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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 51| June 2001
A Major Resource for the Study of Falun Gong
One of the 2001 Harold White Fellows, Dr Benjamin Penny of The Australian National University has been researching the contemporary Chinese spiritual movement, Falun gong. Dr Pennys background is in religious and spiritual movements in pre-modern and modern China and he has had a long-term interest in the various kinds of breathing and exercise-based regimens included under the umbrella term qigong.
During the 1980s and 1990s China witnessed a boom in interest in qigong with all kinds of theories and schools of practice springing up and attracting vast numbers of adherents. In 1992 Falun gong appeared, growing out of this qigong craze as the Chinese call it. However, it always set itself apart from other groups, which it claimed were solely concerned with health and fitness. As its teacher Li Hongzhi proclaimed, Falun gong offers not merely restoration of bodily health but salvation for humankind. Since July 1999, the activities of Falun gong have attracted worldwide interest after the Chinese government banned the movement.
The National Librarys collections in this area are extremely strong with complete runs of five qigong-related journals from the early 1980s as well as many monographs and essay collections, instruction manuals and encyclopaedias. Falun gong materials are found amongst this collection, including some important works that are extremely valuable since the banning of the movement. This collection is certainly unparalleled in Australia, the only equivalent collections in the west being those in the Library of Congress, United States of America, and the Needham Research Centre, Cambridge University, United Kingdom.
This exceptional collection includes works on traditional Chinese
medicine, which have been one focus for collecting in Chinese language
materials. Fortunately, qigong has been classified as falling under
Chinese medicine. While scholars may dispute the validity of this
classification as medicine, the result was to produce an exceptional
research collection in a field that is currently of great interest and
moment.
Benjamin Penny
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: dthomas@nla.gov.au