Falun Gong: The End of Days

Rating:
Summary: objective analysis, good reading
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Not good if you actually want to know what the group is like
Review: The book is alright. A lot of the content I feel is probably quite accurate, except for the description of the group, which was a serious fault on the part of the author in my opinion. Having studied the group and read much of their teachings myself (including Zhuan Falun, Falun Gong, essentials for further advancement, and others) I feel they are much misunderstood.

For some reason it seems that people love to find ways to make a spiritual practice look weird, I guess it makes it more interesting, but Falun Gong isn't really weird at all (not unless you consider all Christians, Buddhists, and Daoists to be weirdos as well). I think that by quoting any of these religions texts out of context they can look pretty weird too (ever read the book or revelations?), however if you actually make an effort to understand the unusual aspects of a spirituality (ex. "three flowers gathering above the head" in Falun Gong) from within the context that it is written and by looking at the spirituality as whole, you will find that it really isn't that weird. What the author does is exactly this. She doesn't give you the whole picture of the group and is overly skeptical. Aspects of the teachings are taken out of context and used to make the group look weird.

In addition to taking things out of context, I believe that this author uses sources from the CCP's propaganda to describe Falun Gong. For instance she talks about how Li Hongzhi was challenged to a supernormal ability competition and that he couldn't compete so in frustration he placed a law wheel in the guys abdomen and spun it the wrong way....What?! That's ridiculous. I consider myself an expert on this movement and have studied it a lot, but I have never come across anything like that, nor have I ever been led to believe that Li Hongzhi would ever do such a thing. However, having studied a lot of the CCP's articles, statements, and stories about Falun Gong (enough to understand that you can't possible take them seriously), I wouldn't be at all surprised if this came from them. It's exactly the type of story that would be run in some state-run magazine or "newspaper" and I highly doubt there is any truth to it at all. As a political scientist the author should know that she can't use a source like this to provide a valid description of the group or the teacher. Just for your reference I recall something Mr. Li once wrote discussing how bad it is that some qigong masters actually participate in these "supernormal ability competitions," and that this is among the aspects that indicate that a qigong master has gone awry (or something to that extent). Put simply: it's very unlikely that he would participate in something like that, let alone become angry and take revenge. In my opinion, I truly think that Mr. Li is an honest and kind man, and I really feel bad that he has become a target for slander like this.

Ms. Chang's book is fine if you want to know more about today's CCP and the current situation in China, but if you actually want to know what Falun Gong is (rather than hearing Ms. Chang's or my own biased opinion), then read Zhuan Falun and contact a local practitioner. Get it from the source.

Rating:
Summary: Objective account.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Finally, a Fair and Objective Book!
Review: 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 rebellion, you might be able appreciate why the CCP acts the way it does.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants an objective account of the Falun Gong situation in China and a better understanding of some of the social issues currently confronting the Chinese people. A book of this kind has been long overdue.