people clearly now.”

He had always been ill ever since he started to practice Falun Gong and refused to take any medicine, telling me that he would recover by practicing and he didn’t need doctors with “the protection of the Master’s Fashen”. He did nothing except for reading the books about Falun Gong and practicing. He refused to do farming for us and did nothing even when we needed labor to build our new house. He said: “You do it yourselves, I don’t want the house; Master will take me away with him.”

As time went by, we found that he became more and more obsessed with practicing and his body became weaker and weaker. He read all day long and said things we didn’t understand. We found it difficult to communicate with him and fellow villagers believed he had gone crazy. When they saw him, they stayed far away from him.

He hadn’t made a penny since he started to practice Falun Gong and all the savings had gone. In early years, we tried to talk him out of it; in order to get away from us, he became the contractor of fish pond to produce loach and eel. But his real plan was to find a place to practice without being interrupted. He poured the fishes into the pond and then did nothing. In the end, all the fishes had gone.

The entire family depends on the old couple of us right now; but how much can his father make by doing hard labor? Not enough for him alone. People say to have a son is to have someone to depend on when you’re getting old. But take a look at him, a sick man, that’s all. He’s 39 years old now, no money, no wife, and no work. All he has in his mind is his Master, Li Hongzhi. One day, he pushed me down the stairs and said to me angrily: “I want to kill someone, that’s all I want to do now!” “I’ll kill whoever against me.” He said I was “demon” and he wanted to “remove the demon”. My husband and I were so scared that we didn’t dare to go back home.

These years, apart from practicing, he always says things that we don’t understand. But I have no other choice but to keep a close eye on him. His father is 63 years old and has to do odd jobs to support us. But sometimes I had to do some farming work and he would take the chance to run out. At the sight of him, our neighbors would run far away as seeing a ghost. One day, He went into the house of Xiangs, one of our neighbors, and wanted to strangle the grandson. The boy hid under the bed and Cang couldn’t reach him; otherwise, the boy would have been dead for sure. But Cang said: “I’m here to kill monsters and remove demons; the thing I strangle is not human being but demon and monster. You ordinary people can’t see it.”

We have 18 neighbors and all of them are afraid to meet him, especially the children, they don’t even dare to leave their houses. One day, his father said it was Li Hongzhi who ruined his life; he said nothing and grabbed a shovel to wave it at his father. If it were not two good men passing by and taking the shovel from him by force, his father would have been killed.

He’s now at hospital and was diagnosed as schizophrenia. I don’t know whether the hospital can help him recover or not. If they do and he stops believing in this evil gong, our family still has hope; if they can’t get him well or if they can but he still believes in the evil gong, we have no future and I don’t know how to live on.

(Kaiwind, August 25, 2009)

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Data/02/201102/t124844.htm

Shen Yun, my brief review

So, I went to see Shen Yun this weekend, and today I stopped by Chinatown to pick up some produce still bit bothered by the show.

As far as dancing performance, choreography, and orchestra, it was great. Very colorful, everyone was in sync. On the other hand, I think the whole use of projector and trippy animation was a little off scale. Over and over they there were scenes when a performer gets killed then a deity shows up and the actor comes back to life.

Shen Yun is based in New York, and tour all over the world, claiming to perform Chinese traditional dance, and sharing Chinese ancients cultures…is it really only about their culture? Even my 8 year old noticed the people in the cloud coming and going defeating the authorities (PRC police). The system of belief Falun Gong was banned in China 1999, and execution started happening. Not surprising its a communist nation.

I truly believe that the main idea of the performance was about the practice Falun Gong. On Saturdays performance, there were a couple of soprano singing very religious words. Occasionally the narrators explain Chinese cultures in association with the show, but clearly, it is about Falun Gong period. Well, I didn’t know anything about it until after the show, when I started reading and doing my research.

Now, I don’t have anything against the belief. I believe that we should have freedom of religion. I understand the message. But, the question is, is it okay to lure people into watching the show saying its about culture, when it is about religion and making political statement? NO! This is not some $10 show. Our sit were $70 each.

The tickets were gift, and the one that bought it had no idea it was like that as well. We had great laughs after wards, but still I felt cheated of my time and fooled.

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/puop/201102/t124809.htm

Mike Bonnie refutes the fallacy of Falun Gong

JE note: I received this message from Mike Bonnie after receiving, but before posting, Ying Rong’s latest missive (28 June). The following is Mike’s reply to Ying’s post of 24 June:

Ying Rong wrote: The biggest conflict in the history of China is still unresolved today: the peaceful Falun Gong practice and ruthless communist party. It is a conflict between 100 million innocent people and one tyranny. This actually is also one of the biggest conflicts in the history of humanity.

Mike Bonnie responds: It gives me little pleasure to address Ying Rong’s comments. I’m not certain weather to be considered being labeled a Communists sympathizer a compliment or a slur. In the city where I live and work, being called a “hater” is a very derogatory remark ……

Returning to Ying Rong’s post: Ying (and John Eipper, due to his comment on the post) may be surprised to learn that in theory I agree, to a certain extent, the conflict between Falun Gong and the Communist Party of China may indeed be the greatest conflict in history. Being the cynical pragmatist that I am, agreeing or disagreeing on principle, supporting and encouraging someone’s ideas, can be diametrically opposing concepts. In the nature of religious cults, isolating individuals from family and friends, creating the “you’re either with us or against us” way of thought, is fundamental to developing undying loyalty to cult leaders and his or her ideals. Inculcating grandiose ideals, such as developing super-human attributes, attaining nirvana while still in this lifetime and reality, are typical descriptions ascribed to cults and covens.

It’s not surprising individuals within a cult are often prone to developing thoughts and feelings of persecution by nebulously defined legitimate groups, and fabricating situations that validate support of those views; making conflict, rather than solutions to disagreement paramount.

The concept of hiding behind one’s ideals such as religion, using those as a sword and a shield, is self-defeating in the development process of becoming human. “Moderation in all we do,” a theme cutting across theologies, includes participation in religious activity.

I’m reminded of a story that has circulated among treatment providers in the world of alcoholism, another cycle of addiction which fluxes between highs and lows, dependent in part on the amount one imbibes in stimulants such as brain endorphins. Reportedly, a colleague of Sigmund Freud sent to the great guru of psychiatry for treatment, a person suffering from alcoholism. After several visits, Freud returned the client back to his colleague with the caveat, “I cannot help this person. He is a brick who has stepped outside the wall of human protection.” Such are my feelings toward many who choose to dedicate their passions to what are in my view are self-destructive or “end of times” causes.

In further regard to the “greatest conflict” being between the members of Falun Gong and the Communist Party, I would not consider Falun Gong to be “ancient” by any way of counting; the group is hardly “old.” The physical exercise aspect of Falun Gong, the practice of “Chi Gong,” is borrowed from Buddhism, which does go back several thousand years. Clearly, connecting Falun Gong to Buddhism adds to a cult’s referent authority. I’m curious to know if the alleged 100 million membership claimed by Falun Gong also includes the practitioners of Chi Gong in Buddhism. Either way, it would be interesting to learn the Dhali Lama’s attitude toward Falun Gong.

On this point I empathize with not only the Communist (in title) government of China as well as any government. Following the rules of serving and protecting citizenry includes (to varying degrees) protecting people from themselves. It shouldn’t take a great deal of imagination to extrapolate the mode of some cults in American past that have imploded, to one “potential” destiny of Falun Gong.

Cases in point; The People’s Temple (Jim Jones’s group – 1978), the Branch Davidians (1930-1990), and Heaven’s Gate (1997). Hiding behind its own veil of secrecy, from the top leadership of Falun Gong living the New York high lifestyle down to individual member’s unwillingness to self-disclose, who’s to know what the future holds?

text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/puop/201102/t124764.htm

Liu Yingze dies for Falun Dafa

Liu Yingze, male, 63 years old, Han nationality, junior high school graduate, a retiree from Fulong Health Center in Yuechi County, Guang’an City, Sichuan Province, lived at No. 67 Old Street of Tenglong Community in Fulong. He started his medical career in October 1979 and soon became one of the top local doctors thanks to his hard work and professional skills.

He started to practice Falun Gong in 1999 but didn’t tell his family about it. He used to be a talkative man but since then he had been quite silent and always been alone. He usually shut himself in his own room after work, reading books and studying Fa, listening to the tapes and watching VCD about Falun Gong. He lied to his family and neighbors that he was reading medical books and told them these materials were very important. He locked them in a cupboard and forbade anyone to take a look at them.

The more he studied, the more he believed in such heretical ideas of Li Hongzhi as “removing karma” and “achieving Consummation”. He always said to his family that “a practitioner will benefit the entire family” and would bless the descendants. He claimed that to practice it would help the practitioners “remove both karma and illness”; as a result, “you don’t have to take any medicine if you fall ill and it will help you become an immortal or even a Buddha”. He told others what drugs can do is merely suppressing ordinary “diseases” instead of rooting them out; they will become even worse once “karma” comes back. Since the theory of Falun Gong about “removing karma and illness” took root in his head; whenever he felt unwell, he would handle it by “removing karma” and always lied about his diseases to his family, neighbors, and community leaders that cared about him.

On December 1, 2008, he was found not alright for he couldn’t even make a stable step while walking. His family dragged him to People’s Hospital of Yuechi County for a physical examination and his illness was diagnosed as an advanced lung cancer.

He still had illusionary faith in Falun Gong even when he was dying, continuously believing in all its heretical theories and put all the hope on its concept of “removing karma and illness”. He kept sending forth righteous thoughts, chanting “Falun Dafa is good”, begging the Master bless him. He soon became skinny and his face was withered and yellow. But still, he refused to take any medicine and would spit out the drugs his family fed him. His family was sad but could do nothing about him.

On July 4, 2009, he knew there was no much time left for him and sent for all his family members. With the help of his son, he managed to sit up. With tears all over the face, he told them a secret that he tried to hide from them for years. In fact, he knew about the lung disease several years ago, for he could feel the pain in the lung and sometimes vomited streaks of blood. According to his professional experience, he knew he had serious lung disease. The reason why he chose to hide it from others was that he wanted to get rid of the “illness karma” by practicing so as to “correct the wrong accusation” against Falun Gong. But it never occurred to him that he couldn’t make it to the day he had expected. He passed away several days later at the age of 63.

(Kaiwind.com, August 27, 2009)

Text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Data/02/201102/t124648.htm

In defense of cults?

There’s been a lot of news about the Scientology issue on Wikipedia, and rightfully so. But today I came across something rather interesting: it appears that Scientology is not the only cult that has exploited Wikipedia with self-promotional articles. Another cult, no less dangerous, which has succeeded in doing so under the radar is Falun Gong.

The truth is that I know very little about Falun Gong. I’ve seen their protests when I lived in New York, and found them to be quite chilling. In my mind I identified them with other victims of Chinese repression.

Today, however, I came across some information about Falun Gong on another site that I frequent. The person who posted is not Chinese, but American, and his concern is about his parents, who were also drawn in to the cult. I am copying here his summary of their beliefs:

*Belief that alien technology is used in computers and can warp people stopping them from taking up the faith. Falun Gong believers are of course protected from alien brainwashing
* Illness is caused by karma and if you use modern medicine it pushes the illnesses into another dimension and it will come back in another form. Only by following their book and doing their meditative exercises can you live an illness free life. If you do get sick that is just small amounts of karma coming to the surface. If you are seriously ill you should not take up the faith because your reason for joining will be to be cured and that is not a genuine reason.
* Attachments are evil
* Films and video games featuring demonic themes ie Buffy TVS and Anne Rice novels are evil and warp people
* Anti-homosexuality
*A rejection of inter-racial marriages (In my case this was very difficult for me to accept because their [his parents’] marriage is an inter-racial one)

Speaking with someone who knows more about them, I was told that Falun Gong also have plenty of money and that they don’t disclose their business links. In that sense they sound eerily like Scientology.

The problem is that unlike Scientology, no one is watching their Wikipedia pages, so that the information reads more like promotional literature than anything else. In the opening paragraph I learn that they are a “spiritual discipline” and that they teach “the principles truthfulness, compassion, and forbearance.” In the following paragraph I am told that this twenty-year old cult “has a heritage in a centuries-old tradition of “cultivation practice” and that a prominent Sinologist regards them as “one of the most important phenomena to emerge in China in the 1990s.” The following paragraph is all about how these supposedly innocent people are being persecuted by the Chinese government. It is just propagandistic foreplay to Section 3.2: “Persecutions in Mainland China,” a summary of a more extensive article, “Persecution of Falun Gong.”

There is, all in all, just one paragraph about the controversy surrounding Falun Gong in the main article (at the beginning of the section on Academic Attention), and it is quickly countered.

So my question is: Why the disparity? Even if I wonder about the the consequences of banning Scientology, I can understand why it happened. On the other hand, why is Falun Gong allowed to use Wikipedia as a propaganda platform to promote its homophobic, racist, anti-technology, anti-medicine bullshit? Shouldn’t it be accorded the same attention? According to Wikipedia, this is a group with 70-100 million followers (personally, I don’t believe it, but that’s another story). The imbalance is startling.

So, David Gerard and others, perhaps it’s time to look into this as well. I’d do it myself, but you know …

(Blogspot.com, June 5, 2009)

Text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/puop/201102/t124589.htm

So they finally achieve “Consummation”

Three practitioners in their 50s and deeply obsessed with Falun Gong in Anlu City of Hubei Province had been so persistent in the concept of “Consummation” that they finally found ways to achieve it and fulfilled their dreams.

Wang Hongye, male, born in 1954, junior high school graduate, and used to work at Lidian Food & Oil Company of Anlu City. He started to practice Falun Gong in 1997 and served at local practicing site as an assistant. Since he was obsessed with Falun Gong, Wang quit the job and neglected his family; all he wanted was to achieve “Consummation”. One late night in 2005, he broke his leg when going out for distributing propaganda materials and urging people to quit the CCP and its affiliated organizations. But he had faith in the blessings of the Master and insisted on healing by practicing, believing that he would definitely achieve “Consummation”. In December 2007, he died at the age of 53 after six days of fasting, finally fulfilling his dream of achieving “Consummation”.

Huang Xiaohui, female, born in 1952, senior high school graduate, used to work at Anmian Group of Hubei Province. She started to practice Falun Gong in 1997 and was an assistant at local practicing site. After the state government banned Falun Gong as a cult in 1999, she gathered other fellow practitioners and had been to Beijing twice and distributed materials publicizing Falun Gong in the city for four times to clarify the “truth”, to go up to “higher level”, and to achieve “Consummation”. Believing that she made to a “higher level” and was close to “Consummation”, she spent day and night going out to clarify the “truth” to others and practicing Falun Gong at home. At one nightfall in September 2007, she fell on the floor of her living room due to hypertension and heart attack caused by excessive practicing. She was not breathing and her heart stopped beating when her husband found her and was about to send her to hospital. At the age of 55, Huang Xiaohui finally achieved “Consummation” at that.

Zhu Fangxian, female, born in 1941, an illiterate, and a resident of Nanda Community of Fucheng Office in Anlu City. She had arthritis, migraine, and hypertension and started to practice Falun Gong in 1996 with the purpose of building up physical health. After she got obsessed with it, all she had in mind were to go up to “high levels” and to achieve “Consummation”. When Falun Gong was banned in July 1999 as a cult, she couldn’t accept it and believed that she was about to achieve “consummation” after three-year hard work. She was worried that stopping practicing would end her path toward the “Consummation”. Everyday after breakfast, she would shut herself in a small room to practice. One afternoon at the end of September in 1999, her daughter and son-in-law hadn’t heard any noise from her room after she stepped into the room. They didn’t hear any response to their knocking or shouting and finally decided to break into the locked room. She was found lying on bed, breathless and turning up the whites of eyes. When the ambulance arrived and took her to the emergency room, she had stopped breathing due to hypertension-caused cerebral hemorrhage. After three-year practicing and at the age of 58, Zhu Fangxian finally fulfilled her dream of achieving “Consummation”.

(Kaiwind.com, 2009-09-01)

Text from: http://www.facts.org.cn/Data/02/201102/t124546.htm

Split personalities

Split personalities

A new Falun Gong sect is raising a challenge over who is the spiritual movement’s True Master

Pilgrims to Hong Kong’s Lantau Island worship Belinda Peng, their Lord of Buddhas.

At the Big Buddha statue on Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, meditation groups have been gathering regularly this summer looking for the sign that will anoint their new spiritual leader, 37-year-old Belinda Peng, as the True Master and Lord of Buddhas. It will be a manifestation, they believe, to “shock and shake the universe.”

Meanwhile, another master — who says the French astrologer Nostradamus predicted his role in the world — takes umbrage with the “vile and demonic” woman in Hong Kong he accuses of stealing his title.

“I am the principle being. It was me who taught the [law] to you,” Li Hongzhi wrote in a recent letter to his disciples, posted on his Web site. “Nobody should pay attention to what that saboteur in Hong Kong has instigated or give her an audience.”

Millions of followers worldwide — including hundreds in the Bay Area — are at stake in this fight over who will be True Master, which has put a wrinkle in what has so far been an impressive religious phenomenon: Falun Gong. Banned in China because its sheer number of adherents threatened Communist Party control, Falun Gong has experienced the greatest government crackdown there since the 1989 Tiananmen Square demonstrations. The movement founded by Master Li has flourished regardless, circumventing China’s control by way of the Internet and winning sympathy — and converts — in the West. The U.S. officially views Falun Gong adherents as victims of religious oppression, even granting asylum to its members (see “Spiritual Cultivation,” March 15).

But the mystical and controversial beliefs associated with the group’s meditation exercises — an unswerving allegiance to one leader, the shedding of human attachments such as money and sentiment, the promise of immunity to disease, and flights through outer space to a better world and life — have raised some questions about whether there might be something to China’s claim that Falun Gong is a cult. And as an internal struggle for control of the group begins, textbook cult dynamics appear to be in play.

“Someone will always see there is power and money to be had, and will try to get followers to break away to their own group, imitating how it was done by the original leader,” says Margaret Singer, a professor emeritus at UC Berkeley, clinical psychologist, and author of Cults in Our Midst.

Li, 50, who left China and settled in New York in 1997, has spent the last year in seclusion. His presence had been felt by followers only on the Internet, and he did not post any new writings until Peng declared her intent to replace him as the True Master last May. Now Li has been vigorously defending the title he has held since creating Falun Gong — a blend of Buddhist and Taoist ideas mixed with many of his own and practiced with tai chi-like exercises — in 1992. “Recently a vile person in Hong Kong who lost her senses has severely interfered with [the Great Way] by saying absurd things — due to demonic interference from her own mind — about how a Law Body of mine was telling her what to do,” Li wrote in last month’s online letter to Falun Gong practitioners.

“Li has to re-establish his power base and get rid of the competition,” Singer says.

While self-imposed absence can help a leader in his efforts to become deified, Li’s recent letters suggest an acknowledgment of some lost support, says Alan Ellis, who teaches social psychology at San Francisco State University.

“Even the most charismatic leader will invariably not meet everyone’s needs, offend someone, or cause some to question,” Ellis says. “His reappearance is necessary to keep his followers and help confirm their beliefs.”

Splinter groups like Peng’s, he says, offer something a little different for those not comfortable with their original master. “People who don’t want to take responsibility for their own actions and thoughts will find someone else to serve as their leader that they better identify with.”

So far, the group supporting Peng has not experienced a groundswell. Gatherings on Lantau Island have not totaled more than 30 people at a time, though more dissenters arrive from overseas every day to join in the vigil. Followers of Master Li refuse to comment on Peng’s influence. “It is very complicated; many people are confused,” says an organizer for Li in California who did not want his name used. “The more we talk about them, the more noise they make. The best way is to ignore them. But it must be made clear they are not the true Falun Gong.”

Two Bay Area women adamantly disagree. Wendy Fang, of San Francisco, and Mary Qian, of Fremont, are fervent supporters of Peng, their “Lord of Buddhas.” Fang, who is six months pregnant, made headlines in Hong Kong for flying there from San Francisco last month without a valid visa in hopes of meeting Peng. After being denied entry, Fang staged a hunger strike while in custody and was hospitalized for dehydration. Her husband had to fly to Hong Kong and talk her into coming home.

It was not the first time Fang put herself in jeopardy, having gone to Beijing last March to organize underground Falun Gong activity. When she was arrested and detained by Chinese officials then, followers in California called on Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) to help orchestrate her release.

“In the cult mentality, you can get so enraptured by the magic offered to you that all judgment in your head gets put on hold,” Singer says. “She was expecting some magic from this lady in Hong Kong.”

Qian, however, has made it to Lantau Island, where she has knelt and meditated before Peng. She is convinced of Peng’s impending manifestation. “It will come very shortly,” Qian told the South China Morning Post. “Already there have been signs. Three followers last week saw images of Buddhas on both sides and above the Temple of Buddha, as well as small dragons and wheels in the sky.”

(SF Weekly, Aug 16 2000)

text from: http://english.kaiwind.com/Reports/World/201102/t124497.htm

 

Shen Yun Chinese dancers at Cobb Energy Centre

A dancer performs with Shen Yun, a Chinese music and dance troupe that comes to Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre this week.

Shen Yun Performing Art, a troupe of Chinese dancers and musicians, has been to Atlanta before, but only this time are they going for the mass market.

But a scathing opinion piece in the Vancouver Sun calls the production “creepy” and the backdrops “garish,” but mostly seems to have a problem with the show’s politics.

I haven’t seen it, but for those who’ve seen it in the past: is it as much spectacle as it the ubiquitous billboards say it is? Did the message matter more than the music and dance?

Margaret on January 15th, 2010

I’d like to comment on your write-up of the Shen Yun dance troupe in the AJC. I haven’t seen the show this year and it may be different than last year’s show, but I doubt it. Last year, a friend gave me a couple of tickets to the show, so my girlfriend and I went. After a couple of the performance dances, and especially after the operatic numbers (sung in Chinese, with super-titles in English), we began to realize that something was going on. (Also the producers showed a great interest in video taping our reactions to the show, while they prohibited any photography of the show itself.) It became very clear by the end of the show that the event was sponsored by the Falun Gong and that the show really amounted to a propaganda campaign against the Chinese government. In fact I was under the impression that many of the people in the audience were followers of the Falun Gong and may not have paid for their tickets.

Far be it from me to defend the Communist Chinese government, but I do think we were “sold” a bill of goods. Whether or not the Chinese government is maltreating the Falun Gong, we deserved to be told that we were being entertained (and paying for the privilege, as my friend did pay $100 per ticket for the show!) for the purpose of being indoctrinated into the philosophy and the plight of the Falun Gong.

As I said, maybe the show is different this year, but last year, it was pretty clear to us that the tickets for this show were being sold under false pretenses, even if for a good cause (although I’m not sure of that given the experience). As a reporter, you have a responsibility to truly and accurately report. Sometimes you find the stories, other times the stories find you. You may be saying to yourself, “Heck, I’m the entertainment editor what do I know from politics?” But from reading your write-up (which could, to some, appear to be a review), I think you were “had” if you didn’t notice or weren’t made aware of what was going on. And I think you contribute to the deceit if you don’t do a little investigating and find out what is really going on in the Energy Center.

I note that, in a check of the AJC today, there is a reference to a negative review from a Vancouver newspaper. I am glad to see that the AJC has picked up that reference. I would hope that the AJC could do a better job, in the future, of making it clear that it was providing information without having actually seen a performance, or, in the alternative, informing the public of the true nature of a performance (when something is so political.)

RJ on January 19th, 2010

Sadly, I took my wife last Friday to see this show. As others have said, it was a mediocre performance which did not approach the glowing description on the website for the Cobb Energy Centre. Yet, most unnerving was the fact that it is a propaganda machine for the Falun Gong.

We left early (at the intermission), and, as we were walking down the stairs and discussing the show, a Chinese-descent woman walking down at the same time heard me say something about a “message”. She began to beam like a Moonie, smiling and staring straight at me, pacing us as we walked down the stairs. I stopped saying anything substantive, but she kept staring, making us uncomfortable, so I finally said “hello”. She then emphasized that there was, indeed, a message in all of the music– as if that shouldn’t be obvious to anyone who is not in a vegetative state. Perfect end to a perfect night.

I wrote a scathing email to the Cobb Energy Centre on Saturday asking it is the official policy of the same to mislead audiences with regard to both the substance and purpose of performances hosted there. In part I wrote:

“Irregardless of the ‘merits’ of this movement [Falun Gong], it is reprehensible that such a fine facility should act as a shill for a group officially described as a cult. At the very least, an honest declaration of the intent of the show was in order. Unfortunately, your deceptive obscuring of the true purpose of the performance shows complicity with both their motivation and methods. I am more than disappointed: I feel personally deceived.”

As yet, no response. They apparently are taking a “caveat emptor” stance, and feel they bear no personal responsibility for both hiding the purpose of the show and exaggerating the “beauty” of the spectacle to a degree that makes hyperbole look like understatement.

I’d love to see the AJC interview officials at the Cobb Energy Centre, ask them why they feel free to deceive people in this way. This is, according to their website, the third year Shen Yun has performed there. Pleading they were unaware of the content would be a difficult position to defend. At the very least, someone in the media needs to make sure no one is innocently taken in by this group again.

P.S. Here is another review I found after-the-fact. It really hits the nail on the head: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/dance/3671451/Shen-Yun-Propaganda-as-entertainment.html

Northern Californian on January 20th, 2010

Like other commenters here, I felt very deceived by the way this show was advertised. This show is far more about preaching, “Falun Dafa is Good!” than about dance. The dancing was mediocre and amateurish. How many ways could this dance group rearrange itself into 5 lines, then twirl in a clockwise direction? Very monotonous.

I felt beaten about the head, neck and ears with their “message.”

The day after the show, in Sacramento, I logged on to the Shen Yun website and asked for a refund. I am certain I’ll never get a response. I deserve one.

Dozens of people walked out during our performance. The performances were ripped in a popular review site in San Francisco. And the Vancouver Sun article is clearly being sock-puppeted.

This show is a shameless rip-off of your money. The truth needs to be told. I have seen many, many better Chinese dance productions; they’re not all this bad.

Your local university will probably be hosting some Chinese New Year festivities. Go to those instead, and go to those to help wipe out the memory of Shen Yun.

WRL on February 7th, 2010

Wow. Walked away from Saturday’s Hanover Theater performance of Shen Yun feeling a bit queasy with no doubt that this was the intent of the performance. The Shen Yun troupe delivered sharply divisive political rhetoric under the guise of cultural and historical entertainment.

With an unashamed and in your face Anti Communist-China message and direct promotion of Falun Dafa, a controversial cultural and religious movement, the performance left me thinking “What just Happened?” Like many must have, I went home and Googled-up after the show to find that this was more than meets the eye.

The first half of the performance was more subtle with slight references to the highly political message. Shen Yun camera crew waited in the lobby during intermission to collect feedback from viewers who were using words like “stunning” and “awesome” to describe the colorful, athletic and graceful performance of the Shen Yun dancers.

The second half of the One-Two punch came after the intermission when dancers acted out scenes of brutal communist violence against those practicing “Dafa”.

I understand Art having shock value is effective communication, but wonder if Shen Yun’s message might be tempered by its duplicitous advertising approach, using media hype and deception to lure its audience into delivering its message.

One of the main tenants of Falun Dafa is said to be truthfulness, yet I couldn’t help feeling that the troupe was hypocritical and deceitful in their approach which was straight out propaganda.

I forked over $150 for two tickets and unknowingly made a donation to a public movement. It’s not that I’m not a charitable guy; I just like to know where my donations are going beforehand. Shame on me for not pre-Googling. I was sort of curious that if the Playbill touted the political angle and message, they might be more successful and reach more people.

Pam on March 30th, 2010

I saw this show this weekend on Saturday in Vancouver (March 2010). I really felt I had been scammed. I have had a huge interest in China, it’s history and culture for years, so this was meant to be a real treat for me. My partner and I paid $79 canadian for tickets and I was really looking forward to this, we also traveled to Vancouver, paid for a hotel room, so not a cheap weekend and meant to be really special.

To make a long story short, many of the songs, stories and dances were simply propaganda for the religion of Falun Dafa, there were only a very few pieces that were free of this message, and even those, whilst pretty enough, were not awe inspiring enough to compensate for what was clearly a scam, a money raising venture for this group. They were blatant propaganda, examples being a ‘dance’ (one of several) showing someone being killed by communist police whilst practising Falun Dafa, and being taken to heaven, atheists in one song were denounced as perverse, and the way to salvation was through this belief system. Much of the second half of this show was taken up with pretty much all propaganda for this religion, and it was about as subtle as a sledge hammer. At the end of the performance when the show cast were assembled on stage, before the lights had even come up, large numbers of the audience stood up and left the theatre, including ourselves. Those remaining started to give an ovation; my assumption was that they were adherents to this religion because there was no other reason that made sense, so many people left in disgust or perplexity.

What made me really frustrated was that I googled it (sadly too late to save myself any money) when I returned home, and found that all the reviews you can find generally come from something called the Echo Chronicle or something similar, which is sponsored by them, so only good reviews can be seen. It comes across as somewhat spooky, like a cult. Until I saw this show I had some sympathy for any group that is oppressed for what it believes, but they claim the high road and then rip people off with this show. My reason for writing is to prevent other people from being scammed by this group. I would have had no problem with this if it had been advertised fairly for what it was, I have no problem with seeing things as art or music that shock or challenge, I would happily engage in a discussion or read information about it, but this was straight forward dishonesty, selling propaganda as a wonderful, cultural experience. For anyone thinking of going, save your money, or at least go with your eyes wide open to the real agenda of this show, at least then you won’t be disappointed.

text from: http://english.kaiwind.com/puop/201101/t124283.htm

 

Spaced-out losers on the march

At around 4pm yesterday Queens Road Central was the scene of a rare site: a marching band. (Inevitably, a quick glance at Google suggests that Hong Kong is in fact bursting with the things, but it’s the first time I recall seeing one, give or take occasional police bagpipers.) They were well-drilled, didn’t seem to hit any wrong notes in their unidentifiable repertoire and wore brightly coloured military-kitsch uniforms of the sort seen on musicians parading up and down the field before a US college football game.
 
Until I took a closer look…
 
Yes, it was the Falun Gong massed percussion and brass sections. The men were wearing sort of martial-arts pajamas, while the women sported what I can best describe as Taiwanese-housewives-at-the-beach gear. Most of the marchers were around middle age. I got the feeling at first that many were not Hong Kong Chinese; they seemed to have that sort of paler, flatter-faced Northern look. But maybe I was being misled by their true countenance – that of spaced-out losers.
 
Like Scientology, fundamentalist Islam or evangelical Christianity, Falun Gong seems to grasp its own particular sort of convert. I heard one story of someone’s Beijing in-laws, 60-somethings of limited means, slightly bewildered by the modern world that had left them behind, whose physical and mental lives were massively transformed for the better by Falun Dafa, the ‘wheel-law great law’. This is the stereotypical Falun Gong practitioner, for whom the movement presumably fills a vacuum. (Now I remember where I saw that female drummer’s serene smile before: the black-robed middle-aged women who swoop on visitors at a Taipei temple to hand out rice cakes to give thanks for answered prayers, usually concerning health.)
 
The 20-year-old Falun Gong is not restricted to what might be called the aging and fading lower-middle class. Some prominent or wealthier Mainlanders in both private and public sectors joined it, and in the late 1990s the wacky, Qigong/Buddhist-derived faith took a zealous hold among a few of Hong Kong’s lesser tycoon caste, who began proselytizing among their peers here. That fizzled out quickly when, after Chinese TV began denouncing the movement’s medical quackery as dangerous and practitioners suddenly revealed themselves to be numerous and organized, Beijing launched a vicious clampdown on the ‘evil sect’.
 
As orders to eliminate the organization filtered down to local levels, the retribution became deadly. This persecution won the movement the sympathy of the West’s human rights activists, giving Falun Gong something of the ‘darling’ status enjoyed by Tibet in The Guardian and the Wall Street Journal. Falun Gong itself seems to spend at least as much of its extensive resources publicizing killings and the harvesting of body organs as it does spreading the word about Fa Rectification and the Falun Cosmic Orbit (even in Shqip, or Albanian). It has a newspaper and a TV channel, which once pulled off the rather nifty trick of hacking into a Mainland satellite feed. Some Chinese patriots believe the US funds it all.
 
Beijing struggles to counter the Falun Gong overseas. At tourist spots in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and elsewhere (Singapore is less tolerant) practitioners force gory anti-Communist literature on Mainlanders. China can claim the support of its establishment Buddhists, who obviously don’t need rivals any more than the CCP does, but its violent and almost fanatical suppression of the Falun Gong overrides the argument that the group is a nasty cult.
 
Does Falun Gong have a sinister/charismatic/wealthy ‘master’ at the top? Yes (Li Hongzhi, in New York). Is it racist, homophobic and money-hungry? Yes, according to Wikipedia writers whose work is constantly removed by, presumably, loyal practitioners. And of course it sometimes discourages followers from getting normal medical care (as do many cults, apparently unconcerned about losing valuable adherents).
 
One reason for yesterday’s gathering was to protest against the Hong Kong government’s refusal to allow staff of the Falun Gong’s lavish Shen Yun performing arts troupe to work in the city. There are certain lines Beijing will not permit the Big Lychee to cross, and admitting overseas Falun Gong people is one of them. All grist to the sect’s persecution mill. This is what we’re missing (not really worth it, though I like the narrator’s rather fetching sinus problem). So all we have is the surprisingly good timing and curiously wistful cheer of their disconcertingly goblin-like band as they stride off into the Hong Kong sunset.

text from: http://english.kaiwind.com/puop/201101/t124242.htm