Talk:Falun Gong
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Article is not good Proposed changes[edit]
This article is terrible. It focuses on certain elements that are do not accurately represent it. Also, just as a warning: I am possibly biased against Falun Gong.
The article gives unequal attention to certain teachings of Falun Gong. (a poem by Li Hongzhi, views on races, views on homosexuality, views on aliens, etc.) In terms of relevance to the FLG practitioners, to the Falun Gong "debate", and to this wiki's goals, these are not relevant, despite being the focus of western media. In the Chinese media, and academic papers about Falun Gong, there is almost no mention of these. Some people in the west have given too much attention to some irrelevant teachings of Falun Gong, such as views on aliens (because of a TIME interview). Without these teachings, Falun Gong would still have the same critics, and the same believers. So these should be given less weight or simply be removed.
There are more important things, such as the cosmology of Falun Gong. After reading the current article, a reader still does not know what Falun Gong believes in. There are things we should probably talk about, such as "cultivation of xinxing", "Consummation", "Fa-rectification" (it's the apocalyptic event that isn't even mentioned here!), and the "three things" (a core mission of all Falun Gong practitioners). These are more relevant than the current things written on this article.
The issues about Falun Gong are not portrayed fairly. The section "Political movement or harmless religious group?" does not mention the allegations against Falun Gong, which are the core of the conflict between the Chinese government and Falun Gong, in enough detail. It focuses on the side of Falun Gong that is mainly visible on western media. It does not talk about the following important topics: Was Li Hongzhi born on July 7th, 1952 or May 13rd, 1952? Did Li Hongzhi incite the April 25th incident? (it should at least mention the interview of Li Chang, Ji Liewu and Wang Zhiwen by China Central Television.) More importantly, the question of whether Falun Gong incites its believers to reject medical treatment is not addressed.
In the section "Religious media", there is a lot of emphasis on the non-Chinese version of The Epoch Times, but almost nothing about the Chinese version of The Epoch Times. This Chinese newspaper has a bad reputation, but has a lot of influence and works with Chinese democracy activists.
Some of the criticism of Falun Gong in this article are at a limited level. If you want to know the main criticisms against Falun Gong, I can write about them in detail. Here is a summary: - Li Hongzhi exerts mental control over his disciples. Thus, Li Hongzhi is considered to be the Creator, he is always right, and anything he says is good. - Li Hongzhi makes his disciples abandon "attachments", and makes them do the "three things", affecting their lifestyle - Li Hongzhi indirectly convinces his believers to not use medical treatment against illnesses.
On the Internet environment of the West, the sources about Falun Gong are scarce and of low quality. There are the Falun Gong websites, which are biased, or even make false statements. And there are scholars, who try to make objective stuff but miss important information. And there are the article of the Chinese embassy, which are full of political bias. HLNL (talk) 02:12, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
- RationalWiki has a very Western-centric bias. Any edits you can make that could help make this article of better quality would be appreciated. Carthage (talk) 03:07, 13 October 2023 (UTC)
Unexplained reversion of edits[edit]
Hello, @Carthage, you reverted my edits. I would like to know why. I don't think there was any problem with them. Thanks.HLNL (talk) 16:46, 4 November 2023 (UTC)
youtube channels[edit]
they have a ton of crazy youtube channels, like China Observer, China Insights, China in Focus, and a ton of other crazy associates/affiliates... — Unsigned, by: 24.147.215.248 / talk
- Hello, I dont think these YouTube channels should be given more than a paragraph because they are a small part of Falun Gong's "truth-carification projects", which include "truth points" (booths), flyer/poster distribution, Falun Gong media (newspapers, television, radio), protests/parades, artistic groups (Shen Yun Performing Arts, Tian Guo Marching Band, etc.) In addition, the section about its media is a sort of a mess, so I think we have to fix that first. HLNL (talk) 15:03, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
Regarding Falun Gong's teachings about miscegenation[edit]
I think there is a problem in the section of "Views on races". The article states that "The movement's teaching on race-related issues are vehemently racist", but the sources don't support the claim that they are vehemently racist.
The article states that "Li Hongzhi himself believes mixed-race people should be outcasts of every human society" citing Li Hongzhi's "Lecture in Sydney" (1996). However, the quotation does not support this claim. Furthermore, Li Hongzhi said that the practitioners should not care about it: "When I talked a moment ago about the situation with mixed race children, I was telling mankind a divine secret. It’s not that we are going to do something about the issue. I mentioned that I’m doing something even greater, and I can also save people of mixed race, though it’s only for this period of time that I can save them." (Lecture Given at the Conference in Sydney) So it is less likely that he believes mixed-race people should be outcasts of every human society.
And in addition, in the audio recording of Li Hongzhi’s lecture in Frankfurt, Germany (1998), Li Hongzhi stated that the problem of interracial relationships has nothing to do with practitioners. He said (my own translation from Chinese): "I did not care, I did not interfere, I did not say no, nor did I say yes, because this matter… Let’s not care about it now, let it be." (I don't know if this counts as a reliable source or not, and these audio recordings are not allowed to be spread among Falun Gong believers.)
Therefore, in my opinion, these statements should be reworded.
The last three quotations in the "Views on races" section are not related to racism or bigotry, although the section's title is "Bigotry". I don't think "Bigotry" is an appropriate title, because there is no visible evidence of bigotry. I think it should be changed to something like "Social views". HLNL (talk) 16:10, 20 May 2024 (UTC)
三退 ≠ "tuidang"[edit]
https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Falun_Gong&oldid=2677191#Quitting_the_Party
The English name of "三退" is Tuidang.
This correspondence can't be right. 三退 (in Mandarin) would be pronounced sāntuì. Tuìdǎng would rather be the pronunciation of 退党, which appears later in the paragraph ("退党保平安").
| 三 | sān |
| 退 | tuì |
| 党 | dǎng |
Besides the pronunciation error, calling the pinyin of a Chinese word "English" is not quite right.