Monday, October 12, 2009

Falun Gong

Falun Gong is a religion started by Li Hongzhi in China in 1992. Because all religions in Mainland China must profess obeisance to the Communist Party, Falun Gong is illegal in Mainland China. It is brutally persecuted in China but is treated as any other belief system in Taiwan.

So at many tourist sights in Taiwan, the Falun Gong is getting out their message about what's happening in Mainland China. I have seen them at:

The Taipei 101 skyscraper
The Tainan ChihKan Temple
The Gu Gong Museum in Taipei.
Outside the Chinese Embassy in Vancouver, BC

This month there opened a new exhibit at the Gu Gong, the National Museum about the Qing Emperor Yongzheng who ruled China from 1722-1785. Some of the items on display are on loan from Mainland China to Taiwan. I went last Sunday.

Taiwan is opening up to tourist from mainland China and there our tour groups from the mainland all over Taiwan. I wonder what the mainland Chinese think when they come to Taiwan and learn something different from what they get in their own country.

Here is the poster of the new exhibit at the Gu Gong.























Here are Falun Gong protesting outside the Gu Gong.


















Here are the documented cases of persecution in mainland China shown in Tainan.


















Torture and organ harvesting.


















3 comments:

Florence said...

You are getting political now. Falun Gong is popular among some old people. I don't believe they have any harm to the society. Some of my relatives believe very strong in their exercise. One exercise I saw in Vancouver was do nothing, just standing there look forward and bending knee half way. They believe in three words, “Zen” – true, “san” – kind, “ren” – endure. I don’t see any wrong with this.

Paula said...

Falun Gong sounds harmless to me. Truth and kindness I understand. I'm not so sure where "endure" fits in. Organ harvesting?? That sounds spooky, right out of a science fiction novel! I'm glad that tourism is opening up with the Mainland. That should be helpful in expanding world views on both sides of the water.

Pinfan said...

I don't like Falun Gong very much. It seems people practice Falun Gong are all very quite and not speaking to others, maybe just my own feeling..hahha..and I don't like to see those scary poster they holding, some pictures look horrible..But they are everywhere!!