Free Falun Gong
In America, practitioners nurture what is banned in China

08/19/01
By JOANNA PONCAVAGE
Of The Morning Call

Related stories: What is Falun Gong?
Falun Gong on the Web


John and Jean Li of Bethlehem frequently perform acts that could get them arrested, tortured or killed in China.

Every day, they practice a system of gentle stretching exercises and meditative poses that are similar to those of tai chi and yoga. They sometimes meet with a few other Chinese people in their home or drive to a Montgomery County park to join about 10 others to exercise outdoors as a group.

Sometimes they have group discussions based on teachings with roots in eastern religions such as Buddhism and Taoism.

They are practicing Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that became popular in China in the 1990s. They say it improves them physically, mentally and spiritually, and helps them become better people.

The Chinese government charges that Falun Gong is an "evil cult" that undermines social stability and outlawed it two years ago. Since then, Falun Gong followers have been brutally arrested in public, and thousands have been sent to re-education centers aimed at extinguishing the practice.

Falun Gong supporters maintain that 263 people have died in police custody since the crackdown began. Independent estimates have put that number at more than 100. Chinese authorities say that some Falun Gong followers have died or committed suicide in detention but deny any wrongdoing.

John Li was born in China and now teaches business at Lehigh University. He learned about Falun Gong from a friend while he was a graduate student at Washington University in St. Louis.

"I was very much attracted by Falun Gong's healing effects," he says. At the time, he was stressed by the rigor of his studies and was looking for a way to relax.

"Then I read the book ["Zhuan Falun," by principal Falun Gong teacher Li Hongzhi], and it fit in well with my philosophy. It advocated truth, benevolence and tolerance, and helped me be more focused on my studies. I finished my program, and I had a successful job search and landed at Lehigh." Li is in this country on a work visa but plans to become a U.S. citizen.

When Li left China in 1993, Falun Gong, which is also known as Falun Dafa, was just gaining popularity there. Li Hongzhi, described by Falun Gong practitioners as an ordinary man, had started teaching to small groups to share what he knew about self-cultivation with others free of charge.

Falun Gong spread quickly in China through word of mouth. Within a few years, thousands of people were showing up for lectures by Li Hongzhi, a former government clerk. His books "Falun Gong" and "Zhuan Falun" now can be downloaded from the Internet in more than a dozen languages.

"When I went back to China in 1997, I found there were many people practicing Falun Gong. It had gained a huge following from all walks of life," says John Li. As is the custom in China, people would get together in the morning and evening to exercise in the parks.

By 1999, Falun Gong had an estimated 70 million to 100 million followers in China, according to a Chinese government report. In April of that year, 10,000 of them gathered in Beijing to appeal the beatings and arrests of 45 Falun Gong practitioners in another city. In July 1999 the Chinese government officially banned Falun Gong.

Many followers feel Falun Gong was outlawed because it was becoming too popular. "It is the foremost meditation practice in China," says John Li. "More people practice Falun Gong than are Chinese Communist party members. Naturally, this got the totalitarian regime nervous."

James Li, a software engineer from China who now lives in Montgomeryville, says his brother, Baifan Li, was murdered in April while in custody in a "reform class" designed to brainwash and break the will of Falun Gong practitioners.

He made many phone calls to China to try to find out how his brother died. Some people knew about the situation but dared not speak out, he says, and tried to persuade him to stop investigating.

"Acquaintances in the legal field told me unanimously that, 'In view of the current political climate, no lawyer dares to accepts such a case in China nowadays,'" says James Li, who left China in 1986 and is now a U.S. citizen. "A lawyer told me bluntly, 'Your brother died for nothing.'"

Jingduan Yang of Cherry Hill, N.J., a resident in psychiatry at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia who was born in China, says his sister was jailed for one year for practicing Falun Gong. "She is OK now," he says. "She was one of the lucky ones."

In July, John and Jean Li and Yang were among about 1,500 people from around the world who convened for a rally at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., to mark the second anniversary of the crackdown on Falun Gong in China. About 90 percent were Chinese, but there was a large contingent of Americans and many Europeans.

Li Hongzhi, who moved to Flushing, Queens in 1998, before the Chinese government issued a warrant for his arrest, addressed the group. "He spoke against violence and hatred. The chief message is that as practitioners we are supposed to tell the truth about what's been going on in China, and what Falun Gong really is," says Yang.

To do so is an act of compassion, Yang says, because others will benefit from this "very, very good practice."

"Our priority is to tell the truth about the persecution and ask people to support us on humanitarian grounds," says John Li. "We are engaged in a truth-telling campaign to clear up the government's propaganda."

"We are an apolitical group," he adds, "but we have been dragged into the political landscape because in China, Falun Gong practitioners are being arrested and killed."

Since June, followers who spread information about Falun Gong can be tried for subversion, separatism and divulging state secrets, crimes punishable by death in China, where Falun Gong has been labeled a reactionary organization.

A resolution before the U.S. Congress calling for the government of China to stop persecuting Falun Gong practitioners and to abide by universal human rights may lead to some kind of action or pressure, says Matthew Kutolowski, spokesperson for the Falun Dafa Information Center, a non-profit group based in New York City.

"If it passes, and Bush goes to China in October, it will be Bush's duty to talk about the persecution," says Kutolowski, a Falun Gong practitioner who teaches English at Swarthmore College.

"I don't think the Chinese government has been nearly so successful in breaking Falun Gong as they claim," says Kutolowski. "There are still many millions of people there practicing, although they are not protesting as before, which pretty much insures being arrested. Now people will go out at night and post fliers and notices with information about persecution."

Although there is no way to know exactly how many people practice Falun Gong worldwide, there are volunteer contact persons in 40 countries, says Kutolowski.

Is it a religion?

Its followers, who call themselves practitioners, say no. "I think Falun Gong helps me to have a deeper understanding of religious beliefs and have a spiritual faith, but we don't think of Falun Gong as a religion," says John Li.

"It is a spiritual practice. There is no worshipping, or kowtowing," says Terri Morse, of Media, Delaware County, who says she experienced a deep, spiritual awakening when she started practicing about two years ago. She says she also got relief from painful physical symptoms of Lyme disease and fibromyalgia. "In Chinese medicine, it is believed that you cannot separate the mind and the body," she notes.

Catherine Wessinger, professor of religious studies at Loyola University in New Orleans, says that like other traditional practices, Falun Gong merges health practices and religious beliefs. "But it is definitely a religion," she says.

As co-editor of the journal Nova Religio, Wessinger is organizing a print symposium on Falun Gong to be published next year.

Julia Hardy, who teaches East Asian religions at Muhlenberg College, says it's too soon to tell what Falun Gong will turn out to be.

"There seems to be a movement in Asia. A lot of people want the same thing that Americans in the '60s wanted, to learn how to meditate, to learn new ways of looking at the world, and to learn various kinds of spiritual practices associated with Asian religions.

"You have to judge these groups over time," she adds. "If people benefit from it, and it makes their life better, that's great. All religions start that way. You can say that Christianity in the beginning was a cult."

Jingduan Yang describes the Falun Gong movement this way: "No organization, no office, no positions, no head jobs, no money transactions. It is a totally voluntary, individual practice. Everyone teaches everyone else. People learn free, you teach it free. The only thing people pay for is their [hard-copy] books and videos."

Although there is no official or central Falun Gong organization, practitioners are well-connected.

According to the Falun Dafa Web site (www.falundafa.org) there are practice groups in most major cities and universities in the United States, Canada, Australia and Europe. The Web site lists more than 100 links to other local Web sites listing local activities, groups, contacts and resources. Pennsylvania has three Web pages -- Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Penn State.

A package of materials supplied to The Morning Call contained professional quality documents, including a CD with a video about Falun Gong in China.

According to John Li, materials such as these are prepared by Falun Gong supporters volunteering their time in non-working hours.

"Expenses are paid by people out of their pockets. Most Chinese practitioners in the United States are very well educated. Most hold Ph.D.s. They are scientists or computer programmers. In our group, there are several English-speaking practitioners who can write. They have the skills to produce those materials at a very cheap rate, because they don't need anybody's help.

"This is a central theme of ours now. There is nobody else helping us."

There are no official statistics on how many people in the United States practice Falun Gong, but the Falun Dafa Information Center puts the number at tens of thousands.

In southeastern Pennsylvania, there is a core group of about 200 to 300 practitioners who meet regularly for group exercises at seven different practice sites.

In an effort to get the word out about China, "We do workshops at libraries, colleges and health fairs. We are doing public access TV," says Terri Morse, who practices Falun Gong with a group that meets in Kimberton, Chester County.

"There are volunteers every day at the Liberty Bell handing out information about the persecution in China," she says. "We meet people from around the world, and they are very familiar with Falun Gong, and anything to do with China. We have to place a microscope over [the Chinese government] to be sure they keep their promises on their human rights issues."

For his part, Bethlehem's John Li says, "I'm pretty happy, and I credit it to my practice of Falun Gong."

Reporter Joanna Poncavage
610-820-6754
joanna.poncavage@mcall.com

http://www.mcall.com/html/news/am_mag/falungong.htm



Falun Gong on the Web
08/19/01

Master Li's books

Falun Gong's texts, "Falun Gong" and "Zhuan Falun" by Li Hongzhi can be downloaded from the main Falun Gong Web site. Go to www.falundafa.org and click on "The Falun Dafa Books"

Other information

Falun Dafa Information Center: www.faluninfo.net
Friends of Falun Gong: www.fofg.org
Multi-faith information: www.belief.net

http://www.mcall.com/html/news/am_mag/e_pg004falunbox.htm