Yang Fang, a self-proclaimed tai chi master, shows how she can easily alienate followers using qigong.Photo: IR
At that moment, he could sit leisurely in his mansion or drive a Hummer SUV, chatting merrily with visiting fans from political, business and show business circles. Instead, “tired” and “sick”, he locked himself in Hong Kong, trying to avoid possible interference and investigation. But he doesn’t seem to be able to get rid of these problems, despite his claims of psychic powers, boasting that he can cure terminal illnesses, and even kill people from a distance. Wang Lin, a 61-year-old millionaire who claims to have made his fortune by practicing qigong, was recently met with outrage, questions and accusations of his “supernatural abilities.” Fraud, illegal medical practice, illegal possession of firearms and bribery. The case has again drawn attention to fake masters who claim to have special powers. After a campaign against superstition in the late 1990s and early 2000s, most qigong sects, including those that claimed millions of followers, were outlawed and disbanded, and their mentors were detained or fled abroad. . Before it was revealed that Wang Lin was leading a “low-key” and “noble” life in Luxi County, Jiangxi Province, many people might have thought that Spiritual Qigong had almost disappeared. Now they understand that the smarter scammers just perfected their tactics and survived. However, experts say it is undeniable that the living space of these fake gurus is shrinking. Smaller Targets Unlike the earlier “masters” who expanded their membership to the general public from top to bottom, people like Wang Lin now aim to target the elite. According to Beijing News, at Wang Lin’s five-story villa in Luxi, photographs of Wang Lin with high-ranking executives, film and television stars and business leaders were displayed in a two-story hall. The Master of Health also has many influential and well-known students, such as Alibaba founder Jack Ma and pop singer Faye Wong. Li Zai, vice chairman of the Chinese Taoist Association at the time, pretended to hold his breath during a two-hour performance underwater for 22 minutes, and has been out of the public eye since July 2010, when his ruse was exposed and he was accused. rape and sex with students start an affair. The general public, even most qigong practitioners. “I didn’t hear anything about Wang or Li until the media made a big splash. Their self-proclaimed ability is too shocking,” said Chen Xinmei, a qigong teacher at Sias International University. Zhengzhou, Henan Province. According to Wang’s online video and biography, he can use spiritual power to make snakes appear from empty containers, help regenerate severed snake heads, and remove kidney stones from patients. On July 29, the China Emei Kung Fu Research Association issued a statement denying any connection to Wang, who claimed to have been a teacher at Mount Emei, a Buddhist and Taoist sacred site. Chen told the Global Times that this would help destroy people’s faith in qigong. Li Shudong, chairman of the nonprofit American Health Qigong Federation, agreed. I am sure that what he practiced was not qigong at all. These are all cheap gimmicks,” Li told the Global Times. He settled in San Francisco for over 20 years and taught tai chi at Stanford University as well as leading technology companies such as Intel, Google and Apple. County, University Most of the locals know him as a rich man with political connections, and not as a “qigong master”. the people he deals with are either officials or celebrities, not ordinary people. Few residents are aware of its ‘extraordinary’ strength,” another resident, Zhang, told Global Times. Many people agree that in addition to supernatural strength, these celebrities are also attracted to Wang’s extensive social connections.” or He Zuoxiu, an 86-year-old member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who has long devoted himself to exposing fake qigong masters, he told Global Times. As far as they know, those who publicly demonstrate will be scrutinized and their tricks exposed. Compared to their counterparts in the 1980s and 1990s, Wang and Li were minor figures, he said. Qigong was later declared a cult and banned in 1999 after it had 3 million followers. Yan Xin, another “qigong master” who claims to be able to put out forest fires and change the flight path of missiles, has as many as 2 million students. Experts say that the paths to success of these people have something in common: at first they usually preached at key universities and research institutes in order to win over part of the intellectuals. Gradually, more and more ordinary people joined in and were brainwashed. “At that time, the followers of various qigong sects came from almost all walks of life, including some high-ranking officials,” he said. He pointed out that in the 1990s, the ideology was still deeply rooted and superstition prevailed that even if the monthly income was less than 50 yuan, people would pay 100 yuan to buy a ticket for lectures by fake masters. “Today, this will not happen again, because the scientific awareness of people has increased significantly,” he concluded. Doomed to fail,” he said. Doomed to fail in the late 1990s, several sects were declared cults and outlawed, including Zhong Gong among their founders. Some leaders fled abroad, some were arrested, some went underground , other career changes.The life of these “masters” is not easy to survive.Zhang Hongbao died in a car accident in the US in July 2006. Relying on anti-Chinese activities, other fake qigong appear from time to time in foreign media.On the Internet, search results show that Yan Xin , who left for the United States in 1990, is still promoting his psychotherapy in Western countries, giving lectures and writing research papers.However, his website yanxinqigong.net has not been updated since 2002. It is a fraud system,” said Li Shudong. Taoist Li Yi resigned as vice president of the Chinese Taoist Association and retired from public life following media reports. Faced with widespread controversy, Wang Lin fled to Hong Kong. On July 30, he created Tencent Weibo for his innocence, claiming in a lengthy blog post that he never claimed to have “supernatural powers” and rarely used qigong to treat illness. And strength. Actually, I don’t rely on it to make money,” he said, explaining his wealth is largely due to his real estate business investments. Another post read: “I strongly support the Chinese Communist Party. I love my homeland and my hometown.” Wang said that over the past 20 years, he has donated an average of 3 million yuan a year to about 5,000 poor families in Luxi. “He really made donations here. He made money from corrupt officials and rich people, and he shared some with Lu Xi.” influence on personal qigong beliefs. But he doesn’t rule out that some people will question the whole cultivation process. “Qigong is scientific, not supernatural. In a narrow sense, qigong movements can strengthen the body, and it is true that psychological techniques can be used to alleviate physical problems,” Li said, adding that the number of non-Chinese qigong practitioners is when he arrived in the United States 20 years ago, in parks there were almost no qigong exercises, and almost all practitioners were Chinese. But now foreigners can be seen practicing qigong in many parks in major cities. I believe that due to the active promotion of conventional qigong by the government and the increasing influence of Chinese culture abroad, Chen said that the Health Qigong Management Center under the State General Administration of Sports was established to standardize the study and practice of qigong. in 2001, according to the center’s statistics, by the end of last year there were 15,000 qigong health centers in the country, and more than 1.5 million ordinary practitioners.
Post time: Feb-27-2023