Talk:Falun Gong outside mainland China

New section?
I wander if it would be appropriate to create a section called Falun Gong and bussiness with the following entry: "Vasilios Zouponidis becomes the Business Pioneer of the year. An engagement for human rights gave birth to his idea of starting a business in telecom and it has developed to a very profitable business. The Prize was handed over by the King of Sweden in the royal castle in Stockholm. In a Swedish TV interview Vasilios told the audience about his practice of Falun Gong and the brutal violation of human rights in communist ruled China. ", since this issue seems to be quite notable. --HappyInGeneral (talk) 09:31, 30 October 2011 (UTC)


 * Events concerning a single individual are probably too narrow to be described at length, but if it can be shown to be part of a broader pattern or trend, then we can describe that.Homunculus (duihua) 17:28, 13 November 2011 (UTC)

Revisions
I'll alluded to this over at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Religion/Falun Gong work group, but am going to articulate it in some more detail now. This page has been pretty badly neglected for a long time. I have been working to prepare an update and reorganization, but would like to make sure I haven't missed any important considerations as I do that. A few of the problems I've found on the page, which I hope this will address:
 * It's poorly sourced in a number of areas
 * The page organization lacks coherence; for instance, 'public relations' is listed under the heading of 'ethnographic fieldwork'.
 * There is a good deal of highly relevant information that is nowhere to be found, including the history and development of Falun Gong's overseas diaspora, their congregational experiences (ie. group meditations and study sessions), organization of Falun Gong overseas, and so forth. A number of academic studies of high quality have examined these questions, so there's a lot to draw on.
 * The list of ways in which Falun Gong has responded to suppression (currently named 'protest actions') is extremely limited. In fact, the current section is mostly about Vancouver, Canada. I intend to flesh this out, looking at protests and demonstrations, parades, vigils, sit-ins, legal initiatives, the use of arts and culture, the creation of media branches, research & advocacy groups, etc. In doing this, and in other parts of the page as well, I hope to describe trends in broader terms, rather than giving undue weight to a small handful of very isolated events (unless they are somehow especially illustrative of a trend, but even then, they should probably not have whole paragraphs devoted to them).
 * Some of the information on the page is now outdated. In the case of the Vancouver consulate protest and the Les Presses Chinoises defamation case, for instance, the courts have reversed their previous decisions since the page was last edited. Similarly, there has been some recent news coverage addressing new legal initiatives, hacking and espionage by the PRC, and other issues that are worth including here.
 * There is no section examining the international response to Falun Gong and the crackdown
 * There is no discussion of Falun Gong outside North America, really. I hope that I can bring in more information, throughout the page, on Falun Gong in Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, etc.

Are there other issues I've failed to consider? Homunculus (duihua) 14:55, 13 November 2011 (UTC)
 * I've made the changes described above. In preparing these changes, I cut down on the length of individual anecdotes in favor of illustrating broad trends, supplemented with succinct examples. Not perfect,  but it's much more comprehensive, organized, and global in scope than before. Homunculus (duihua) 01:20, 15 January 2012 (UTC)
 * Er yes, but your changes, all performed in a single edit incorporating content and structural changes, are very difficult to track. From a quick reading, it seems that the article is now very heavily biased towards Falun Gong; many of the elements critical of FLG seem to have been virtually wiped out. Could you undo it and re-create your changes in a more transparent fashion? I don't want to breach my self-imposed topic ban. -- Ohconfucius  ¡digame! 03:32, 21 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Due to the substantial scale of changes that were necessary (see above), including very significant organizational and structural changes,  I prepared the document offline over the course of several months, all the while waiting to see if there would be any response to my proposals. I took the total silence on this page (and the sorry state of the article) as license to be bold. I apologize that the changes are difficult to track,  but if I were to make these changes in a series of smaller edits, I think the diffs would be even more difficult to follow. Moreover, since most of what I did was add content (page length doubled, number of citations more than doubled), implementing changes incrementally would not solve this problem.


 * I made an earnest attempt to be even-handed in my treatment of the material. Nearly all the references from the previous page were preserved, as was the vast majority of the content. Some content—both 'positive' and 'negative'—was condensed and summarized, and non-notable events discarded or relegated to references. Looking at the previous version, there was some material that might have been construed as critical of Falun Gong — for instance, city officials saying they didn't want Falun Gong distributing political leaflets at parades, or a lengthy anecdote about an individual in Vancouver who didn't want to print a newspaper that wrote a negative review of Shen Yun. None of those things stand up as notable in an article on such a large topic. It also occurred to me that, if we focused on individual anecdotes, it would be difficult to ensure neutrality, as anecdotes and opinions are easily cherry-picked (see suggestion above to report on community awards earned by individual practitioners). Better, then, to describe broad trends and significant events, with anecdotes used selectively to illustrate those trends. In this spirit, I also cut out or reduced a number of other things that may be construed as sympathetic to Falun Gong, such as the paragraph about an Ottawa practitioner winning a discrimination case, and a petition signed by Yale University faculty and students in support of Falun Gong. Finally, some commentary  was removed when neutral, concise statements of fact were all that was necessary; for instance, we don't need a paragraph of Maria Chang's thoughts on how the socio-political climate of contemporary China may have guided the Epoch Times' public representations.


 * If you have some specific questions or ideas on how the page can be improved, please do share them. I had a couple more changes to make as well, which I will do now. Homunculus (duihua) 05:43, 21 January 2012 (UTC)


 * Sorry that I've been largely absent from this project for a couple months. Overall the changes look like a significant improvement. Well done. I noticed that you kept a couple things from the previous version that are probably not of great value at this point, like the allegations of violence in Argentina. There doesn't seem to be a very good source, and I'm not sure what it would add even if there was. Also, the section on parades doesn't have any references. There are also some things that we might consider addressing and which are not currently covered.  Namely, information on the legal status of the practice in other countries (for instance, in Southeast Asia, or in theocracies...?), and on refugees and asylum seekers. I remember reading about snakeheads directing people to present themselves as Falungong to gain asylum.  We probably don't need a whole section on this,  but maybe a few sentences. The organization section could also use a bit of information on how Falungong activities are funded. Hope this is helpful.— Zujine |talk 18:42, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Thanks.
 * I added references to the bit on parades.
 * I didn't totally scrap the Argentina anecdote, but did shorten it and remove the Friends of Falun Gong reference in favor of a third party source. It's one of very few things we have on FG in Latin America, so it might have some value yet.
 * Regarding funding, I actually thought I had written something on this, but maybe I imagined it. I'll try putting something together.  For sources,  I can draw on Burgdoff, Porter and Ownby, though they dealt with Falun Gong in a simpler time, when individuals could easily pitch in to cover the cost of events and parades. In terms of funding for satellites and the like, there isn't much to draw on. The WSJ article from 2007 is a good place to start though.  Let me know if you are aware of any other potential sources.
 * Good ideas otherwise. I can get to that eventually.Homunculus (duihua) 17:55, 22 January 2012 (UTC)

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"Good article" status needs review, article needs extensive reconfiguration and reworking
Looking at this article, it's clear that this article would look very different if it were rewritten in 2020 with reliable secondary sources. This is so much so the case that anyone looking at this article after 2016 with familiarity with be quite confused. Here's some recent coverage of the activities of the new religious group exterior to mainland China:


 * Braslow, Samuel. 2020. "Inside the Shadowy World of Shen Yun and Its Secret Pro-Trump Ties". Los Angeles Magazine. March 9, 2020. Online.


 * Quote:
 * Among other pronouncements, [Falung Gong founder and leader Hongzhi] Li has claimed that aliens started invading human minds in the beginning of the 20th century, leading to mass corruption and the invention of computers. He has also denounced feminism and homosexuality and claimed he can walk through walls and levitate. But the central tenet of the group’s wide-ranging belief system is its fierce opposition to communism.


 * In 2000, Li founded Epoch Times to disseminate Falun Gong talking points to American readers. Six years later he launched Shen Yun as another vehicle to promote his teachings to mainstream Western audiences. Over the years Shen Yun and Epoch Times, while nominally separate organizations, have operated in tandem in Falun Gong’s ongoing PR campaign against the Chinese government, taking directions from Li.


 * Relatively unknown before 2016, Epoch Times enjoyed a surge in traffic after the presidential election thanks to stridently pro-Trump content. NBC News reported in 2017 that the site was drawing millions of visitors a year, more than The New York Times and CNN combined. But Falun Gong didn’t restrict its pro-Trump stance to the paper.

This article discusses a shift that occured in 2017, and, indeed, from that time the vast majority of sources start popping up. It appears coverage has only snowballed since, a risk the organization seems willing to take to continue to wield political influence. Let's continue digging through media coverage:


 * Roose, Kevin. 2020. Epoch Times, Punished by Facebook, Gets a New Megaphone on YouTube. The New York Times, Feb. 5, 2020. Online.


 * Quote:
 * Little is known about The Epoch Times’s finances and organizational structure. The nonprofit Epoch Times Association, which operates it, reported $8.1 million in revenue and $7.2 million in expenses on its 2017 public tax filings. An investigation by NBC News last summer found ties between the outlet and other Falun Gong-affiliated organizations, such as the Shen Yun dance performance series and the video broadcaster [New Tang Dynasty, New Tang Dynasty Television ], and said the organizations 'appear to share missions, money and executives.' ... Three former Epoch Times employees, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they feared retaliation from the organization .. described its staff as primarily Falun Gong practitioners, many of whom had little previous experience in journalism. Editorial employees, they said, were encouraged to attend weekly “Fa study” sessions outside work hours, during which they would gather to study the teachings of Falun Gong’s spiritual leader, Li Hongzhi. ... The Epoch Times has long denied having direct ties to Falun Gong. Mr. Gregory said that the organization was primarily funded through subscriptions and ads, and that "donations are a small part of our income."

Hmm, alright. Let's take a look at the NBC article that this entry mentions:


 * Collins, Zadrozny & Ben Collins. 2019. "Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times". NBC News. August 20, 2019. Online.


 * Quote:
 * Despite its growing reach and power, little is publicly known about the precise ownership, origins or influences of The Epoch Times.


 * The outlet’s opacity makes it difficult to determine an overall structure, but it is loosely organized into several regional tax-free nonprofits. The Epoch Times operates alongside the video production company, NTD, under the umbrella of The Epoch Media Group, a private news and entertainment company whose owner executives have declined to name, citing concerns of "pressure" that could follow.


 * The Epoch Media Group, along with Shen Yun, a dance troupe known for its ubiquitous advertising and unsettling performances, make up the outreach effort of Falun Gong, a relatively new spiritual practice that combines ancient Chinese meditative exercises, mysticism and often ultraconservative cultural worldviews. Falun Gong’s founder has referred to Epoch Media Group as “our media,” and the group’s practice heavily informs The Epoch Times’ coverage, according to former employees who spoke with NBC News.


 * ... In 2009, the founder and leader of Falun Gong, Li Hongzhi, came to speak at The Epoch Times' offices in Manhattan. Li came with a clear directive for the Falun Gong volunteers who comprised the company’s staff: “Become regular media.”

And more straightforward discussion from MSNBC, reporting on an NBC article discussed below:


 * Ruhle, Stephanie. 2019. "Pro-Trump news outlet The Epoch Times funded by Chinese spiritual group". August 20, 2019. MSNBC. Online.


 * Caption quote:
 * NBC News has exclusively learned that the popular conservative news site The Epoch Times is funded by a Chinese spiritual community called Falun Gong, which hopes to take down the Chinese government.

The NBC article refers to an article by The New Yorker:


 * Tolentino, Jia. 2019. "Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling, World of Shen Yun". The New Yorker. Online.


 * Quote:
 * Falun Gong also has its own media outlet, a newspaper called the Epoch Times, which was founded in 2000. (The chairman of the newspaper’s board has said that it is “not a Falun Gong newspaper,” because “Falun Gong is a question of an individual’s belief.”) The paper skews conservative: among its recent pieces are stories headlined “Why We Should Embrace President Trump’s Nationalism,” “Government Welfare: A Cancer Known as Communism,” and “President Trump, Build the Wall.” It also is the world’s foremost purveyor of Shen Yun content, publishing such stories as “Excited Fans Welcome Shen Yun at Taiwanese Airport,” “The Vivid Storytelling of Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra,” and “Shen Yun Audiences Already Waiting for Next Year."

And a few years back, here in Germany, referring to the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD):
 * Busvine, Douglas. 2018. "German far right far ahead in use of social media". Reuters. September 13, 2018. Online.


 * Quote:
 * Instead, the researchers found that AfD supporters amplified the reach of media coverage of stories that the AfD posted or commented on. Social media users sympathetic to the party often tweeted links to stories in Die Welt, a conservative daily, but also to right-wing media outlets.


 * These included news sites such as Junge Freiheit and the German edition of the Epoch Times, which is part of a media group set up by Chinese-American members of the Falun Gong sect and focuses on the same immigration issues at the heart of the AfD platform.

There are many, many, many more sources out there discussing these topics—thousands—and in fact we can and should dig further into these topics. Additionally, this does not take into account the various other extensions of the organization, such as the Society of Classical Poets, which fly a little further under the radar but with aligned goals.

This article needs reassessment and, frankly, a total rewrite. I'm tagging it for NPOV and a total rewrite in the mean time. &#58;bloodofox: (talk) 20:46, 22 May 2020 (UTC)

Neutrality and Truth

 * After reading many Falun Gong-related pages, the tune of this page is more peaceful and less provocative. It is important to follow both neutrality and the truth. Sky-Dream (talk) 06:38, 23 May 2020 (UTC)