Through this week we have obtained a more informed understanding of the perilous dialectic between faith and repression that has obtained between Falun gong practitioners and the Chinese state. From David Ownby we have learned of the redemptive properties of Falun gong, something that has been confirmed by the testimony of practitioners who visited our class and also Jennifer Zeng's memoir. For this weekend's blogpost I would like you to take what you have learned this past week and reflect on the following quotation from Jiwei Ci.
Nihilism, then, as applied to China, refers to a situation in which reality and meaning have become so separated that the gap between them no longer seems to offer the possibility either for the meaningful interpretation of present reality or for hope-inspired action with a view to the future. In such a situation, it is possible to act but no longer to act meaningfully, possible to entertain abstract tenets of meaning but no longer to relate them to actual experience, so that hedonism seems the only way out. Nihilism is not an intellectual position that in leisurely contemplation one can choose to take or not; it is the product of a way of life--of thinking, feeling, hoping, and acting--having come to grief. Although it may require intellectual effort to raise this condition to the level of conscious reflection, it takes only the capacity for the acquisition and loss of meaning, which everyone has, to be open to the experience of nihilism. Indeed, an outstanding feature of the Chinese utopian project was its mobilization of an entire people, and insofar as utopianism, the psychological antecedent of nihilism, affected an entire people, so by the same token did its sequel, nihilism. (Jiwei Ci, Dialectic of the Chinese Revolution, 5-6)
How does this characterization of China's larger crisis of meaning help explain the phenomenon of Falun gong? How can we understand Ownby's interpretation of Falun gong as a "redemptive society" in this particular context of meaninglessness? Does Ci's comment here help to account for the antipathy that exists between Falun gong and the Chinese Communist Party?
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The nihilism in China following the collpase of utopianism is reminiscent of the nihilism experienced in Russia in the 1830's/1840's following the failed Decembrist revolt. After the Napoleonic Wars, soldiers brought back to Russia ideas of democracy. These ideas were suppressed, and the subsequent feelings of hopelessness led to a generation of nihilists. This generation was even discussed in Turgenev's novel, Fathers and Sons, in which one generation (the fathers) of slavophiles are at odds with their nihilistic sons. Russia's nihilism and subsequent hedonism (the poshlust of St. Petersburg society in the author, Nikolai Gogol's time) brought about massive change, however, as the Bolshevik revolution was not too long after Turgenev's novel was published. From this we can see that out of nihilism, hedonism can arise, but hedonism cannot last forever. Eventually, the majority of the population will get fed up with hedonism and will institute a new form of government. In the case of Russia, it was Marxism, but for China I feel the current political structure will break down and be replaced by democracy primarily because Marxism has already been tried in China with unsuccessful results.
ReplyDeleteIn Ownby's article, he says, "qigong masters were vastly more popular than any party or government figure, and popular enthusiasm for qigong cultivation greatly exceeded that for Chinese socialism or for government performance in general...qigong masters were pop cultural heroes..." (p. 13) From this we can see that many people began to worship qigong masters in the same way that Christians might worship Jesus. This seems to me to be one explanation of why America is so much more religious than other countries of comparable wealth. America is a country based on principles of hedonistic consumption, and people who are unable to partake in this hedonism turn elsewhere for meaning in their lives. Americans are far more religious than Europeans on average because Europeans do not need what Marx referred to as the "opium for the masses."
Falun gong practicers are obviously not conforming to the hedonistic lifestyle the Chinese government had at that time been relying on as its main ideology. In fact, falun gong was bringing down this hedonistic lifestyle by slowly taking more and more people away from hedonism. Without the majority of the population taking on the state's new ideology of hedonism, the Chinese government would be in danger of losing its ideological ascendancy. The battle over ideology is one reason why falun gong was persecuted by the Chinese communist government.
Ci characterizes China today as a society of meaninglessness. This is immediately at odds with Falun Gong, and draws our attention to how Falun Gong functions in a society that has progressed from a desired utopianism to nihilism and hedonism. Wording used to describe Falun Gong helps us in this pursuit. Calling it a "cultivation" practice, we begin to see what is meant by Ownby's classification of Falun Gong as "redemptive society". Pulling away from the present nihilism and the hedonism that follows, it leads one to perceived understanding, both inner and of the external world.
ReplyDeleteThis understanding, found through the teaching of Hongzhi's "Zhuan Falun", can fill the void left by society, interjecting meaning into life and creating goals of truthfulness, benevolence, and forbearance, rather than the self-serving, nothing matters but personal gain society described by Ci. In his conclusion, Ci states, "Now that nihilism has destroyed faith in communism, with no new faith likely to take its place, a change in material conditions for the worse will not sublimate hedonism but only frustrate it and sour it". Where is one then to turn? Ownby suggests that this is where Falun Gong enters.
As the prompt suggests, antipathy exists between the Chinese Communist Party and Falun Gong, and a direct connection can be drawn between the current way of life, (Nihilism and Hedonism), and what Falun Gong is claiming improve in one's life. China relies on the current way of life, beginning with Utopianism and now Nihilism and Hedonism in an attempt to mask its totalitarianism, as Ci alludes to in his conclusion. Falun Gong, perhaps inadvertently, pulls the veil away from the the system, exposing what is really going on, thus partially explaining some of conflict between the two.
What Ownby is calling redemptive, the Chinese Communist Party might call subversive and insubordinate, perhaps even revolutionary. For the very reason that Falun Gong, through its redemptive nature of cultivation and awareness, opens one's eyes to the current culture of meaninglessness and personal gain, it poses a threat to this way of life. If this way of life is to collapse, much of the totalitarianism of the CCP will be exposed. After making all these statements I certainly need to qualify them, noting that this threat is not the only reason the CCP views Falun Gong as a threat, and is arguably not even the most important reason for the persecution of Falun Gong. Rather, it is another important piece of the puzzle, and can perhaps shed some more light on why Falun Gong is perceived as a threat.
I think the problem with Ci's analysis of the post-revolution China lies in the last statement of this selected quote; "an outstanding feature of the Chinese utopian project was its mobilization on an entire people...so by the same token did its sequel, nihilism." Who is this "entire" people? To say the uptopian project affected "all common people" or "all government members" is one thing, but to call China an "entire" people is simply wrong. Until the Chinese government can adequately represent the wishes of the people, there can be no union. Using this fact as a building block for further analysis, we can not accept the fact that nihilism affected all people either. In turn, Falun gong as a "redemptive society" in response to hedonism cannot be represented as "the answer" to the people of China (I apologize for my overuse of quotation marks here). Because China was not fully united under one common goal, and was not then destroyed under one common sin (hedonism), it is not so easy to explain the role of Falun gong. What complicates this situation even further is the fact that many CCP members themselves were practicioners of Falun gong. These people bridge the gap between the government and the common people, blurring the distinction of those who promoted hedonism as a relief from nihilism and those who were seeking redemption. Perhaps hedonism has no correlation to the development and rapid rise of Falun gong's practice. I believe that it was not the spiritual redemption or physical benefits that propelled Falun gong's growth, but the connection it offered between two groups of people (common citizens and party members) who would otherwise be eternally separated. In a seemingly meaningless life, Falun gong gave China a sense of togetherness in the face of tragedy, whether or not hedonism was a damaging factor or not.
ReplyDelete“Nihilism... is the product of a way of life having come to grief.” I would argue that Falun Gong has emerged partially in reaction to that grief, as more post-Mao Chinese citizens struggle to find meaning and worthiness in their lives again, struggle to fit themselves (and their lives) into a cohesive narrative.
ReplyDeleteOwnby offers various contexts in which we can view Falun Gong, each of which results in different impressions. Evaluating Falun Gong within the context of a “way of life (Mao’s China) having come to grief” would likely place it as an expression of popular response to the spiritual vacuum created by the failure of that way of life, one resulting partially from dissatisfaction with corruption and abuse of power. Falun Gong is also an effort to find physical and spiritual health by adhering to certain moral guides. It represents an effort on the part of the people to find meaning in life, which the justifications of the Chinese Communist Party no longer attempt to provide. They want to find redemption, belonging, and a sense of moral certitude- things that would not be available in a wholly materialistic, hedonistic society.
I strongly agree with Mitchell's statement that “hedonism cannot last forever.” The existence and prevalence of Falun Gong also provide evidence to at least dispute Ci’s claim that “IF hedonism fails, it will be a practical failure, a failure of technical management caused by human incompetence or unfavorable material circumstances.” He draws this conclusion based on the “absence of any intellectual or cultural forces in the way of hedonism.” This seems an unnecessarily broad statement to make in an academic paper, and I really can't imagine why he made such an unqualified assertion.
Ci’s comment here does offer a new perspective on the antipathy between the CCP and Falun Gong. Using the context Ci has outlined for us, the Chinese Communist Party embraced hedonism (an aspect of the nihilism that had engulfed the country after the failure of utopianism- Mao’s revolution) to save itself. Falun Gong wants to remake utopianism (everyone practicing truth, forbearance, compassion, and cultivating Falun means everyone is nice to each other and gets super powers and lives a really long time.) The Communist Government perhaps fears the power of Falun Gongs ideology, as one of the reasons for the projected success of hedonism (according to Ci) is the lack of alternatives. The CCP sees Falun Gong as a threat to the success of the hedonism ideology keeping them in power; Falun Gong sees the CCP as actively trying to crush their utopian ideals.
B. Murphy
Ci's description of China's descent into nihilism and hedonism provides an accurate illustration of the context into which Falun Gong emerged. Ci describes the Chinese state as being in state of nihilism, where "reality and meaning have become so separated that the gap between them no longer seems to offer the possibility either for the meaningful interpretation of present reality or for hope-inspired action with a view to the future". As Ownby asserts in his article, qigong groups such as Falun Gong emerged to fill this gap between reality and meaning. After the utopian goals of the Communist regime and the Cultural Revolution failed, the people of China, who had invested so much in the prospect of utopian success, were left adrift in an increasingly materialistic world. As Ci states, from this state of meaningless, "hedonism emerged as a way of filling the void of nihilism without going through the ordeal of a new search for meaning." However, hedonism could only satisfy "sensuous" desires, whereas qigong groups offered better living, spiritual cultivation, even immortality.
ReplyDeleteIn this way, Falun Gong represents a "redemptive society". To redeem is defined as "to restore; to change for the better; or to free what distresses or harms". Thus, Falun Gong helps to redeem the Chinese people by helping them break free from hedonism and to fill the spiritual void brought on by nihilism so there can never again be a return to a hedonistic state.
Ci's account of the hedonistic nature of Chinese society could explain the CCP's antipathy in terms of a change in the loyalty of the people. When individuals realize that they can gain spiritual cultivation and happiness from qigong without having to succumb to the corruption of the Party to satisfy desires, people rely less on the Party and are more loyal to the qigong movement. However, I do believe that the primary reason for the CCP's opposition to Falun Gong lies in the threat it presents in terms of a loss of power and control over the people. The Chinese government is concerned more with maintaining its power over the country than it is with Falun Gong's occupation as a "redemptive society"
In Jiwei Ci’s work, “Dialectic of the Chinese Revolution – From Utopianism to Hedonism,” nihilism is basically defined as a disappearance of meaning. In Chinese society, when the failure of the desired utopia of the Cultural Revolution became increasingly evident, society turned to this nihilism Ci speaks of. Society is plagued with a sense of helplessness and a deep loss of meaning. As Ci asserts, “This sense of futility came, moreover, for the nation as a whole, after an extraordinary amount of sacrifice and idealism over four long decades.” After all of this, society is left only with a sense of deep disappointment.
ReplyDeleteThis crisis of meaning does explain the phenomenon of Falun Gong and how it became so popular. Specifically, Ownby characterizes Falun Gong as a “redemptive society.” As he writes, “The qigong boom and the emergence of Falun Gong must in any event be understood as important moments in this popular search for meaning, a quest for health, happiness, and perhaps redemption achieved at the individual level and outside the context of party control and work-unit tyranny.” Thus, Falun Gong arose as redemption for the individual from the stifling conformity of the greater collective society they were forced to be a part of during Mao’s utopian Cultural Revolution and the loss of meaning that inherently followed. This is why qigong leaders became so popular with the masses and this in turn is the reason for the antipathy between Falun Gong and the CCP.
As qigong leaders became more popular than any Party leaders, the Party became worried and threatened. While Falun Gong practitioners sought meaning through their religion (Ownby asserts that Falun Gong is in fact a religion), the government was simultaneously searching for their own kind of meaning through political legitimacy. Thus, the Party saw that they were at odds with the Falun Gong practitioners and qigong leaders, who were quickly gaining more popular support. Thus, in keeping with China’s history of authoritarianism and totalitarianism, the persecution of Falun Gong began.
I agree with my peers in saying that Ci's assertion, that Falun Gong grew out of the nihilism and dissatisfaction after the CCP eliminated all other religious and spiritual practices. This "crisis of meaning" helps us understand why Falun Gong spread so fast throughout China, and also why the party is afraid of the movement.
ReplyDeleteFalun Gong is powerful because it gives people an opportunity to redeem themselves and find a place in modern China. The CCP, by eliminating religion during the Cultural Revolution and creating an atheist atmosphere, has deprived Chinese citizens of a moral compass. The CCP made a huge mistake in taking away and marginalizing religion because it left their people hopeless and lost. As Ci states, there is no redemption for China or its people because there is no way overcome the burden of historical mistakes. Falun Gong, however, has a plan to find redemption, which is why it is so popular.
When Falun Gong offered a way to connect the world, people willingly took it, and the government lost control of its people. Falun Gong is simply a reaction to failed communist ideology which could not sustain its citizens. I think that looking at the movement of Falun Gong in this way explains why it is so popular today.
However, I feel that this still does not accurately explain why the CCP has dedicated so much energy to the persecution of this practice. Even if it is true that the government felt "threatened" by Falun Gong, it is simply illogical that they would use so many resources to suppress the practice. I still do not understand the persecution.
Falun gong simply provides meaningful actions to practitioners. It gives practitioners the sense that their actions and how they interact with other people are significant to their lives. In the same way Falun gong provides redemption for people feeling lost in the nihilism of Communist China. It provides a sense of purpose for people who are not satisfied with un-redeeming materialism.
ReplyDeleteIt could in that the Chinese Communist Party continues to view their society as utopian and doesn’t recognize the shift to nihilism, but that it does recognize Falun gong as an enemy to the current situation, which it believes is utopian. The antipathy grows from the government’s failure in the eyes of the people. The Chinese people felt lost after the Communist Party had removed the influence of religions and then failed to provide the utopian society that had been promised. Thus the Chinese people turned elsewhere to find meaning. Falun gong provided this meaning as other religions had before. The Chinese Communist Party views the popularity of Falun gong as an abandonment of its own ideology.
Nihilism is a disease that can dismantle any society; a belief in nothing leads to the loss of everything. I believe that the Falun Gong movement is simply a natural reaction by people to a society that is losing its values. Taking all we have learned into account, I have come to the conclusion, so far, that Falun Gong was formed as a resistance to the nihilism that the Communist government has been perpetuating. The Chinese people have formed a “redemptive society” because that is all they have. Jiwei Ci’s account is well-worded, but obvious – the moral values exhibited by Falun Gong are in direct contrast to the Communist party’s nihilistic philosophy.
ReplyDeleteCi states that the government as it stands has unintentionally fostered a nihilistic mindset into its people, beginning with Mao's desire to create a utopian society wherein the torch of meaning would be held high by the government. The Communist party would be the beacon of hope and united purpose that would in effect replace the need and desire for popular relgion. As Deng came into power, his position still represented the guiding light for the masses, but his actions betrayed his position. By making the government foster economic rather than spiritual or even nationalistic tendencies, he essentially created a government that not only rejected religon but refused to offer a meaniful substituion. The response was a gradual turn towards Nihilism out of which sprang the completely material hedonism which drives the decisions of government officials and much of the population.
ReplyDeleteHedonism in this case is a consequence of Nihilism, and it wasn't long before people sought after a solution. That solution was the very thing the government failed to provide or allow: religion. The CCP recognized the danger, so they allowed certain relgions but kept them under governmental control. In Falun Gong, the people found a way to still fill the hole of meaning in their lives untethered to a governmental authority, at least in the beginning as the CCP believed both it and Falun Gong were working towards the same goal, and indeed Falun Gong would have been working in the same direction of the government under Mao, but unfortunately for both parties, it became glaringly apparent that the moral guidance outlined by Li Hongzhi in the Zhuan Falun provide people a alternate platform that the population could choose. This choice is what threatened China so much, and it sows the seeds of a movement that could threaten the CCP's stability and longevity.
It seems to me that the collective nihilism found in China which Ci describes in this particular excerpt is as much a cause of the rise of Falun Gong as the CCP's reaction to the nihilism is. Following the Tiananmen Square Massacre, Ci argues that the Chinese authorities began encouraging hedonism as the path to fill the void of nihilism. Essentially, by actively petitioning its citizens to seek sensuous acts and immediate gratification, the CCP believes it can lessen the threat for another call for political liberation. (As an aside, I saw an episode of PBS's "Frontline" a couple years ago that made a similar argument to Ci's here.)
ReplyDeleteFalun Gong's rise makes complete sense with this idea in mind. While Ci may argue that Chinese society as a whole became nihilistic, there were certainly plenty of individuals who continued to be idealistic in nature. Falun Gong became an alternative meaning to the state-sponsored hedonism. As a qigong practice that included an additional spiritual message, Falun Gong absolutely fit Ownby's idea of a redemptive society. It has become apparent to me how Falun Gong's pillars of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance could win over the hearts and minds of so many so quickly.
Falun Gong's place as an alternative to hedonism may also help explain the animosity the CCP holds towards the practice. If the encouragement of hedonism as a reaction to the Tiananmen Square Massacre that Ci and others argue is true, then those in charge may in fact see any alternative path as one that again encourages political liberalism. It seems that the mere fact Falun Gong practitioners continue to be idealistic causes so much consternation among the Chinese Communist Party.
Hedonism is defined as either (1) the pursuit of pleasure; sensual-self indulgence or (2) the ethical theory that personal pleasure is the highest good and proper aim of human life. Ci puts forward that the Chinese people as a whole have lost their ability to act meaningfully. Firstly, to connect previous statements that the Chinese cultural focus has become hedonism with Ci’s statement that the general cultural norm is nihilism, we must say that the sole pursuit of pleasure is an invalid philosophy of life and ultimately unfulfilling. The Chinese people, recognizing that, have sought to endow their life with meaning from other sources-namely qigong and in our study, Falun Gong. Ci’s commentary does not particularly enlighten the idea of Falun Gong as a “redemptive society”, because I doubt that the Chinese people have truly adopted nihilism as a philosophy. If that were so, I believe that the Communist Party would not have a problem with Falun Gong because it would have been arbitrarily endowed with meaning by people who can “maintain abstract tenets, but no longer relates them to actual experience”.
ReplyDeleteSorry everyone, I forget about the blog this week until just now. I was doing an end of the night check of my email and saw the blog. Anyway, I hope that the fundamental of ren can be applied in this particular situation.
ReplyDeleteCi brings some interesting points up. I agree with many of my classmates in that the culture of nihilism brought about the situation where Falun Gong could be grasped in China. It seems as though people in China were looking for something of mystical proportions to gravitate towards. By mystical I mean something that explains the workings of their bodies and or the universe. Falun Gong does this. The widespread practicing of Falun Gong may be reflecting the fact that the CCP can't fulfill this role for the people of China.
Oops, epic fail. I am officially VERY late.
ReplyDeleteCi's commentary on the existence of nihilism in China brought my attention and led to the understanding of the somewhat unbelievable reactions of the Falun Gong practicioners against the Chinese government's oppression. As Ci quoted, " it is possible to act but no longer to act meaningfully, possible to entertain abstract tenets of meaning but no longer to relate them to actual experience, so that hedonism seems the only way out." I believe this is why the Falun Gong practicioners do not act in such a way tat we "sane" people can justify and understand. They have just totally lost their mind, or gave up being meaningful or reasonable. Rather, they have decided to "enjoy" their experience of being subdued pursuing the 'zhen-shen-ren' principle and following the words of master Li.
Ownby's interpretation of Falun Gong as a "redemptive society" could be understood that Falun Gong is effective in redeeming the Chinese people by avoiding hedonism. Honestly, I really don't understand what all these nihilism, hedonism got to do with the justification of both Falun Gong and the Chinese government.