Thursday, May 20, 2010

Falun Gong: 1350

..."Don't you really belong to the Yellow Scarves, Zhang Jue and his ilk?"...
..."The man is a sorcerer," Sun Ce replied. "He uses his arts to mislead the multitude and must be eliminated."...
--From the Romance of the Three Kingdoms--

The Yellow Scarves, like the Red Eyebrows, and the Boxers, were groups responsible for great upheaval and revolution in Chinese history, and they all had mystical ties. So it's no wonder the Chinese government moved to repress Falun Gong, a modern day society with mystical practices.

Compare China's reaction to America's, where groups like the Tea Party, modeled after a revolutionary group, go about their business with only rhetorical government interference.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So many thoughts pop up after reading this. China, with a cyclical view of history, resists change. Is that because the Chinese people are happy where they are or because they want to avoid the inevitable chaos they see coming back around?

America, with a linear view of history, plunges headlong into the uncertainty of the future, tossing tradition and proven strategies aside. Is that because we're hopeful to discover nirvana around the next corner or simply because we're bored and want some action?

The Chinese are like a woman in an abusive relationship, who chooses to stay for the stability--albeit wretched yet tolerable. The Americans are like a stay-at-home mom who sheds her quite comfortable surroundings for the naked thrill of adventure she thinks she will find in an affair.