Falun Gong and racism

[XenuHubbard]

I have been in China, and didn't trust news reports from there about Falun Gong, but in Taiwan, it is pretty much common knowledge that Falun Gong is against race mixing, calling people of mixed heritage things such as "unclean", and part of a conspiracy. (What else...?)

Is this something known in the West? The book with these "revelations" has conveniently not been translated into English. Just wondering.

[Charlatan]

I've never heard this of Falun Gong but then most of us don't know much about it...

[The_Dude]

i've seen 'em protest, in china and the US.

in china, i hear about 'em getting sent to camps to "clean their mind" or whatever using brutal techniques or whatever they need. "re-education" might be a better word.

i thought it was a spiritual group, trying to bring religion into officially atheistic china.

anyway, i'm not surprised that they're against mixing races, they are a religious group.

[mystmarimatt]

i've only heard bits and pieces, but it's mostly been bad. those crazy chinese people. yee gods.

[XenuHubbard]

Before I went to Taiwan, I didn't know much apart from that it's pretty similar to Scientology (if you're in an Asian country, in the West the approach is different.)

I've seen Falun Gong get arrested in China.
Here in Taiwan, people mostly just roll their eyes. Kind of like, "yeah, whatever, run around in your yellow shirts..."

Too bad that as in all situations such as the one in China, the followers suffer, while the "spiritual" leaders will rake in more cash from the controversy.

[Shokan]

http://www.falundafa.org/book/eng/flg.htm

Read all about it.

[XenuHubbard]

In Li's view, the races are not to be intermingled. Mixed-race children, he notes, are a symptom of societal decline. A race has its own particular ''biosphere,'' and whenever children are born of a mixed-race relationship, they are ''defective persons.'' Li contends that heaven itself is segregated. ''Anybody who does not belong to his race will not be cared for. I do not just say that. It is really true. I am revealing the secret of heaven to you.''

http://www.gospelcom.net/apologetics...02.html#racism

Read even more about it. Christian website, though.

[Jizzosh]

That's really interesting. I lived in Taipei, Taiwan a little over two years ago, and I never heard anything about it. Everyone I met there was wonderfully polite and helpful, even though my Chinese was so poor I could screw up Ni Hao. I have a good friend who is married to a girl from Taiwan, and he's never talked about any discrimination. Hmm, I'll have to read more before I plan to travel back to the East.

[XenuHubbard]

Well, in Taiwan nobody cares about the Falun Gong. The quotes above are from Falun Gong's "great teacher". It's just funny that so many Westerners are joining a blatantly racist organization.

As for the Taiwanese; I love it here. If you just try to speak some Chinese, they become very helpful.

I've only met racism twice; one guy was a Taiwanese "hick", the other was an obvious triad member. Since the first guy was a restaurant owner, and I was having dinner with my fiancees relatives at the time, I just scored extra points for it. They could tell too, and they could tell I didn't get angry. I just ignored it.

[michaelmolnar]

I know lots of Falun Gong practitioners who are in a mixed race marriage, myself included, my wife is a coloured South African and we have a daughter, I am from a mixed hungarian and romanian background.
Also Taiwan has the highest number of Falun Gong practitioners than any other country in the world, and I believe a few years ago it was in the tens of thousands, I imagine that number would be quite higher by now.
So I guess the theory that Falun Gong is racist is incorrect and I am living proof that this is the case.

[Elphaba]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Jump to: navigation, search

Falun Gong (法輪功 — literally Practice of the Wheel of Law) is a controversial Chinese spiritual movement which was started in 1992 by Li Hongzhi. Central to Falun Gong are five sets of exercises (four standing, and one sitting) that involve meditation and are claimed to help in the "purification" of mind and the body. Employing many routines reminiscent of qigong breathing exercises, and theoretical language containing elements of Buddhism and Taoism, it adds also New Age and apocalyptic beliefs. Also known as Falun Dafa, the practice has grown swiftly in popularity around the world.

The government of the People's Republic of China began a nation-wide suppression of Falun Gong on July 20, 1999. Concerns were triggered especially when 10,000 practitioners gathered at the Central Appeal Office at Foyou street, outside Zhongnanhai. According to government sources, this event demonstrated that practitioners could gather in large demonstrations. Additionally, reports confirmed that significant numbers of Chinese officials (including military and police personnel) were practicing. After the persecution began, the actual number of Falun Gong practitioners in China was estimated by the government at less than 2 million; however, according to a state-conducted survey in 1998, there were several tens of millions of practitioners in China. Falun Gong sources claim that there were 70-100 million practitioners - which would exceed the estimated membership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has burned and destroyed books and other materials about Falun Gong, and blocked access to internet resources about the topic.

Treatment of Falun Gong members has been regarded in the West as a major international human rights issue affecting freedom of religion and freedom of speech. The Chinese government justifies its actions by denouncing the group as an "evil cult" that spreads superstition and discourages the use of medical treatment for serious illnesses. Falun Gong adherents point out the non-violent nature of the teachings, and that practitioners are free to enter or leave the group as they please, and that this distinguishes Falun Gong from many tightly controlled religious cults. However, Li Hongzhi uses overtly religious language to describe himself and his mission.

Contents [hide]
1 Origins and beliefs
1.1 Beliefs
1.2 Purifying the body
1.3 Morality
2 Government crackdown
2.1 The media war
2.2 The Tiananmen Square self-immolation incident
2.3 Foreign views on Falun Gong
2.4 24-hour continuous protests
2.5 Falun Gong presence overseas
3 References
4 External links

[Cynthetiq]

they show up from time to time in different areas of NYC to show demonstrations of people in makeup looking like they have been beaten up, sitting in cells like they are imprisoned. It's a bit odd but then again, this is NYC.

[Pragma]

I saw a bunch of them in Hong Kong back in December - I didn't even realize what was happening at first, there were just a bunch of Chinese people standing around, singing Christian Christmas songs. Later, my boss let me know that they were Falun Gong, and that's why there were cops around watching them.

They seemed peaceful enough, but I didn't know about the racism thing - and of course one demonstration is never enough to get a good read on an organization.

[Charlatan]

The Falun Dafa (also called Falun Gong) were in the Toronto Santa Claus parade this year.




I found their precense a bit odd...