Of the 18, mostly Chinese, artists whose work is being featured
this week in a Kerckhoff Art Gallery exhibit titled
“Truthfulness, Compassion, Forbearance,” only one
currently resides in China.
But eerily, the artist’s exact whereabouts are unknown. A
biographical description of the artist on a Web site reads,
“Sadly, there is no information regarding the whereabouts or
the current situation of the artist.” It’s almost as if
this person no longer exists.
The artist’s name is Zhong De, and like all the artists in
the exhibit, Zhong is a follower of the Chinese spiritual movement
known as Falun Gong or “Practice of the Wheel of the
Law,” which the Chinese government considers a supreme threat
to its power and has brutally suppressed since July 1999, when it
outlawed the movement.
Zhong may be one of the tens of thousands of Falun Gong
practitioners in China who Amnesty International says have been
detained, imprisoned, tortured or sent to forced labor camps
without fair trial. Several artists featured in the exhibit, which
is being hosted at UCLA by the Falun Gong club, have been detained
and tortured, yet have escaped.
But what could possibly make the Communist Chinese government so
fearful of a peace-loving people who practice meditation and Tai
Chi-like movements? Falun Gong practitioners live by the Confucian,
Taoist and Buddhist virtues of the Zhen, Shan and Ren ““
truthfulness, compassion and tolerance.
John Kerin of The Australian, Australia’s national daily
newspaper, pointed to the fact that numerous political uprisings in
Chinese history have been sparked by spiritual movements.
For example, in the mid-1800s, a Chinese man who believed he was
Jesus’ brother led a revolt in a civil war that killed
millions. And in 1900, the bloody Boxer rebellion, which pitted
native Chinese against foreigners, was initiated by a group that
believed its Qigong exercises made its members immune to bullets.
So, it is possible that the Chinese government may be fearful that
Falun Gong followers might cause a similar uprising.
The decisive event that ignited the government’s campaign
against Falun Gong was in April 1999 when 10,000 Falun Gong
practitioners stood quietly in a day-long demonstration against the
harassment and detainment of practitioners outside a Communist
Party compound in Beijing. This protest likely brought back
memories of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. It was shortly
thereafter, in July of that year, that the government banned the
practice of Falun Gong.
Although Falun Gong practitioners claim to be apolitical, they
continue to hold exercise sessions in public, usually as a form of
silent protest in historically political places like Tiananmen
Square in Beijing.
In July 1999, Falun Gong practitioners went so far as to
intercept cable and satellite television to broadcast pro-Falun
Gong messages.
Whether Falun Gong practitioners know it or not, the Chinese
government seems to be as fearful of them as they are fearful of
the government.
The government, the Kerckhoff exhibit organizer Lisa Li said,
has forced citizens to sign papers saying they will not practice
Falun Gong.
A Falun Gong practitioner-run Web site, clearwisdom.net, also
reported surveys being distributed in elementary schools asking
schoolchildren to report any Falun Gong practitioners.
“In the United States,” Li said, “nobody
forces you to sign papers saying you are not going to practice
Christianity. That’s ridiculous. This is persecution of a
whole nation.”
Li, along with the Falun Gong Club, has brought the exhibit to
UCLA to shine light on the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners.
The exhibit has also been to Tel Aviv, Israel, New Zealand and
Montreal.
“(The persecution) has been going on for six years,”
Li said, “but not many people really know about the situation
in China because of the media. In China, the media is
state-controlled by the Communist Party of China. There’s no
second voice and the persecution happens in detention centers. The
Communists are trying to cover the truth.”
But efforts at spreading awareness in America have been further
thwarted by language barriers.
“It’s definitely not something that’s out
there,” Falun Gong Club president and first-year English
student JoJo Yang said. “And even though we try, it’s
difficult because our community is largely founded by those in the
Asian community. There’s a cultural and language
barrier.”
Yang and Li hope that the artwork, which depicts both the
teachings of Falun Gong as well as the persecution practitioners
have faced in China, will break that barrier.
But in spite of all their efforts for awareness, Li says Falun
Gong practitioners abroad, like herself, are not immune from the
fear of Chinese government’s influence and propaganda.
“In Chinese history, during periods of persecution, (the
government) can even turn family members into enemies,” Li
said.
“They ask you to turn over your husband or your wife.
It’s really horrible to generate that much hatred. You
don’t have anyone to trust. It’s very sad. It’s a
real twist of human nature.”