Guest Editorial
Author's Name Withheld
Followers and supporters of the Falun Gong (or Falun Dafa) movement gathered around the world to commemorate May 13th as Falun Dafa Day. In its eighth year, the occasion drew thousands of people in such diverse settings as Paris, Hong Kong, Moscow, Tel Aviv and San Francisco.
Colorful traditional Chinese costumes and dances featured prominently. The most dedicated followers of Falun Gong, a traditional-style, Buddha School, Qigong practice rooted in the Chinese heritage of cultivating the mind and body for health and spiritual growth, have endured brutal persecution on the Chinese mainland. Therefore, the international celebration reflected joy and concern, a mixture of human betterment, tragedy and oppression, hope and renewal.
On May 13, 1992, the primary teacher of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi, first introduced his program of Buddha School meditation and moral cultivation to the public. As adherents see it, that gesture showed his wish to improve the health and lives of others in a world plagued by illness, disfunction and suffering. The practice of Falun Gong is offered free to everyone.
By 1999, a study in China estimated that more than 70 million people practised the Falun Gong meditations and exercises, making it one of the fastest-growing physical-spiritual disciplines ever – until the Chinese government began to persecute its practitioners.
The latest anniversary celebrations paid tribute to the adherents in China. Since July 1999, the Chinese authorities have sought to “eradicate” Falun Gong and whoever dares to follow it, resulting in arbitrary arrests and imprisonment, torture, relentless propaganda and brainwashing. More than 3,000 people are known to have been beaten or tortured to death in custody. Hundreds more languish in China’s prison and labor-camp systems.
“It’s urgent to draw attention to their plight,” said Levi Browde of the New York-based Falun Gong Information Centre. “It’s tempting to look the other way, given the free world’s economic and business interests in China, but that would risk the loss of our own humanity.”
Amid dire injustice on the Chinese mainland, remarkable tales of courage and renewel unfold. Beaten down and nearly suffocated by a state apparatus hostile to spiritual beliefs, many Falun Gong followers find new inspirations in China’s own past and culture.
“It’s a past free of Communist tyranny and with a civilization guided by notions like virtue, humanity and harmony. It’s a wellspring of inspiration,” Browde said.
So the Falun Gong celebrations featured traditional Chinese songs and dances, swordsmanship, lions and dragons, calligraphy and ornate costumes. Although the practitioners in China couldn’t celebrate openly, millions presumably marked the occasion privately and in their own ways.
As Browde says, the persecution of Falun Gong in China gives the activities elsewhere “a whole new dimension of meaning”.
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