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In 1999, a strange Chinese cult gained Beijing's attention. They've been at war ever since.
This video is a supercut of two older episodes best watched together.
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For sources, turn on CC. References below. ↓
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Spectacles is a love letter to democracy, its values, its caretakers, and its ideas. Around the world, individual rights and representative government are facing unprecedented attacks from the forces of reaction and revisionism. But despite liberal democracy’s real shortcomings and today’s all-too-fashionable cynicism, we remain committed to its preservation and improvement. Join us as we explore just what liberal democracy is, how it comes about, and how it can best be maintained in a changing world.
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SOURCES (links for some available on website)
A. Andrew Walder, China Under Mao (Harvard University Press: Cambridge, 2015)
B. Frank Dikotter, China After Mao: The Rise of A Superpower (Bloomsbury: New York, 2022)
C. Junpeng Li, “The Religion of the Nonreligious and the Politics of the Apolitical: The Transformation of Falun Gong from Healing Practice to Political Movement,” in Politics and Religion 7 (2014)
D. Andrew B. Kipnis, “The Flourishing of Religion in Post-Mao China and the Anthropological Category of Religion,” in The Australian Journal of Anthropology, 12 no. 1 (2001)
E. David Ownby, Falun Gong and the Future of China, (Oxford University Press, 2008)
F. David Palmer, Qigong Fever (Columbia University Press: 2007)
G. Voltaire, The Complete Works, Volume 11 (1968)
H. Andrew Junker, Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora (Cambridge University Press: 2019)
I. “A Chronicle of Major Historic Events during the Introduction of Falun Dafa to the Public,” Falun Dafa, 8 October 2004 [Note: This is a Falun Gong source but at least three leading Falun Gong scholars (Tong 2002, Ownby 2008, Junker 2019) consider the estimates plausible, not least because when Falun Gong exaggerates figures, as it often does, they tend to be absurdly high.]
J. William Dowell, “Interview with Li Hongzhi,” in Time, 10 May 1999.
K. He Zuoxiu, “I Do Not Approve of Teenagers Practicing Qigong,” Youth Science and Technology Outlook, 11 April 1999.
L. Xinhua. [Note: Xinhua is a government-owned and -directed media source. As such, its reliability is limited, but thanks to government prohibitions on interviews of the individuals, it is near-impossible to find any independent sources with much detail to offer. We have relied on this as sparingly as possible.]
M. Minghui, “Press Statement: Who's Behind Tiananmen Self-immolation?”
N. Amnesty International
O. Part One of this video.
P. Jonathan S. Landreth and J.S. Greenberg, “The Way We Live Now: 8-8-99: Questions for Li Hongzhi; Eye of the Storm,” in The New York Times, 8 August 1999.
Q. Alesso Perrone and Darren Loucaides, “A key source for Covid-skeptic movements, the Epoch Times yearns for a global audience,” in Coda, 10 March 2022.
R. Nicholas Hune Brown, “The traditional Chinese dance troupe China doesn’t want you to see,” in The Guardian, 12 December 2017.
S. Jia Tolentino, “Stepping into the Uncanny, Unsettling World of Shen Yun,” in the New Yorker, 19 March 2019.
T. Brandy Zadrozny and Ben Collins, “Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times,” for NBC, 20 August 2019.
U. Darren Loucaides and Alessio Perrone, “The media giant you’ve never heard of, and why you should pay attention,” for OpenDemocracy, 10 March 2022.
V. Ben Hurley, “Me and Li — Why I left Falun Gong after being a devoted believer for a decade,” on Medium, 22 October 2017.
W. Matthias Gafni, “Behind the blitz: Falun Gong practitioners spend millions on Shen Yun ads. How do they do it?” in the San Francisco Chronicle, 11 January 2020.
X. Heather Kavan, “Falun Gong in the media: What can we believe?,” Power and Place ANZCA08 Conference, 2008.
Y. ABC YouTube.
Z. Stephen Sacco, “Questions remain in Deerpark death,” for the Times Herald-Record, 6 May 2008.
AA. CNN
AB. New York Times
AC. Time
AD. ABC
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00:00 PART ONE: THE WAR ON FALUN GONG
05:00 I. QIGONG, REBORN
11:22 II. ENTER, LI HONGZHI
13:42 III. SKIRMISHES
15:16 IV. WAR
17:27 PART TWO: THE INSANITY UNFOLDS
21:24 I. ORIGINS
25:08 II. THE PROBLEMS
27:21 III. THE HUMAN TOLL
30:10 IV. THOUGHTS
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