Customer Reviews

Falun Gong: The End of Days

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I wanted to like Chang's book, really. If I had high hopes they were not without justification: a number of journalists are citing Chang in articles on Falungong, and it is published by an academic press. Moreover the topic is an important one, what with millions of Falungong adherents being assaulted by the state in China and few of us in the West knowing what they're about.

But Chang's book disappoints on several accounts; at worst, I would wager, it sets back scholarship and discussion of the group. Her scholarship is badly outdated (circa. 1999), she has not done any fieldwork or interviews with adherents, and somehow she hasn't availed herself of any of the scholarly literature on Falungong, of which there is much. She neither engages questions and issues others raise, nor builds on previous findings. This is really as inexcusable as it is baffling. Professor Berend ter Haar's website on the Falungong thus remains a much better point of entry to researching the group and its suppression. David Ownby's forthcoming book should be much more helpful as well. The book by Danny Schechter is more reliable, even (though he is a journalist, not a scholar), as he does not take claims by China's state-run press at face value, as Chang does often (e.g., on the alleged self-immolations), and distinguishes better his own engagement of the Falungong's doctrine from that of its adherents.

Which leads me to the first serious, though perhaps not obvious, problem with Chang's book. Namely, her rather clumsy portrayal of the Falungong's beliefs. Her depiction borders at times on comical for its misreadings. Humorous, that is, not for what it tells about the group, but for what it suggests of Chang's narrow training in the study of religion; to use the words of one of my advisors, she suffers from "religious illiteracy." (She is, to be fair, a political scientist.) The most obvious dimension to this is her failing to discern which beliefs are central to the practice and which are peripheral. This makes an enormous difference in how we're to conceptualize the group: do they gather to talk about aliens and the end of the world (the latter notion seeming to have captivated Chang's attention, though I believe it to again be a misreading), or about moral self-cultivation and living out the practice's ideals of compassion, tolerance, etc.? My own research and that of most others suggests the latter. If Chang had done some fieldwork (or even interviews) I suspect she would have come to different conclusions. Unless, that is, she is trying to be sensational. One gets this feeling at several points (take for example the book's unlikely subtitle). Similarly, and again owing to the armchair-approach to her study, Chang doesn't engage the question of what real, living followers of the Falungong think, believe, hope, worry over, or even, notably, do. In the section on "beliefs and practices" she somehow forgets to discuss the Falungong's trademark exercises. This is rather incredible. Imagine a book purporting to describe Yoga in its entirety only to overlook its very much central, bodily discipline of posture, breathing, stretching, etc. It seems Chang simply grabbed a few of Falungong's books off the internet and felt she had the group figured out. What needs to be, and remains to be, asked is how followers themselves interpret the doctrine, not Chang. We want to know what 70-100 million believers in China think, not what one Maria Chang in Nevada thinks. Nor does one get any sense for what gave the practice such remarkable appeal in China; her rather poorly sketched history of Chinese sectarian religion reveals little.

The second biggest failing of the book is its analysis of the persecution. Chang's interpretation seems built of press clippings and newswire feeds, and somehow does not engage the vast, and insightful, body of scholarship from the past five years on Falungong and the PRC crackdown. Her thesis -- that the regime was overwhelmed by a collective "fear" that is based on historical precedents -- would have been fine in late 1999 when we knew little of the situation, but research since then has problematized badly such a simple take. For example, there were very divergent -- even polarized -- views among members of China's Politburo Standing Committee as to what to do with the Falungong, and by no means did members all fear with communal dread, much less wish to take down, the group. (Moreover, she offers not evidence to support her claim that "the leadership" was in fear of history repeating itself. She is panning a hypothesis as a conclusion.) Chang misses this point as well as the complex, important political infighting surrounding the banning of Falungong, forgoing nuance in favor of simple, smooth narrative.

This is not to say Chang doesn't have her moments. Her depiction of the CCP and its despotism, its contradictions, and the veneer of legality with which it bullies its own citizens are useful passages. (Most soft-pedal on these issues.) Her observations on China's self-proclaimed "rule of law" are poignant and helpful, though not new. For this reason I grant the book two stars, not one.

I am left to conclude Yale was hurrying this one off to press. If its scholarship wasn't enough to give one pause, its brevity (only 150 pages of text?), its layout (is that triple-spacing they used?), and the long, baffling tangents Chang goes off on (25 pages on terribly irrelevant past sects?) lead one to conclude that Yale saw a market for the book and didn't want to lose time.

Indeed, there is a need for a good full length monograph on the Falungong, but Chang's book leaves much, regrettably, to be desired.

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.

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 to understand why the CCP acts the way it does (not to justify its actions in any way, though).

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.

I don't want to say too much about this publication other then that it has very flawed sources. Many of the quotations and facts the author states about the practice of Falun Dafa are taken from Chinese Communist Party propaganda Articles.

When a publication is using seriously flawed and false sources, I personally see no value in it. It basically becomes a book of false information which is of no use to anyone except maybe the Chinese Communist Party who have been using propaganda to persecute people for the past 55 years.

I cannot recommend this book at all. If you want a proper commentary on the situation of Falun Gong and the History of the Chinese Communist Party I highly recommend you Read "The 9 Commentaries on Communist Party"

In fact if you really want a clear picture on the situation in China and on major issues like the persecution of Falun Gong, the Epoch Times is a very worthy News source and currently the most respected source on China news available today.

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.

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.