Heart and Soul: Finding Falun Gong
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2023
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It’s been more than two decades since the Chinese government launched a crackdown on Falun Gong. The spiritual group claims practitioners face mass arrest, torture and are murdered by the state for their organs. The movement is seen as the most organised opposition group to the Chinese government. China calls Falun Gong an evil cult determined to bring down the Chinese Communist Party. Practitioners say the movement is non-political but critics claim the spiritual group is building an international fake news empire, are staunch supporters of Donald Trump and are sympathetic to far-right politicians. Banned in mainland China, Falun Gong believers once practiced and protested openly in Hong Kong. But since the introduction of a draconian national security law Falun Gong’s presence in the territory has all but vanished. The BBC’s Danny Vincent travels to the self-ruled island of Taiwan to talk to practitioners about their faith, persecution, the Chinese Communist Party and the future of Falun Gong. Producer: Danny Vincent Series Producer: Rajeev Gupta Editor: Helen Grady
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Sport, but not as you know it. |
| 0:03.0 | Nothing is ever quite as expected. |
| 0:05.0 | Amazing sports stories from the BBC World Service. |
| 0:08.0 | If the story is wriggly, contentious, or hard to tame, I'll cover. |
| 0:13.0 | Listen now, wherever you get your BBC podcasts. I'm outside the Beijing liaison office in Hong Kong. |
| 0:25.0 | I'm outside the Beijing Liaison office in Hong Kong. |
| 0:30.0 | Towering in front of me is the large building that represents the Chinese government here. |
| 0:35.7 | Under an umbrella stands a frail, bare-footed woman on a sheet of plastic. |
| 0:40.9 | She's meditating as a portable speaker plays devotional music and spiritual lectures. |
| 0:47.0 | The woman is a follower of Falun Gong, a spiritual practice that was founded in mainland China but has been banned there |
| 0:54.8 | by the Communist Party. I used to see her as part of a bigger group who came here to |
| 1:00.2 | campaign against the Chinese government's treatment of Falun Gong members. |
| 1:04.6 | But since the protests in 2019 and implementation of the national security law, |
| 1:10.6 | she seems to be the only one that still dares to stand for dual. This is the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Danny Vincent, the BBC's correspondent in Hong Kong. |
| 1:34.3 | And in this episode of Heart and Soul, which explores personal approaches to |
| 1:38.7 | spirituality from around the world, I'm meeting members of the new religious movement |
| 1:43.6 | Falun Gong. The Chinese Communist Party has called |
| 1:47.5 | Falun Gong an evil cult well Falun Gong says |
| 1:50.6 | they're the victims of persecution but more than 20 years after the movement was |
| 1:55.3 | banned in mainland China what ordinary Falun Gong members like the woman under the |
| 2:00.4 | umbrella believe. I try to ask her but like many Falun Gong followers in |
| 2:05.2 | Hong Kong she's afraid to speak out. In 2019 people in Hong Kong took to the streets to protest against greater |
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