Rima Shah
Express-News Staff Writer
Chinese tradition holds that
the lotus has mythical qualities.
“There is a saying that the lotus
flower comes from the mud but it is not polluted,” said Hyongji Pan, a San
Antonio Falun Gong practitioner.
It is that ability to stay pristine and
beautiful despite being surrounded by impurities that led the Falun Gong to choose
it as a symbol of hope, especially for the children of Falun Gong practitioners.
The children, according to the group, number in the millions and often
are orphaned because of persecution of practitioners, coerced and humiliated in
schools, forced to renounce their practice or die in the hands of Chinese authorities.
That’s why children of practitioners in San Antonio and Austin are participating
in “Petals of Peace,” a program started by Jane and Fadu Dai of Australia
in October.
The program encourages children worldwide to fold an origami
lotus to give hope and serve as a symbol for the peaceful future of children.
The group claims Jane Dai’s husband, Fadu’s father, was tortured to death
in a Chinese prison for practicing Falun Gong.
Children here fold origami
lotuses not just for their spiritual statement but because many, such as Emily
Pan, 5, enjoy the craft itself.
Dressed in a soft-blue, traditional Chinese
dress known as a qipao, Emily said she makes origami lotuses because “they
are red, yellow” and because “Falun Gong is good.”
Her father,
Hyongji Pan, said that without his telling her, she folded a lotus and presented
it to her prekindergarten teacher so “my teacher would know what (Falun Gong)
is.”
Falun Gong has been around at least since 1992, when Li Hongzhi,
a former trumpet player and grain clerk, mixed elements of Buddhism, Taoism and
traditional qigong exercises and added the moral tenets of “truthfulness,”
“forbearance,” and “compassion.”
Estimates of its following
vary from 10 million to 100 million. In China, about 1,000 people have died and
hundreds of thousands have been arrested and illegally detained, according to
Falun Gong devotees.
[…]
Robert Weller, an anthropology professor
at Boston University, said Falun Gong is a qigong movement that has taken on a
lot of religious features. The group itself claims it is not a religion.
Weller
said the group’s popularity and its ability to organize on a large scale have
displeased the government in a country where no group can rise above the local
level.
Weller said the group’s popularity is based on its long history
in Chinese culture and the health benefits it promises. Some adherents claim it
can cure cancer.
Jenny Yang, a 10-year-old convert from Austin, enthuses
about the lotus project and Falun Gong because, she says, the practice has helped
with her diabetes.
Since she started performing Falun Gong exercises a
year ago at the suggestion of her mother, Yang said her blood sugar level has
stabilized within a healthy range, though she still is diabetic.
The lotus
petals folded by children like Yang and Emily are sometimes sent to children in
China. The program tries to ensure, Hyongji Pan said, that the sufferings of the
Dai family won’t happen to other people.
Posting Date: 6/Jul/2004
Article
Date: 3/Jul/2004
Category: Media Report
