User:John Carter/Falun Gong books

GROUND RULES FOR THIS PAGE. =Bad Elements=
 * 1) This page is intended, for the beginning, to be used as a quotefarm, in more or less direct violation of guidelines, yes, but this is userspace. Specifically, at least initially, what is expected is that anyone who seeks to edit it will do so by adding a quotation directly from the source, to the draft article below, with appropriate citation. This would include at least in the beginning quotes from works about the subject itself, including discussion of the nature of the content according to independent sources. Once that is done, more of an effort to develop the content related specifically to the content of the book will likely be added, possibly with less emphasis on direct quotations. The majority of the articles included are of books. Some, like Jennifer Zeng, are closely related to books, so there would be some question what content goes where. Having them both here makes it a bit easier to determine that. I have also added a few other biographies of important people in the Falun Gong movement, and some media. Once all the material on the subject is gathered together, I am going to ask one of our better writers of articles, who is somewhat familiar with Falun Gong, or, perhaps, a member of our Guild of Copyeditors if he is unavailable, to copyedit the material. However, if we get enough material, that copyediting might well be enough to bring these articles to GA status rather easily.
 * 2) All material to be added should be added as either a quotation or a very close paraphrase. Ideally, sentence by sentence citations might work best.
 * 3) This page is in userspace, specifically, my userspace. As such, I can request any editor to no longer edit this page, and violation of that request is in general taken as a very serious offense in and of itself. I personally have no intentions of doing so, but, if people misbehave significantly, they might well be asked to leave.
 * 4) If requested, this page could be broken up into separate articles per book, so that the individual contributions of the editors involved are kept in the record. But, please remember, at least initially, all the edits will simply be additions of quotes or close paraphrases, so the contributions wouldn't be that significant in the long run, so unless one intends to do a lot of edits here and is concerned abut their edit count, it might not be that big a deal.
 * 5) There really isn't a lot of purpose to using the talk page initially, barring perhaps challenging the accuracy of a quotation or paraphrase. If you believe the paraphrase is inaccurate, or if the accuracy of a quotation is challenged, please use the verification needed template.
 * 6) Also, I hope everyone realizes that this page is not intended to be permanent. It is more or less intended to be what it seems to be, a draft version of articles. However, if it proves successful, it could, I guess, potentially be used as a location for articles on other related topics to be developed, under the same groundrules.
 * 7) I tend to think, for practical purposes, that the shorter articles and sources on the subjects should be the first consulted. They are in general the easier to deal with, and doing so is more likely to create a situation where a greater number of sources are cited in the content, a situation which is generally preferred around here. When a given source has been, basically, mined for all its worth, then we might add a check mark next to the item in the references section of that content. John Carter (talk) 18:38, 11 July 2012 (UTC)

Bad Elements is a book about contemporary Chinese history by Ian Buruma, published by Random House on November 21, 2001. The book's subtitle, "Chinese Rebels from Los Angeles to Beijing", indicates the main focus of the book.

Bad Elements is divided into 3 parts: The Exiles, Greater China and the Motherland. The book has been cited as a source in at least 12 other published works.

Chapter1: Exile from Tiananmen Square
The chapter Exile from Tiananmen Square deals with the student leaders who were involved with the organisation of the Tiananmen Square Protests in 1989. Buruma met and interviewed several of the student leaders and intellectuals involved, many of which are now living in the United States.

Chapter2: Waiting for the Messiah
Waiting for the Messiah deals with the influence of Christianity on the exile dissident movement. It contains interviews with dissidents such as...

Chapter5: China in Cyberspace
This chapter, China in Cyberspace, contains an analysis the Internet played in the recent development of the dissident movement. It features sections about...

Chapter1: Chinese Disneyland
Chinese Disneyland is the nickname given to Singapore by people cited by Burumna. The chapter focuses on the anti-XXX movement in Singapore, that has large ethnic Chinese population. Some of the people mentioned and interviewed are

Chapter2: Not China
The chapter Not China is about the dissident movement in Taiwan, officially a XXX Chinese province that was ruled by the Kuomintang until 2000.

Author
The pseudonymous author was a Chinese diplomat and a former official of the Chinese Ministry of Culture with an academic background in communication studies. She now is a teacher at "a private college in Pennsylvania."

Content
The author's analysis begins with a discussion of the political economy of reform, which she says created a Socially Vulnerable Group (ruoshi qunti) of individuals whose status in society placed them in a disadvantageous position. The author suggests that people in this situation found Li Hongzhi's message to have an instant and broad-based appeal. Falun Gong offered people not only the possibility of change from being a person at the periphery, but also the promise of physical and spiritual healing. By doing so, the author argues that this changed Falun Gong's adherents from victims to agents of change. Falun Gong placed itself in opposition to the Chinese Communist Party's authoritarian and scientism, which the author states contributed to the denail of humane concerns and individuality. Falun Gong came into conflict with the Chinese government arose in large part as a result of Li's teachings regarding cycles of time, particularly his apocalyptic statements that the current age would soon end and the existing order would be replaced by another one. The author states this placed him in direct opposition to the government's assumptions regarding the importance of stability and continuity. The government responded by invoking three key sychronie words to discredit the movement, wending (or stability), "zhengzhi douzheng" (or political struggle), and "xiejiao" (or cult), and introduced two concepts to justify their own intervention in the matter, "zhichi" (or support), and "yingzao wenming he kexue de shehui huanbng" (or create a civilized and scientific social environment). In the fifth and final chapter of the book, the author concludes that the middle-aged practitioners of Falun Gong are the latest in a chain of dissenters in the history of China wishing to exercise their basic human rights.

Critical reception
The text describing the rise of Falun Gong and its efforts to receive recgnition is interpretive, and does not attempt to offer a detailed historical analysis. The author does not provide any empirical evidence which would allow an analysis of the tactics of either side, or their level of popular support, and presents her own assumptions as fact. This simplicity of presentation weakens the author's contentions. She does not explain how and why the tactics taken by the Chinese government in suppressing the movement were as successful as they have been. Given the lack of attention paid in the book to the work of other scholars on Li Hongzhi and the rise and fall of Falun Gong, this book might be most useful to researchers and individuals interested in communications and rhetoric who do not have a detailed knowledge of this subject.

Author
David Ownby is "a historian at the University of Montreal." "Mr. Ownby's 'fieldwork' for this book was done in the U.S. and in Canada. Doing it in China, though preferable, 'was not possible'. He confesses that he was afraid to pursue research that might get him barred from China. (Many of his colleagues don't admit this.)"

A History for Falun Gong
"The second chapter places Falun Gong in the context of the long history of popular Chinese religious movements spanning over two millenia, looking at the historical and sociological continuities between a certain type of religious movement ('redemptive societies'), including Falun Gong, from the perspective of the groups themselves, rather than using the distorting categories (sect, heterodoxy) used by different regimes of the Chinese state."

The Creation and Evolution of Qigong
"In the next chapter, Ownby situates the appearance of Falun Gong within the immediate context of the qigong boom of the 1980s and early 1990s: Falun Gong was one of thousands of post-Mao 'redemptive societies' which focused on qigong body cultivation regimens and, for a period, enjoyed the encouragement and protection of the high-level Party leaders."

The Life and Times of Li Hongzhi in China, 1995-1999
"Chapter 4 is a discussion of Li Hongzhi's biography and teachings, based on a careful and nuanced study of his published lectures and writings."

Falun Gong Outside of China: Fieldwork among Diaspora Practitioners
"This is followed in the next chapter by an analysis of Falun Gong practitioners among the Chinese diaspora, based on the author's own ethnographic fieldwork in Toronto, Montreal, Houston, New York, and Boston."

David Meets Goliath: The Conflict between Falun Gong and the Chinese State
"Chapter 6 is a discussion of the conflicting narratives produced by both Falun Gong and the Chinese state since the 1999 repression, which will be useful for readers trying to evaluate the wildly opposing claims made by both sides. Overall, Ownby accords more sympathy to Falun Gong sources..., while noting that, in an increasingly desparate attempt to keep the media's attention, their tendency to exaggerate and sensationalize has had the opposite effect of alienating journalists and dampening Falun Gong's credibility in the eyes of public opinion."

Conclusion: Unpacking Contexts
"The conclusion proposes to discard the dominant paradigm of modern Chinese historiography, which has stressed the role of revolution and modernization, and challenges historians and scholars of Chinese society and politics to reconsider the continued influence of religiosity in the narrative of contemporary Chinese history."

"Ownby... appropriately puts Falun Gong in the context of Chinese history and redemptive societies that survived on state tolerance and were crushed whenever their visibility and popularity appeared disruptive to the state." He addresses "Falun Gong within the context of 'Chinese popular religions' and the post-Mao state's 'ongoing search for political and cultural identity' rather than human rights discourse, Ownby ... sifts through conflicting evidence to explain why neither Falun Gong's development not the Chinese government's strong reaction were historical anomalies." "Tangential to this book is Ownby's call to examine the role of religion and religious and redemptive societies in the history of modern China." "The book includes extensive quotes from founder Li Hongzhi's writings as well as 'witness statements' from practitioners." "He emphasizes that religious groups in China such as Falun Gong must be considered in a different way than Buddhists, Daoists and Christians - the faiths which Chinese governments have long deemed to be 'real' religions. Unofficial religions have always atrracted millions of adherents. While Mr. Ownby insists that he is not describing an unchanging tradition, he shows that the roots of Falun Gong and its many predecessors are ancient, and that neither the Republican nor the Communist revolutions could suppress them." "The author discerns Falun Gong's two main threats to the Party, apart from the vast number of Falun Gong members in China and beyond. In a socialist society, a belief in individual cultivation and success is intolerable. More intolerable still is this: 'Insecure authorities can deal with dissent and fear on the part of the population, but being collectively ignored by the people poses a more difficult problem,' he writes." "He quotes from the testimonies of elderly women, sometimes Party members of many years, who have been harassed and tortured by the police but observed how much worse it is to be such a torturer than a moral Falun Gong member."

Reception
"Despite the book's title, China's future given the persistence of Falun Gong's adherents is not extensively addressed. Ownby's account, while strongly written, is perhaps most suited for academic collections." The book received three stars from Choice, and was highly recommended for all libraries. Ownby's book is a "comprehensive study of this fascinating and troubling subject, which has so many implications for China that his occasionally irritating, even tasteless, style doesn't blunt its importance. Mr. Ownby peppers his text with wisecracks, which belittle the problem." "He suggests that his academic colleagues avoid paying attention to Falun Gong 'for the same reason my teenagers don't eat their vegetables - it just doesn't look like something they want to get close to.'" "But Mr. Ownby ably sums up the appeal of Falun Gong. He writes that Mr. Li had a vision of 'a lost, or neglected, spiritual tradition' which promises 'personal harmony with the very substance of the universe.'" "Mr. Ownby says something so vainglorious that I can only assume he is joking. 'I wish Falun Gong practitioners and Chinese authories had been able to read this volume prior to April, 1999. Li Hongzhi might have known better than to take on Goliath, and Chinese authorities might have realized that their campaign against David was not worth the effort in terms of time, money, and above all lives.'" "There is a better book on Falun Gong inside China: Ian Johnson's 'Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China.'" "Falun Gong and the Future of China is a work directed at general readers and scholars alike, providing a rich context for interpreting the Falun Gong issue in terms of China's religious, political and cultural history, the challenges facing China at present, and the future evolution of a globalized Chinese society. Written in clear, engaging and often humorous prose, the work is an easy and most pleasant read, accessible to a broader general audience, without compromising on scholarly standards: synethezing materials from a bewildering range of fields (ancient history, peasant rebellions, religious revivals, Chinese medicine, the qigong movement, diaspora studies, the Internet in China, Communist Party politics, and more) and challenging historiographical traditions, the work engages with scholarly debates and offers new perspectives on the interpretation of Chinese history, making it of great interest to specialists as well. Indeeed, the author presents himself to the general public as offering the perspective of a professional historian on a highly sensationalized issue, and adroitdly pulls it off." "Ownby uses the Falun Gong issue as a prism through which the entire narrative of China's modern history should be rethought." "Overall, Falun Gong and China's Future is the best academic work on Falun Gong available today. I have only two minor criticisms: (1) the title is catchy but the book has little to say about China's future, except to imply that popular religion will play a big role; (2) Ownby and I disagree on the role of Li Hongzhi's ideas in leading to the conflict between Falun Gong and the CCP...."

Author
Chang was at the time a professor of political science at the University of Nevada - Reno. Chang had been studying Chinese mass movements since 1980, with particular attention to the those associated with Chiang Kai-Shek and the Tiananmen Square protests.

Content
The book is divided into five chapters.

A Religious Sect Defies the State
The first chapter, "A religious sect defies the state," "outlines the story of falun gong from its foundation in 1992 to its continued repression today following the Zhongnanhai demonstration of 1999." "Maria Hsia Chang begins with a general overview of Falun Gong."

Chinese Religions and Millenarian Movements
"In chapter two, 'Chinese religions and millenarian movements,' Chang summarizes the history of Chinese religions, secret societies, and millenial and apocalyptic movements, including the Eight Trigram, Taiping and Boxer rebellions, and argues that the Chinese Communists tapped into China's millenarian tradition in order to gain power...." "[This is] a chapter on the history of millenarianism in China, with an explanation of why the Communists are so afraid of such movements. 'Having come to power by exploiting China's millenarian tradition, the Communist Party is only too mindful of the potency of such movements (p. 39)"

Falun Gong: Beliefs and Practices
"Falun gong teachings are described in chapter three, 'Beliefs and practices,' in which falun gong's cosmology, theology, and eschatology are outlined with ample reference to the writings of Li Hongzhi." "Chapter 3 outlines the sect's beliefs and practices, in a balanced but not particularly flattering way. Falun Gong is portrayed as anti-scientific and often comes across as absurd. Still, the author writes with admirable restraint. "

The State vs. Falun Gong
"The next chapter, "The state vs. falun gong," goes through the Chinese state's charges against falun gong." "[I]n chapter 4, she details the Communists' indictment of Falun Gong. Although she does so with a minimum of her own commentary, there are places where it is unclear whether the complaints are her own or those of the Communists. For example, in (or after?) a discussion of the Public Security Bureau's findings about the cult, she says, 'Instead of being compassionate, [sect leader] Li Hongzhi is disapproving of homosexuals," -- hardly an argument one would expect to hear from the Public security Bureau. At the end of the chapter, she gives her own dismissive views of the government's case, even saying (without elaboration) that 'for almost every one of its accusations against the sect, it can be argued that the Communist Party has been equally, if not more, guilty' (p. 123)".

The Persecution of Other Faiths
"Chapter five, 'The persecution of other faiths,' begins with a critique of the 'rule of law' purportedly called on by the CCP to deal with falun gong, and argues that the accusations made against falun gong could just as well be made against the CCP itself. It then discusses the vast social dislocations in contemporary China that create a fertile soil for the emergence of apocalyptic movements such as falun gong, and describes how the persecution of falun gong is part of a larger policy to eradicate underground religious groups, several of which are presented." "Finally, Chang concludes that, in the face of widespread social dissatisfaction, the fear of millenarian uprisings is the main motivation for the CCP's fierce suppression of falun gong - but its intolerance of 'heterodox' faiths only reinforces their politicization into oppositional movements, increasing the likelihood of the CCP 'reaping the fate' it so dreads." "The final chapter comes as a bit of a disappointment. Much of it has little to do with Falun Gong, and there is scarcely any attempt to pull together what the movement is. 'Falun Gong is quite innocuous.... Although some of the sect's various ideas may seem 'weird,' 'cranky,' 'incredible,' or 'bizarre' to outsiders, by and large its followers are taught to be good people and to uphold high moral standards" (pp. 133, 134). One wishes that the author had dug a bit deeper and had more fully evaluated the creed in terms of its socially constructive and socially damaging characteristics. In particular, the fact that this largely female movement is based on an anti-feminist set of beliefs cries out for expalanation and analysis."

The book begins with a description of Falun Gong's founder, Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong, with "its roots in Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism," "hoped to provide people from all walks of life with a moral fiber missing in today's society by inspiring them to focus on individual (internal) action (and inaction)." It goes on to discuss the beliefs of Falun Gong, including its beliefs regarding cosmology, karma, reincarnation, UFOs, the anticipated end of the world, and "self-immolation, which have alarmed many observers." . She concludes by proving that it is beyond doubt that "the Chinese government has overreacted by engaging in horrific human rights abuses against a fairly innocuous movement that actually has a sympathetic following within the Chinese leadership." Chang is said to have been "unsparing in detailing the illegal and deceptive methods the Chinese government has used to repress Falun Gong." "At the same time, she explains why the authorities fear such a movement, situating the repression of Falun Gong in the broader context of China's persecution of certain other religious faiths and its history of revolts led by millenarian movements. The author relates how rapid change, disillusionment with the increasingly irrelevant official Marxist ideology, and growing corruption in China have made many people feel anxious for some moral and spiritual anchor."

Reception
"This is an objective and scholarly account of one of the most challenging mass phenomena to emerge from China in recent years." "Chang, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada, Reno, presents a highly readable account of the origins and beliefs of the group." "Chang is unspring in detailing the illegal and deceptive methods the Chinse government has used to repress Falun Gong." "At the same time, she explains why the authorities fear such a movement, situating the repression of Falun Gong in the broader context of China's persecution of certain other religious faiths and its history of revolts led by millenarian movements." "The author relates how rapid change, disillusionment with the increasingly irrelevant Marxist ideology, and growing corruption in China have made many people feel anxious for some moral and spiritual anchor." "Political scientist Chang provides a brief and accessible introduction to Falun Gong that places the movement in political and historical context, and she offers a critique of the Chinese government's policy toward religion that raises important questions about relations between quasi-religious groups such as Falun Gong and modern states." "Her overview of religious and millenarian movements in Chinese history makes it clear that ostensibly apolitical groups have had profoundly political impacts, and this lends credence to at least one rationale for the Chinese government's hostile reaction to Falun Gong." "At the same time, her analysis of the extent to which hostile government reaction has transformed religious and quasi-religious groups into revolutionary political movements amounts to a cautionary tale for modern states and a compelling argument for a practice of religious freedom that extends beyond mainstream and established religions." It is "carefully balanced and clearly written", and was expected to appeal to both the specialist and novice readers. Although Falun Gong's "core idea - that the end of the human race is near - is hard for Westerners to take seriously. But Chang gets past this problem by laying out the Falun Gong's belief system as an anthropologist would. Her review of the history of secret societies in China, meanwhile, makes clear why the government takes the movement so seriously." It was described as "an ideal volume to educate the academic and general public about this crucial movement," and was recommended for general readers and public libraries. . "However, the journalistic style and sources of the book underlie the need for a thorough academic study of the phenomenon." "This very accessible book is certainly worth reading and recommending to students. It is a valuable resource on the subject, although with a better index, it would have been more so." "[The] limitations do mean that any researcher's main sources have to be journalistic accounts of the events. But an over-reliance on the Internet means there is no way of tracking down most of the news stories used by Chang to give strength to her arguments." "In the end, however commendable the effort, one feels a bit disappointed with the result. The text is at times too simple. For example, Chang offers a rapid overview of the history of religion in China, with rigid subdivisions that last all currency long ago. The source material has been selected in a haphazard and sometimes sloppy manner. Still, by reading this compact volume one undoubtedly learns a lot about Falun Gong, and wonders why the Chinese government marshals such resources against it."

Book
"An informative recent collection, 'Falun Gong's Challenge to China,' underlies, among other things, why this sect elicits such a head-cracking response: if politics is indeed just about force, dissent is bound to be treated as an assault on authority and met, not with arguments, but with batons or worse."

Reception
This book adopts a "journalistic approach accompanied by a somewhat less objective tone" than later books like those by Ownby, Palmer, and Chang.

Film
The film version won the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi award for excellence in journalism in the Documentaries (all other markets) category.

Early life and education
She was born in Sichuan province, which she later left to attend Peking University, where she earned a master of science degree in biochemistry.

Falun Gong
She became a practitioner of Falun Gong in 1997. Later, when the government of the People's Republic of China began to arrest people involved with the group, she was among them. She was in fact arrested four times, and sent to a labor camp, the Beijing Municipal Women's Re-Education-Through-Labor Camp, for rehabilitation. Zeng relates that at the camp she was physically and mentally abused, subject to attempted brainwashing and even faced electroshock treatment. She has also stated that while at the camp, on those days when there were visitors, she and the other detainees were forced to play cards or play basketball for the visitors to see.

Asylum and activism
In 2001, she fled to Australia, and now lives in Sydney as a refugee. Her daughter later followed her there for her own safety. Since arriving in Australia, she has spoken out about the Australian government's lack of protection of practitioners there, alleging that the government does not wish to insult or anger China. A specific instance which she recounted to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation involves how an official of the Chinese government once walked out of the Chinese embassy in Canberra and slapped a female Falun Gong practitioner on the face. The women responded that, in Australia, she had the right to be there and to continue practicing Falun Gong. The official responded saying that he was a Chinese diplomat. As such, no one particularly cared what he did, because Australia could not do much to him.

She published her book Witnessing History in 2005. The book describes the difficulties she has faced in practicing Falun Gong in China, and even since she left China. The book has been described by a reviewer in the Midwest Book Review as "a necessarily harsh assault on a nation that does not respect human rights", and by June Sawyers in Booklist as "an often harrowing, powerful reminder of what can happen when government power runs unchecked".

Biography
At the age of five, he moved with his family to the United States from Taiwan. Chang F. Liu, his father, was a Master of Business Administration student and bank teller who worked 12 hour days. In honor of John F. Kennedy, Liu's father changed his sons' names to John, Robert, and Edward, and his own name to Joseph. Although both his parents spoke Chinese, Liu cannot speak it himself.

He attended PS 20 in Queens and the Bronx High School of Science to 1985, doing community organizing and volunteer work in his spare time.

He attended Binghamton University where he majored in Mathematical Physics and graduated in 1988. He worked as a manager at PricewaterhouseCoopers and served as President of the North Flushing Civic Association before his election to the City Council.

Liu is married to Jenny Liu, an engineer, and has one son, Joey. He resides in Flushing, near where he grew up.

Political career
Elected to the New York City Council in 2001 to represent District 20, the northeast Queens area (Flushing, Queensboro Hill, Mitchell Linden, Murray Hill, Holly, Kissena Park, Harding Heights, Auburndale, part of Whitestone), Liu is the first Asian American to be elected to the City Council. He served as the Chairperson of the New York City Council's Transportation Committee and also served on the committees on Education, Consumer Affairs, Health, Land Use, Contracts, Oversight & Investigations and Lower Manhattan Redevelopment.

In March 2009, Liu announced that he was running for the post of New York City Comptroller. Liu has raised $3 million for his political run, more than his competitors.

Beginning in May, Liu picked up several endorsements. The Village Independent Democrats, The Queens County Democratic organization, the local Americans for Democratic Action chapter and the Working Families Party, 1199 SEIU union local and the Uniformed Firefighters Association endorsed him. On September 1, the United Federation of Teachers endorsed Liu.

In the September 15 Democratic primary, Liu was the front-runner, ending up with 133,986 votes, or 38 percent of the vote. Because he did not manage to reach 40 of the vote, a run-off election was required between Liu and runner-up David Yassky, who received 30 percent of the vote in the primary. Two weeks later, Liu won the run-off by taking 55.6% of the vote against Yassky.

In the general election on November 3, Liu won the comptroller election with 76% of the vote, a total of 696,330 votes. Republican candidate Joseph Mendola came in second with 19.3% of the vote. After he was officially sworn in to the post, Liu became the first Asian American to hold a city-wide political office in New York City.

Asian Political Leadership Fund
Liu is one of the leaders of the Asian Political Leadership Fund, a federally-designated 527 fund whose purpose is to promote political leadership from within the Asian American community.

Fundraising irregularities
Investigations into the fundraising practices of Liu's election campaigns found numerous irregularities, including the use of straw donors and undisclosed bundling. A New York Times article in October 2011 documented several inconsistencies: after canvassing 100 households that were listed as having donated to the campaign, 24 irregularities were found, including donations from individuals who claimed they never donated, whose employers donated in their names, and several purported donors who did not appear to exist and could not be found. Campaign finance laws stipulate that each individual donor must fill out donor cards themselves, and that individuals who "bundle" donations must be disclosed. Liu's donor records, however, did not disclose the identity of bundlers, and included multiple instances where several donor cards were written by the same hand. Many of the irregularities in Liu's campaign were connected to the Chinese business community in Queens. In New York City, every dollar donated to a candidate is matched with $6 in taxpayer money.

Following publication of the New York Times article, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating the irregularities in Liu's campaign. In November 17, 2011, one of Liu's fundraisers, 46-year-old Oliver Pan (潘心武, Pān Xīnwǔ), was arrested on charges of wire fraud from illegal donations. Pan was approached by an undercover FBI agent posing as someone who wanted to donate US$16,000 to Liu, which was over the city donation limit was only $4,950 for individual contributions. Pan then arranged for 20 fictitious donors to make donations to Liu's campaign with the money provided by the undercover FBI agent.

Initially in the first half of 2011 Liu has already received more than $1 million from fund raising contributions to his mayor run for supposedly 2013.

In light of the allegations of campaign finance fraud, Liu hired former state attorney general Robert Abrams to conduct a review of his campaign finances. However, in November 2011, Liu asked Abrams to suspend his inquiry in light of the ongoing FBI investigations. Abrams resigned on November 17.

In February 2012, a treasurer with the Liu campaign was arrested. 25-year-old Jenny (Jia) Hou was charged with using straw donors to circumvent campaign finance laws and gain more matching funds from taxpayers.

Foreign fundraising issue
In late 2009, Manhattan federal prosecutors launched an investigation into the possibility that foreign money had flowed illegally into Liu's campaign for comptroller.

Pan is the president of a company called "Golden Arrow Property" (金箭房地產有限責公司). Oliver Pan's office is in 35 East Broadway, New York room 506 handles finance, banking, insurance and real estate. He also has an office in Mendham New Jersey. Some people in the Chinese community believe Liu is being framed. Pan's funding activities extended beyond Liu, as he was listed as a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign. Ru Mei-hua (盧美華 Lú Měihuá), director of planning for John Liu, helped him rise from a councilman 10 years ago to a major political force mainly connecting Liu to a network of Asian American businessmen in NY. She has been considered a key to understanding the fund raising details from donors, but denied requests to be interviewed.

Authors
Of the authors, the only one who has any particular experience with China, its history and politics, or new religious movements in general is Rocco Galati, whose experience seems to have been limited to having "lived in China" earlier.

Content
The book contains four chapters.

The first chapter, which has been called the "most intriguing" one, "The Rise of Falun Gong," puts together a biography of Li Hongzhi. It indicates how "more than four decades of Chinese communism ... left [the] world's most populated country starved for a spiritual dimension to life."

The second chapter, "The Long Night of Falun Gong," focuses on the persecution of Falun Gong by the Chinese government. "The authors argue that the harsh policy against Falun Gong results from the personal political interests of Jiang Zeming, President of the PRC. Jiang needs to prove himself a strong leader and crushing Falun Gong serves this purpose. Falun Gong is, in this light, 'a timely political gift to Jiang.'"

The third chapter, "The Theories and Practices of Li Hongzhi," discusses Falun Gong as it is revealed in Li Hongzhi's books. "The authors discuss Li's theory of the "Law Wheel (falun)," and his frequent references to life beyond Earth, tracing the roots of Li's theories to Buddhism, Daoism, the qigong tradition and western myths such as the lost Atlantis."

The fourth chapter, "The Future of Falun Gong," presents the authors' opinions regarding the future of Falun Gong in China. This chapter "expresses pessimism that official hostility to the movement will not change in the near future, the west is unlikely to accept it, and, most importantly, the guru is not with his martyr-followers."

Reception
David Ownby said that the first half of the book "offers a competent overview of the rise of Falungong and its founder, Li Hongzhi, and of the first few months of the Chinese state's campaign to suppress Falungong." He goes on to say that while "one cannot expect Power of the Wheel to be a definitive source even on important details of the movement's history, ... the authors cover their topic with a minimum of distortion and a sure-handed grasp of many of the important issues." "The second half of the book, however, is either repetitive or irrelevant. The authors simply run out of material and resort to superficial generalizations about Chinese history and culture, or progrnostications about Falungong's and China's future (built on the superficial generalizations). The book is unsuitable for classroom use and too sloppy for specialists." Chao Shen-Yi says of the book, "Has the authors investigated just one of the stations [in Falun Gong's network], we would have a better idea how the network operates." The book also lacks footnotes. The last chapter "is slightly marred by sentences such as "China could never for one moment relax its vigilance or falter in its resolve to keep the world at bay. The Chinese have always thought that someone was out to get them" (p. 121). The authors use 'China" or 'the Chinese' when they really mean the policy of the Chinese government and comments like this become stereotypic." This book has also been said to adopt a "journalistic approach accompanied by a somewhat less objective tone" than later books like those by Ownby, Palmer, and Chang. Despite its drawbacks, "this book has collected valuable information and is written in a clever manner. It provides a useful introduction to Li Hongzhi and the theories behind Falun Gong. It is good reading for general readers who are interested in Chinese religious traditions and movements, and gives a contemporary account of how they conflict with the current Chinese state."

Author
"Palmer himself practiced qigong at the beginning of this project."

Content
"There are many well-told and richly documented stories woven into this book: 'grandmasters' rose and fell, some going into exile after persuading vast numbers of devout followers with their incrediable claims: experts studied children with 'extraordinary powers' (telekinesis, seeing with the ears, changing the molecular composition of water in a sealed container); top leaders of the military, science, medicine, and sports sectors struggled among themselves to build the Qigong sector and fend off the attacks of skeptics; endless research associations were formed; and the 'evil cult' of Falungong, with its combination of kooky dogma and effective political confrontation, emerged, grew, and internationalized. All this and much more is gorgeously recounted and documented by Palmer." "At the outset of the book, Palmer announced his decision to follow the Qigong movement from a general and historical perspective, although he has practiced enough Qigong to recognize its power over his own experience of reality. As readers, we gain from this scholarly decision." "[Palmer] shows how eager the scientific establishment in China was to embrace Qigong." "Palmer tells the story of the qigong boom largely through the lens of four particular schools of qigong. Yan Xin's Yan Xin qigong, Zhang Hongbao's Zhonggong, Liu Shanglin's Zangmigong, and Li Hongzhi's Falun Gong. His detailed discussion of the high-level debates in the 1980s and 1990s concerning the suitability of qigong practice (which continued until the 25 April 1999 demonstration by the Falun Gong) provides a rich context for understanding the eventual showdown between the state and Falun Gong." "In the history of qigong in the People's Republic, Plamer argues that since the early 1950s the fate of qigong has been linked to the vicissitudes of CCP politics and China's political and social transformations." "Training manuals and a journal published internally by the popular group Zhonggong and newsletters from a denomination in Heilongjiang enrich discussion in Chapter 7 of the propogation and organisational strategies deployed by denominations."

Criticism
"Palmer insightfully analyzes how a secular health regimen became a mass charismatic religious movement that erupted into full-scale conflict with the state with the rise and repression of Falun Gong." "Palmer is an anthropologist, and his interpretation elucidates why many Chinese people were drawn to Falun Gong, and why the CCP is threatened by this movement." "This volume... [i]s a powerful historical, political, cultural, and sociological analysis of the Qigong movement and its relationship to the state." "It will be indispensible for religious studies, but perhaps more importantly, for Chinese studies, international relations, political science, and all researchers concerned with human rights and religious freedom." "Summing Up: Essential. All levels." "David Palmer shows definitively how such fevers should be studied. His meticulously researched and thoughtfully analyzed history demonstrates the intimate connections of apparently apolitical ideologies and experiences to the broadest struggles within the national government. He shows how the great 20th-century swing from Utopian socialism to the values of the free market made itself felt in the aspirations, beliefs, and miseries of millions of ordinary Chinese, especially those who turned to Qigon as they turned away from the socialist collective." "This nearly comprehensive history of the movement provides an extremely revealing perspective on reform-era culture in China, far beyond a narrow interest in self-cultivation and healing techniques." "Utopianism is a major theme of the book." "Palmer argues persuasively that the reform era was characterized by a general turn toward the personal; Qigong techniques 'could produce a radical transformation in the practitioner's relationship with his or her body and with the world, and a sense of connection with cosmic power that was absent in the alienated routines of disenchanted socialist-industrial culture' (p. 298). Meanwhile, national leaders in fields like 'somatic science' were able to envision a future in which Qigong would bridge the opposition between the material and the spiritual, the subjective and the objective, the whole and the part, and allow humankind to make an 'evolutionary leap, from the 'kingdom of necessity' to 'the kingdom of freedom' (p.111). Adepts of various kinds are quoted at length voicing their hopes for a vast evolutionary transformation of all humans, aided by the 'extraordinary powers' possible through Qigong." "Palmer meets many more goals with this study than can be discussed in this review. He shows how a focused study of a defunct fad in a faraway place can lead us to the largest cultural problems of modernity and knowledge. I intend to teach the book in courses on China, embodiment, science, and knowledge, and I would also recommend it for anthropologies of religion. For all these fields, Qigong Fever is an elegant model of how to learn from history." "David Palmer has produced a brilliant piece of scholarship on the qigong movement and a major contribution to our understanding of the politics of science, culture and religion in the People's Republic." "Palmer's work is pluridisciplinary-historical when reconstructing the origins of qigong in the 1950s, sociological when interpreting the appeal and activities of the major qigong [sic] schools, anthropological when carrying out fieldwork among qigong practitioners.... "... [I]t is to be hoped that this excellent book reaches a wide readership, as it is an arresting reflection on how body, science, and Utopia can come together in China in a highly combustible form." "Palmer does a fine job of contextualizing the hostilities [[between the Chinese state and Falun Gong], showing them to be 'a dramatic turn in a story that has been unfolding since the first days of the People's Republic' (p.281)". "Palmer argues convincingly that the popularity of qigong was made possible not only by the charisma of masters and the appeal of popular movements, but also by extensive support for qigong from the media, military elites, and senior leaders of the State Council. The sustained interpenetration of the state and qigong denominations leads Palmer to conclude that "[t"he qigong episode... forces us to abandon a conflictual model that places state authority in opposition to the autonomy of individuals and popular groups" (p. 292); here he agrees with recent studies of Chinese civil society. This is not the only trope to be problematised by Palmer's work. In revealing coexistence, interpenetration and, in some cases, intedependence, he encourages the reader to question any insistence on opposing tradition and modernity, or science and the mystico-spiritiaul." "The book is well researched and uses a wealth of Chinese-language materials." "...Palmer's work benefits from the fact that he began his research several years prior to the crackdown on Falun Gong."

Contents
The book is in ten chapters. The first chapter describes the 1999 demonstration at Zhongnanhai, and the government's immediate preparation to suppress Falun Gong. It follows with two chapters about the internal political processes which led to the banning of Falun Gong in China and the crackdown on its practitioners. Chapter 4 discusses the government's media campaign against the movement and its teachings. The following chapter relates the efforts of the state to get people to leave Falun Gong, through methods ranging from persuasion to incarceration. The next two chapters describe the organizational structure created by the government for the suppression of Falun Gong and the national, regional, and local levels. The following two chapters evaluate the success of the government's campaign. The final chapter presents "the well-planned and well-executed suppression of the Falun Gong as clear evidence of the detremination and power of the party leadership when challenged." Although the government does not use its totalitarian capabilities often, they still have them.

Reception
The book was recommended for advanced research collections in contemporary China.

Plot
"The film is prefaced by title cards that explain how, throughout history, mankind has had to pay the price for its shortsightedness and inhumanity through natural and man-made disasters that have come as a direct response to bad behavior." The film "follows the metaphysical awakening of Hetian Ying (Rong Tian), a midlevel police officer trapped in his home by a 12-day sandstorm. With no water or power, dwindling food supplies and a sick wife (Zeng Ziyu), Hetian is haunted by a missing daughter and flashbacks to his brutal interrogration of a schoolteacher charged with being an adherent of the spiritual movement Falun Gong." "'I expect to see deaths,' says Hetian’s superlatively ugly superior, insisting on a daily quota of spiritual 'transformations.' It’s clear from the beginning, however, who will be transformed and who will not."

Cast

 * Lili Li as The Practitioner
 * Angela Huang as Young Policewoman
 * Steve Hong as Supervisor
 * Cheng Guang as Young Policeman
 * Rong Tian as Hetian Ying
 * Zeng Ziyu as Tong Mou
 * Annie Li as Mei Mei

Production
"The pic was reportedly produced for less than $5,000, and it looks it." Mahonen, "like the majority of his cast and crew, is a Falun Gong practitioner". "Special effects are limited to jaundiced shots of buried cars and sand-barred buildings, while the indoor setting and focus on advocacy over action inspire claustrophobia and spurts of melodrama". As John Anderson said in Daily Variety Gotham, "... Michael Mahonen seems more intent on creating a pro-Falun Gong message than in converting the skeptical -- or anyone looking for plausible storytelling."

Release
The film screened at the New York International Independent Film & Video Festival in 2004 and the Long Island International Film Expo in 2005. It was released in New York on Sepetember 4, 2009.

Reception
"Mahoney's movie is preaching to the choir, and even they might have a problem." "Admittedly, followers of Falun Gong will revel in the vicarious vengeance wrought against Beijing via bad-karma-fueled weather,... Finding a crossover aud, however, will be no day at the beach for the pic, which opens Sept. 4, more than five years after first hitting the fest circuit."

Critical response
A review in The Epoch Times, which has been tied to Falun Gong, described the film as "a compelling and ultimately uplifting film" which "accurately and sensitively portrays the dire situation in post 1999 mainland China, following the order from former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin to systematically wipe out the popular practice."

Awards and nominationss

 * 2004, won Grand Jury Prize for 'Best Director' at New York International Independent Film & Video Festival
 * 2005, won Humanitarian Film Award at Long Island International Film Expo

Contents
The book is divided into three sections, each telling the story of one individual.

Ma Wenlin
Ma Wenlin is a self-taught lawyer who represented farmers in lawsuits against the government regarding the government's tax rake-offs. At the time of publication, Ma Wenlin was serving time in prison.

Zhang Xueling
Zhang Xueling petitioned the government for information relating to the death of her mother, a Falun Gong practitioner, while she was in police custody.

Fang Ke
Fang Ke was at the time an architectural student who opposed the raising of historic buildings in Beijing.

Reception
Johnson is described as focusing "each personal story on the courageous decision to oppose rather than acquiesce to the caprices of officialdom. Johnson is described as a perceptive observer, who "ably depicts the personal cost borne by individuals subjected to the authoritarian policies of the communist regime." The book has been described as "accessible, engaging background reading for sophisticated researchers." In comparison to Ownby's Falun Gong and the Future of China, Jonathan Mirsky said, "There is a better book on Falun Gong inside China: Ian Johnson's 'Wild Grass: Three Stories of Change in Modern China.' This book is based on Mr. Johnson's courageous tracking of Falun Gong for which he received a Pulitzer Prize in 2001. Often far from Beijing, where other reporters rarely venture, Mr. Johnson uncovered the lives and fates of a handful of ordinary Falun Gong members. Not only do they come alive on the page, but Mr. Johnson makes most of Mr. Ownby's main points. Many Chinese wonder, Mr. Johnson observes, 'why people bothered to stand up for something they believe in.' But as an ordinary working man confided, 'No one can talk about these things. But a lot of people know.'"

Contents
The book relates that the author became a practitioner of Falun Gong after having been cured of the Hepatitis C she received as a result of a blood transfusion. "Zeng, an investment consultant, turned to falun gong after the difficult birth of her daughter and a botched medical procedure left her weakened and depressed." "The practice improved her health and outlook almost immediately." "Like other practitioners, Zeng couldn't believe the government would go as far as it did to crack down on something so seemingly harmless and beneficial, until she found herself under arrest in 2000." She was placed in a detention center three times, and then a re-education through labor facility for almost a year. Sleep deprivation, beatings, sometimes at the hands of other prisoners , and electrocutions were common at the camp. "After stubborn resistance for a year, Zeng finally pretended to 'reform,' and when released, managed to escape to Australia." There is also an description of a "horrifying account of violent force-feeding while prisoners were on a hunger strike." The book offers "a hair-raising first-person look at China's brutal concentration camps (Zeng spent a year in one), where prisoners were beaten, electrocuted, deprived of sleep, forced into hard labor and subjected to constant 'reform' propaganda, aka brainwashing."

Reception
"... Zeng delivers a straightforward account of the Chinese's government's suppression of Falun Gong that began in the mid-1990s and continues today>" "While she declares her story personal, the well-researched text propels the book beyond mere memoir." Her early life is treated with "unwieldy speed - Zeng's adoption of Falun Gong, and her resulting awakening, receive a scant 20 pages - once she's in detainment, her writing is redolent with detail>" "Her accounts of daily injustices are heartbreakingly frank." "Zeng is described as being an evangelist for Falun Gong, and the evangelism in the book can be off-putting. But the reader "can only be outraged by China's blatant abuse of human rights." The book's descriptions of the author's abuse and torture at the hands of the Chinese government "constitutes an often harrowing, powerful reminder of what can happen when government power runs unchecked." The material that carries the greatest emotional weight is the author's description of her own, internal, struggles between repudiating Falun Gong, in which she strongly believed, and getting released, or her commitment to telling the truth. In the book, the author is unflinching in her judgment of her own behavior. "Throughout her narrative, one can trace the trail of political and personal growth: Her drive to share her experience leads her to fake a reform, flee China, and seek asylum in Australia. It is a remarkable, believable evolution."

While it does not provide definitive answers to questions about the Chinese government's persecution of Falun Gong or the determination of Falun Gong practitioners to defy the government, it does shed some light on the issues involved and also offer a "hair-raising first-person look at China's brutal concentration camps." "China watchers should be attentive to this simply written but invaluable report from the front."

Content
Penny quotes Li explanation about the way the book was created from edited version of his lectures: "All of it is my words, every sentence is my words, and they were transcribed from the tape recordings word by word, and copied down word by word. It was done with the help of my disciples and students. They transcribed my words from the recordings, and then I revised the book over and over again."

"The book is made up of 9 "lectures" of "talks" (depending on translation). Each one is subdivided into between five and ten sections.": According to Penny "Li's lecturing style was not lucid... he raises topics only to drop them, and then repeats what he said in a later place and in a different context. Li digresses, tells anecdotes whose relevance is often unclear, and jumps between apparently unrelated issues." Penny says Li would respond "the issues he is discussing cannot be restricted by small-minded,  mundane, and merely human considerations of clarity and structure." Li says in the book that reading it is as powerful as "attending one of the lectures, since his power imbues it. He says specifically that it will help to open a practitioner's Celestial Eye, and assist a practitioner in giving up smoking, and can be used to consecrate a Buddha statue." With an open Celestial Eye one would see each word in the book is a Buddha and in English translation Saint Mary or Jesus.

Reception
[In 1996] "Established bookstores and small book carts throughout Beging sold Li's text... Such a publication followed the1990s boom in qigong text  which are reminiscent of early sectarian traditions of baozhuan (precious volumes)." By 1996 the magnum opus "became a runaway bestseller" and Falun Gong "claimed millions of followers throughout mainland China". 1992-1994 public lectures were profitable for Li personally, and the book was a financial success for Falun Gong. Initially the authorities supported and funded Falun Gong organization central and regional branches ("stations") which sold the book. "An article appeared in Guangming Ribao on June 17, 1996, which took Zhuan Falun as an example of  the growing number of publications since 1992 that could be described as "feudal superstition" (fengijan mixin) and "pseudoscience" (wei kexue)." The book was banned in 1996 by the authorities "the sales continued underground through agents purportedly authorized by Li himself." From ban till April 1999 the director of Wuhan chapter sold "millions of Falun Gong books and audiovisual products".

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