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| Author | David A. Palmer |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Hurst |
Publication date | 2007 |
| Pages | 356 |
| ISBN | 9781850658412 |
Qigong Fever: Body, Science, and Utopia in China is a 2007 book [1] by David A. Palmer, published by Columbia University Press. It is about the "Qigong fever" in the late 20th century in China.
Patricia M. Thornton of the University of Oxford described it as "the first serious English-language history" of that topic. [2]
David Palmer studied at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and published a French language thesis, Fièvre du qigong, in 2005. He adapted it into this book, which was published in English. Georges Favraud described the final book as "condensed" in the American style relative to the thesis but that Palmer "steps back to clarify and extend his earlier arguments." [3]
Benjamin Penny wrote that the book is "Broadly chronological in structure". [4]
The first chapter shows the rise of qigong in China in the period 1949-1964. [3] The second describes how Qigong regained prominence after 1978. The role of "grandmasters" in the qigong movement is chronicled in the third chapter. [4] The political role in "qigong fever" is covered in those second and third chapters. The fourth chapter shows the technological dimension of "qigong fever".
The fifth describes how qigong, during the "qigong fever" period, incorporated elements of Chinese culture. [3] The fifth chapter includes information on Yan Xin, Zhang Hongbao, and Zhang Xianyu. [4] Chee-Han Lim of the Australian National University states that the chapter had a "broad picture of the qigong movement" but that "Unfortunately[...]Palmer does not really manage to capture the "feverishness"" as he did not have enough room in the book. [5]
The sixth describes how the qigong movement responded to people criticizing it, [5] and how the Chinese central government made efforts to manage the qigong movements. The Zhong Gong and Zangmi Gong, [3] along with commercialization and the structures of qigong groups in general, are described in the seventh. [4] Falun Gong is described in the eight and ninth. The tenth contextualizes modern gigong with the history of belief in China. [3] The tenth includes some hypotheses. [5]
Lim wrote that the book "is an excellent addition" to its field, [6] and he added that chapters 1 and 2 "are a must-read" for people learning about qigong for the first time. [7]
Favraud praised the book for "original and profound insights". [3]
Thornton described it as a "excellent volume". [8]
Penny wrote that "Qigong Fever should be required reading for students of China’s modern cultural scene" because the work reveals the genesis of the Falun Gong. [9]
Falun Gong or Falun Dafa is a new religious movement. Falun Gong was founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a 427-acre (1.73 km2) compound in Deerpark, New York, United States, near the residence of Li Hongzhi.
Li Hongzhi is a Chinese religious leader. He is the founder and leader of Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, a United States-based new religious movement. Li began his public teachings of Falun Gong on 13 May 1992 in Changchun, and subsequently gave lectures and taught Falun Gong exercises across China.
The 610 Office was a security agency in the People's Republic of China. Named for the date of its creation on June 10, 1999, it was established for the purpose of coordinating and implementing the persecution of Falun Gong. The 610 Office was the implementation arm of the Central Leading Group on Dealing with the Falun Gong (CLGDF), also known as the Central Leading Group on Dealing with Heretical Religions, a leading small group of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Because it was a CCP-led office with no formal legal mandate, it is sometimes described as an extralegal organisation.
Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a spiritual practice and system of beliefs that combines the practice of meditation with the moral philosophy articulated by its leader and founder, Li Hongzhi. It emerged on the public radar in the Spring of 1992 in the northeastern Chinese city of Changchun, and was classified as a system of qigong identifying with the Buddhist tradition. Li claimed to have both supernatural powers like the ability to prevent illness, as well having eternal youth and promised that others can attain supernatural powers and eternal youth by following his teachings. Falun Gong initially enjoyed official sanction and support from Chinese government agencies, and the practice grew quickly on account of the simplicity of its exercise movements, impact on health, the absence of fees or formal membership, and moral and philosophical teachings.
Falun Gong, a new religious movement that combines meditation with the moral philosophy articulated by founder Li Hongzhi, first began spreading widely in China in 1992. Li's first lectures outside mainland China took place in Paris in 1995. At the invitation of the Chinese ambassador to France, he lectured on his teachings and practice methods to the embassy staff and others. From that time on, Li gave lectures in other major cities in Europe, Asia, Oceania, and North America. He has resided permanently in the United States since 1998. Falun Gong is now practiced in some 70 countries worldwide, and the teachings have been translated to over 40 languages. The international Falun Gong community is estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands, though participation estimates are imprecise on account of a lack of formal membership.
Li Hongzhi published the Teachings of Falun Gong in Changchun, China in 1992. They cover a wide range of topics ranging from spiritual, scientific and moral to metaphysical.
Zhong Gong (中功) is a spiritual movement based on qigong founded in 1987 by Zhang Hongbao. The full name (中华养生益智功) translates to "China Health Care and Wisdom Enhancement Practice." The system distinguished itself from other forms of qigong by its strong emphasis on commercialisation, and a targeted strategy that aimed to build a national commercial organisation in China in the 1990s.
Jean-Baptiste Du Halde was a French Jesuit historian specializing in China. He did not travel to China, but collected seventeen Jesuit missionaries' reports and provided an encyclopedic survey of the history, culture and society of China and "Chinese Tartary," that is, Manchuria.
Qigong, is a system of coordinated body-posture and movement, breathing, and meditation said to be useful for the purposes of health, spirituality, and martial arts training. With roots in Chinese medicine, philosophy, and martial arts, qigong is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance the mythical life-force qi.
The persecution of Falun Gong is the campaign initiated in 1999 by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to eliminate the spiritual practice of Falun Gong in China, maintaining a doctrine of state atheism. It is characterized by a multifaceted propaganda campaign, a program of enforced ideological conversion and re-education and reportedly a variety of extralegal coercive measures such as arbitrary arrests, forced labor and physical torture, sometimes resulting in death.
Zhang Baosheng was a so-called Qigong grandmaster during the peak of Qigong's popularity, "Qigong fever," in China. Baosheng claimed supernatural abilities developed through it, including but not limited to: x-ray vision, pyrokinesis, spoon bending, healing and the ability to pass objects through other non-permeable objects using telekinesis. These claims were unfounded under investigation.
Joseph Tonda is a sociologist and anthropologist of Congolese and Gabonese background. He is a specialist of Congolese and Gabonese culture, society, and politics, and is currently professor of sociology at Omar Bongo University in Libreville. He is also a regular visiting instructor at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, France.
Qigong, the Chinese practice of aligning breath, movement, and awareness for exercise, healing, and martial arts training, has a history that extends back more than 4,000 years. Contemporary qigong is a complex accretion of the ancient Chinese meditative practice xingqi or "circulating qi" and the gymnastic breathing exercise daoyin or "guiding and pulling", with roots in the I Ching and occult arts; philosophical traditions of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, traditional Chinese medicine and martial arts; along with influences of contemporary concepts of health, science, meditation, and exercise.
Zouhuorumo refers to psychosomatic issues that can arise from excessive practice of self-cultivation techniques In Chinese culture, this concept traditionally signifies a disturbance or problem that occurs during spiritual or martial arts training. Within the qigong and traditional Chinese medical communities, zouhuorumo describes a physiological or psychological disorder believed to stem from the combination of a underlying predisposition and improper practice of these techniques. The term gained prominence in the 1980s and 1990s during the widespread popularity of qigong in China, called qigong fever. In Buddhist and Daoist circles, zouhuorumo is also used to describe individuals who engage in esoteric teachings, techniques, or meditations without possessing good character, established discipline, or proper guidance from a teacher.
Qigong fever, also known as the qigong boom, was a social phenomenon in the People's Republic of China during the 1980s and 1990s, in which the practice of qigong rose to extraordinary popularity, with mass daily practice. At its peak, it is estimated that the number of qigong practitioners reached between 60 and 200 million, developing a flourishing subculture.
The Religion of Falun Gong is a 2012 nonfiction book by Benjamin Penny, published by the University of Chicago Press, that discusses the Falun Gong's belief system.
Revenge of the Forbidden City: The Suppression of the Falungong in China, 1999-2005 is a 2009 book by James W. Tong, published by Oxford University Press. It describes how the Chinese government suppressed the Falun Gong in that stated time frame. David Ownby of the Université de Montréal described it as "a very nuts-and-bolts book".
Falun Gong and the Future of China is a 2008 book by David Ownby, published by Oxford University Press. The book is about the Chinese new religious movement Falun Gong, and covers its history and the group's media and portrayals of itself. The book received generally positive reviews.
Falun Gong: The End of Days is a book by Maria Hsia Chang about the Falun Gong.
Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora is a non-fiction book by Andrew Junker, an adjunct assistant professor in sociology at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Published by Cambridge University Press in 2019, the book is a sociological study of the Falun Gong movement and the post-1989 democracy movement (Minyun), both suppressed in China. By comparing these two movements from a social movement perspective, Junker argued that Falun Gong's more enduring mobilization results from its decentralized organizational structure and demonstrates the potential for progressive social change.
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| TCM and philosophy | ||
| Traditional practices | ||
| Qigong forms and styles | ||
| Qigong masters |
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| Spiritual movements and politics | ||
| Related topics | ||