You’ve seen their posters around campus — paintings of ascendant meditators and gory tableaus of organs being forcibly removed from political prisoners. You’ve seen them practicing slow movements reminiscent of Tai Chi. They hold movie screenings regularly, of films like Hard To Believe and The Bleeding Edge, and give away copies of books like State Organs.
The story of Falun Gong begins in 1992, when it broke off from the wider movement of qigong over Falun Gong’s refusal to charge money to practice. While qigong has been practiced for at least four thousand years, Falun Dafa is a new movement.
Many of their pamphlets, books and DVDs were stolen in August from an information booth. They are the UBC Falun Dafa Fellowship, an AMS club with some seventeen members, though the leader Skylet Yu claims there are more.
Best Practices
“There are some members of the community that practice Falun Gong, but are too afraid to join our club,” said Skylet, alleging that the Chinese government employs spies at UBC, posing as students. According to the AMS there are only 17 official members, though Skylet would not say how many there actually are.
Skylet Yu says that the health benefits of Falun Gong are something that should be shared with as many people as possible. Her aunt was bedridden until she began practicing Falun Gong, and made a full recovery after three months.
Falun Gong preaches that its followers should maintain a calm demeanor, and turn the other cheek when insulted or maligned. A writing by founder Li Hongzhi entitled “The Ten Greatest Evils In The World” lists homosexuality, democracy, science and violence as perils to be avoided. Hongzhi has referred to himself as a “living Buddha” according to the BBC, and has preached that his mission is to save the world from destruction.
While Falun Dafa is often treated as a religion, (or, by many sources, a cult) it is more in line with faiths like Taoism and Confucianism. Falun Dafa lacks a central power structure, with the majority of updates on new practices shared through blogs online. Instead, the faith is led by small groups, often localized on one region.
Initially promoted by the Chinese government as a novel way to stay fit, but due to the explosive growth of the movement, quickly became suspicious. In particular, authorities felt a displeased movement of some 70 million people — according to Chinese government sources — could pose serious problems to the single party state.
Under the Party Line
The Chinese government began a propaganda campaign against Falun Gong practitioners, and especially against the founder, Li Hongzhu. The campaigns alleged that practicing Falun Gong was an anti-materialist ideology, antithetical to the limited market economy brought on by former premier Deng Xiaoping. According to Benjamin Penny, Asian Studies professor at Australian National University and author of the book The Religion of Falun Gong, this was only the stated reason, the more likely one being the aforementioned concerns about the stability of the Communist party.
Advocates of Falun Gong allege that following protests outside Zhongnanhai (the headquarters of the chinese government), thousands of practitioners were abducted into what was then referred to as “administrative detention”. Administrative detention is unlike most form of imprisonment, as the prisoners are often not charged with crimes.
The Falun Gong practitioners who were arrested were brought to these prisons until they renounced their Falun Gong faith. “Falun gong people didn't change their mind, so they stayed there for rather a long time,” says Penny. Compounding this is the allegation that man Falun Gong practitioners didn't give their real name, leaving them to fester in prison, families unable to contact them, or learn anything about their whereabouts.
The first rumours of organ harvesting can be traced back to reports from the Kyodo News, and a reporter working on a hint about an admin detention camp near a military hospital. The reporter published a story that detailed organ harvesting from dead Falun Gong members, an extension of the long-running practice of using bodies of executed prisoners. How much direct evidence do we have of this? “None directly”, according to professor Penny. Following the initial reports of the organ harvesting, Chinese authorities invited western media to tour the military hospital where the alleged harvesting occurred, where they found a spotless facility. “The Chinese government wouldn’t have invited them in when there was half a dead body there” pointed out Penny, as the media was not invited to the hospital until some weeks later. Falun Gong has their evidence, but “not the kind of evidence that could hold up in court”, according to Penny.
Penny emphasized that news on Falun Gong is hard to tell either way, due to Chinas lack of freedom of the press, or freedom of information act. There is little doubt about the existence of the preceding protests outside the Zhongnanhai, but after the followers were led away on busses, it is hard to discern specifics. It is known that leaders were arrested on July 20, though the number arrested is disputed.
The founder went into exile following the crackdown, currently living somewhere in New York state. The Falun Gong community in exile is centered around the northeast of the United States, as well as Ontario and Quebec. They operate a compound known as Dragon Springs outside the town of Deerpark, New York, where they give lectures, and operate the Fei Tian Academy. The Fei Tian Academy teaches both K-12 schooling and college courses in music and fine arts. College tuition $28,340 USD per year, a sharp departure from the origins of Falun Gong, when they split from Qigong over his refusal to charge money to practice.
The reports about the plight of Falun Gong people have not fallen on deaf ears, diplomatically speaking. Benjamin Penny says that it is not, however, a priority for many countries. Western diplomats will often raise a list of human right issues, ranging from the treatment of muslims in Xinjiang to the annexation of Tibet. The response from the Chinese government is often a simple “thank you for that, but these are internal matters for China” says Penny.
What evidence is there to support Skylet’s theory that there are Chinese spies posing as students, tracking Falun Gong practitioners? Penny says that in many cases, there’s no need. “Many of them make absolutely no secret of the fact that they’re practitioners,” Penny says, adding that many protest outside Chinese embassies and consulates regularly. “[China] I would feel fairly sure, know most of the active Falun Gong people around the world.” says Penny. Penny downplayed the concerns that Skylet raised, saying that in many cases, it is dependent on where these students are from. “the way China works, there’s central government, there's county government and there’s city government” says Penny, adding that the majority of policing and surveillance falls to city and county governments. Given China’s massive diversity, both ethnically and geographically, many regions do not consider Falun Gong a pressing threat. The chinese government did not respond to requests for comment on this story.
Bringing it Home
The Falun Gong Fellowship, with only 17 official members, is dwarfed by the other AMS recognized spiritual groups. The club Christian Students at UBC, one of twelve Christian groups, has 986 likes on Facebook, though only lists 37 official members according to the AMS. Similarly, the Muslim Students Association (MSA) has more likes than both others put together, with 1,711 at the time of writing — yet the AMS only has records of 23 official members.
The UBC Falun Gong Fellowship stays active, with a monday morning prayer and demonstration every week in the bottom of the Nest. They set up a small table with placards showing photos of practitioners around the world, and imploring the international community to take action. For a group with 17 members, practicing an obscure, controversial eastern faith, they know how to make noise.