book review on falun gong

7/27/2019 Book Review on Falun Gong

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Falun Gong: The End of Days. By Maria Hsia Chang. (New Haven,CT: Yale University Press, 2004. 208 pp.)

Since April 25, 1999, when Falun Gong followers protested outsidethe Communist headquarters in Beijing, news reports about this reli-gious (or semi-religious) group has abounded in the mass media,especially in the English-speaking world. The Western journalisticportrayals of Falun Gong are often focused on how the Falun Gongfaithful suffered from persecution and how the Chinese governmentwas in the wrong. Finally, we have a book by Professor Maria HsiaChang, Falun Gong:The End of Days, which offers a balanced view ofboth this group and the Chinese government. Academic studies ofFalun Gong are only at the beginning stage. A Chinese by birth and a

political scientist by training, Dr. Chang is well equipped to investi-gate this new religious movement in a critical and yet sympatheticway. She does not embrace Falun Gongs view of the end of days, butshe is sympathetic toward the suffering of its followers. Her view ofthe Chinese government is critical, and yet rational. By including achapter on the history of millenarianism in China, she places thepersecution of Falun Gong in a proper historical context.

There are five chapters in the book. In chapter 1, A Religious SectDefies the State, Dr. Chang details the emergence, development, and

persecution of Falun Gong, whose followers have defied the govern-ment. To untrained eyes, persecution of Falun Gong is simply anideological combat. Dr. Chang has correctly pointed out that thegroups effective organization and deep permeation into varioussectors of the Chinese society have aroused fear in the government,which is very much aware of the countless uprisings in Chinese historythat were instigated by religious messages.

In chapter 2, Dr. Chang elaborates on the relationship betweenChinese religions and millenarian movements. In this chapter, Changdiscusses the folk religions of antiquity, Confucianism, Daoism and

Buddhism, and so on. She particularly singles out for treatment thosereligious movements such as the White Lotus Society, the Eight Tri-grams, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Boxers. She suggests that thesyncretic nature of Falun Gong very much resembles these move-ments, with which I agree.

Chapter 3 explores central questions such as, What do the FalunGong followers believe in? and How do they practice their beliefs?Here, Dr. Chang discusses the cosmology, gods, moral life, karma, andreincarnation as well as cultivational practice as taught by Falun

Gong. Obviously, Falun Gong draws on Buddhism, Daoism, andmodern science and synthesizes them into what its followers believedto be an integrated holistic system of belief and practice Dr Chang

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does not make a value judgment on these teachings, as she just pre-sents them as they are believed and practiced by the followers.

In chapter 4, Dr. Chang moves back again to the tension between

the government and the Falun Gong movement. The governmentlabeled Falun Gong as a cult, a label that the Falun Gong followersresisted. Along with the label is the governments strategy to crimi-nalize the activities of Falun Gong. Here, Dr. Chang disapproves theuse of this label. She quotes Leo Pfeffer, If you believe in it, it is areligion or perhaps the religion, and if you do not care one way oranother about it, it is a sect; but if you fear and hate it, it is a cult (p.98). As an observer of Chinese politics, Dr. Chang also questions thegovernments claim that cracking down on Falun Gong represents thewill of the people.

In the last chapter, Dr. Chang discusses various religious move-ments in contemporary China. She attributes the emergence of thesemovements to the social ills caused by Chinas new economic policies.She concludes that, by continuing the traditional Chinese statesintolerance of heterodox faiths, the Communist Party may well cometo reap the same fate. It may discover that, by politicizing and drivingunderground unapproved religions and other groups, it is hasteningthe time when such groups, like the roiling flood waters of the YellowRiver, eventually break through the dikes to directly challenge the

state (p. 158).The whole book is highly readable. It is scholarly and yet popular.In terms of the general absence of a serious study of Falung Gong, Dr.Changs book will have its rightful place for years to come. There area few critical points that I would like to raise regarding this book,however. First, the book relies heavily on secondary literature. Hasthe author done any fieldwork or actually met and talked with FalunGong followers? Second, there is some confusing usage of the termsthat appear throughout the book, such as religion, faith, cult, andsecret society. One would legitimately demand that the author define

these terms, as such definitions do affect our perceptions of the group.Last, one would expect Dr. Chang, as a political scientist, to offer herviews regarding possible solutions to the conflict between the Chinesegovernment and Falun Gong.

One logical conclusion that Dr. Chang could have drawn from heranalysis is that in order to stamp out millenarianism in contemporaryChina, the government should allow the five officially sanctionedfaithsCatholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Islam, and Daoismmore social and cultural space, as these faith traditions do much

to offer solace and comfort to those people who suffer while thecountry is experiencing a great transition, socially, economically, andculturally

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In spite of some shortcomings, Dr. Changs book is commendablefor its insights and richness of information. I would strongly recom-mend it to students in courses such as Chinese Religions and

Contemporary Chinese Politics. I would also recommend it to generalreaders who are interested in Chinese politics and religions.

Zhonghu YanHope College, Holland, Michigan

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book review on falun gong

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