Falun Gong: The End of Days

It is very hard, almost impossible, getting real, independent views and insights on Falun Gong and China. This book does just that, to my very delight. Falun Gong lies, has propoganda media outlets (NTDTV, EPoch Times). China lies, has propoganda outlets (all Chinese news). Both have some truth, both like to lie. Why, I never understood, why Falun Gong fights propoganda with their own...examples are of having those Media outlets, yet never admitting that they are just that..falun gong owned/operated. On NTDTV they have reports each day on how many people have left the chinese communist part...which interesting is like 25,938 each day. Yes, I am sure that's accurate. (sarcasim alert) The book gives real information on Falun Gong, it's crazy beliefs, Li Hongzhi (founder of falung gong and a psycho guy who thinks he's there are aliens amount us) as well as chronicling china's crackdown of falun gong and reasons why. The only short coming of the book I can find is that it doesn't give much history on Falun Gong prior to 1998 or so...why did Falun Gong become so big? Strange, it seems, with such strange beliefs...there are suggestions why QiGong has become popular but not this one in particular. Either way, this i sa very well written, idependent analysis of the situation.

There are a few qualities that make this book a very attractive reading. First, the author definitely tries to give an objective account, giving the positions of both Falun Gong and Chinesse government, at the same time providing her own commentary. Second, the book is very concise. Every page contains information that is neccessary for understanding of various aspects of this religion and all this is delivered in very clear fashion. I found the chapter that analyses the roots of Falun Gong, its relation to other, older religions and various events in Chinesse history to be very informative. I definitely cannot say that I am anything like an expert in this matter (this is my first reading about Falun Gong) but it seems to me that I got an understanding of this movement. Highly recommended to anybody wishing to understand main ideas of Falun Gong and the place of this movement in Chinesse history.

This book is currently, to my knowledge, the only objective study of Falun Gong in its current historical and social context. The author admirably takes no sides and pulls no punches, whether on covering Falun Gong or the Chinese government's behavior in response to it. The book does a good job of concisely explaining the rather convoluted cosmology of Falun Dafa, which was admittedly very hard for me to swallow (note that the cosmology is central to Falun Dafa and that the exercises (i.e., Falun Gong) are just the outward display of the precepts of Falun Dafa). But it does so in the context of describing the history and tradition China's millenarian movements, which have been many, fairly extraordinary and often the foundation of rebellions against the state. The book also surveys contemporary religious sects that have also been persecuted by the Chinese state. This last bit is particularly helpful for viewing the Falun Gong phenomenon in the appropriate context. Due to extreme economic and social dislocation, messianic, apocalyptic and millenarian faiths created by charismatic leaders have proliferated and attracted huge numbers of people in China (numbering in the thousands and millions). I was amazed at the number of followers of multitude of Christian-based faiths that had sprung up in China where the leader claimed him or herself to be the second coming of Christ or even God himself (which, if you look back to the Taiping Rebellion, could almost be considered a Chinese tradition!). The book also goes into detail about the Chinese governments crackdown on the practitioners, examining their justifications and discussing the reasons for it. Basically, the author sees the Chinese Communist Party's ("CCP") campaign against Falun Gong and other religions as counterproductive to its attempt to hold on to power. The paranoia of the CCP that would drive it to stamp out any alternative and potentially competing form of social organization (even ones with whacky far-out ideas) is based on a fundamental and deep-rooted insecurity about (and actual frailty of) its own legitimacy and authority over the people for whom it claims to act as the "vanguard." The irony is that in this instance the CCP is creating its own enemies where none had existed before. These groups had typically originated as apolitical religious organizations targeting personalized spirituality, but through persecution, they and their leaders become politicized and actively begin to challenge the power of the state by resisting its persecution. I suppose this is all a manifestation of the aphorism that power both corrupts and blinds, and absolute power corrupts absolutely and blinds absolutely (sic, I sort of made up the last bit ad hoc). Nonetheless, if you ignore the efficacy of the liberal idea of the separation of church and state as instrumental in creating peace and social harmony and instead focus myopically on Chinese history of secret societies fomenting rebe

I have read two other books on Falun Gong, one is Falun Gong's Challenge to China by Danny Schechter and the other one is Wild Grass by Ian Johnson. In fact, I have been to both Schechter and Johnson's book-touring lectures. Chang's book does not have the publicity of either of the two authors. Schechter and Johnson's books are intimate stories and they are trusted by Falun Gong practitioners and are friends of the group. One might argue they are not critical about Falun Gong. Chang's book is much more objective on the group. And she is very articulate on what the group is about. It is a well-researched short study of the topic. In particular, the chapter on the beliefs and practice is well written.