By: Zixian Deng, Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science
Shi-min Fang, Ph.D. in Biochemistry
Revised May 31, 2000
An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Annual Conference of The American Family Foundation (April 28-29, 2000) in Seattle, WA
Equal authors listed in alphabetical order
The emergence of Falun Gong coincided with the rapid and far-reaching social changes since the economic reforms initiated in 1978. Despite the impressive growth of the economy at a national rate of 8 to 11% during this period, an increasing number of people were threatened with the possibility of unemployment, displacement, and social insecurity such as delayed pension payments and the reduction or the lack of medical benefits. City dwellers could no longer rely on the government- or work unit-subsidized health care. Additionally, the population aging problem was not seriously met with adequate policy intervention and psychological counseling (Yu, 1999). At the same time, health maintenance cost surged with almost all major pharmaceutical companies producing international brands, almost eliminated the inexpensive domestic products for disease treatments. This was exasperated by the continuous demand to upgrade hospital equipment, where advanced diagnostics tools increased the effectiveness of treatment at an apparently higher cost. The anxiety about health and the vanishing public health sectors contributed to the emergence of "alternative" health treatments. It was exactly the "health claims" that started the Yan Xin Qigong (the founder was understood to have claims to clairvoyant powers and moved to emphasize "De" in his Daoist interpretation), Xiang Gong (for details, see Gilley 1999), Zhong Gong, and many other breathing/meditation exercises methods in the late 1980s. Most Qigong schools were a combination of exercises and mediation, and the teachers/founders of those schools often refrained from metaphysical claims. According to the Chinese State Commission of Sports Activities, they registered over 60 different major schools of Qigong in the early 1990s. Each school had thousands of followers.
Falun Gong is often confused with Qigong by many casual observers: same standing postures, similar hand movements, but less the breathing control and methods. Sometimes it is confused with Buddhist meditation: same sitting postures, similar hand movements, but replaced with a fundamentally different worldview and procedures. However, according to Li, Falun Gong is neither or beyond. He suggests he is "reintroducing" a never-revealed knowledge to a perhaps savable race on the loathsome earth. In 1992, he started looking for followers around him. In establishing Falun Gong, Li's starting location had all the ripe conditions for a new form of Qigong, a genre he proudly claimed to belong to earlier (FLG E, 4-6, 20) but adamantly denied later (December 25, 1998). The location of Changchun, an industrial city of 1.5 million people in the Northeast of China, was heavily dependent on heavy industries such as mining and machinery production, a sector that suffered a steady decline in the 80s and 90s. The people faced uncertainty of their future and became susceptible to "spiritual leadership" including those of dubious kinds. Existing forms of Qigong and other meditation exercises familiarized people with its suggested health effects and prepared them for any new schools of exercises. The government classified Qigong as part of the sport activities and was willing to allow the growth of the formal civil organizations and the informal civic societies. The overall condition provided a ready clientele, an environment of relaxed supervision and confusing regulations to be taken the advantage of. There were ready consumers. The stage was ready. It only took an enterprising Master to make the show. And Li came.
In those locations enjoying prosperous sectoral development, such as in the coastal cities of Guangdong and Shandong provinces, another force played a role to create clientele in Li's market. The rapid mobility in the expanding cities created a pattern of social relations where social trust was difficult to establish and may not last (Beckford 1986). In contrast, overseas communities based on ethnic identities were relative more stable in maintaining their social connections. The pattern of development that we were observing in the United States was not the same as that in China . These two factors - unemployment and health concern amid rapid economic growth and social mobility - provided fertile grounds for fringe groups in the economically developing areas.
The rapid rise of Qigong exercisers in the late 80s and 90s corresponded to the mounting social problems that the government failed to address by postponing any remedies to compensate the lost security as well as the social support to the aging population. Most of the high concentration areas of Falun Gong showed the pattern of such a distribution: "1. [Geographically] Township and urban dwellers are the majority, 2. [Membership] Middle and old age population is the majority. 3. The core is occupied by some well educated" (Yu, 1999). Additionally, they were located in close proximity of Changchun, the origin of Falun Gong, and spread to other regions of lower income provinces and the rapid change regions.
While we may hypothesize the correlation between social changes and the interest in alternative health maintenance, we need to examine another aspect of Falun Gong: its attraction in the countryside (where most of the Falun Gong reports of maltreatment by the authority took place). Undoubtedly, there was a lower education achievement in the country when the average years of schooling is around 7 years in the prosperous regions, comparing that of 11 years in the city (World Bank SDI, 1998, CD-ROM). Li worked on this group of audience by retelling folklores (such as that of the foxes, and python, see JJYZ E, 19), recreating familiar deities, and "reincarnated" as past heroes. These stories included the now famous tale of his previous incarnations as Tang and Song emperors, and a national hero in Song Dynasty (see Hong Yin). Targeting the potential core of his followers with advanced degrees, Li formulated a replacement of science. He provided a framework where science as we know it was impossible, and his approach would lead to breakthroughs in physics , geophysics, astrophysics, astronomy, chemistry, history, geography, philosophy, social science, and etc. In deed, it was a complete paradigm shift that human knowledge as we now know it would be turned upside down (Lunyu; Sydney, 3).
There were three geographical areas of development of Falun Gong: the originating city Changchun and the surrounding areas such as Tianjin, the rapid economic growth areas such as Guangdong and Zhejiang, and the low-income countryside. There were three types of attraction in Falun Gong: the health benefits, the moral claims and the story retelling. If we may infer from the counts of Falun Gong-related accidents to the general distribution of the disciples, we may identify the centers of Falun Gong activities in China. From Table 1, the most affected areas included Shandong, Sichuan (the most populous province), Hebei (including Beijing) and Henan. The remote areas, such as Gansu, Ningxia, Hainan, and Inner Mongolia, and the most populous and prosperous city of Shanghai were relatively safe from Falun Gong, though that city had the highest percentage of retiree (65+ year old) population (13.1%). The case of Shanghai alone disputes the aging population and spiritual vacuum thesis and supports the economic and social change proposition. Another source to determine the disciple distribution comes from the records of Li's own lecture and tour circuit. In the eight years of Falun Gong, Li either lectured or toured Hebei (including Beijing), Tianjin, Jilin (Changchun), Guangdong (Guangzhou), Shandong, Zhejiang, Henan, and Shaanxi. Except Shaanxi, all the above provinces had a higher accidental death rate within Falun Gong than those untouched by Li's ordinary physical presence.
Often the puzzle to social scientists is this: What in the logically inconsistent teachings escape the notice of so many rational people? How do the literally low quality writings become an object of worship by highly educated followers? Next, we shall examine the details of these attractions.
Notes:
12. This distinction is significant in that there are two patterns of Falun Gong formation inside China and outside.
13. For an experiment Li was involved in neutronic energy, see ZFL E, 75.
(New Threads, Revised May 31, 2000)
