Issue cover-dated December 26, 2002 - January 02, 2003

The Taiwan Falun Dafa Society has a modest office in Taipei, but its unofficial center of gravity is the economics department of National Taiwan University, the island's most prestigious school, where at least four of the 30 or so faculty are practitioners.

Chang Ching-hsi, the society's head, is an economist whose work centers these days on assessing the flaws in China's economic reforms. He was an active member of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party before he began practicing Falun Gong. He says he's no longer active in party politics, and Falun Gong's followers in Taiwan come from all parts of the political and economic spectrum.

The society doesn't keep a list of practitioners, but its Web site lists 837 places--from parks to homes to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building--across the island where followers can attend exercise sessions. Falun Gong has been accused in China of feeding on the [poor and elderly] but it was in fact as popular among the mainland elite as any other group. The same appears to be true across the strait.

The group's strength in Chang's department is a testament to how the Falun Gong spreads its teaching via friends and family. Chang first heard of the group in 1997 from a colleague using it to treat the affects of diabetes. His colleague convinced Chang's wife, also an economics professor, to try practicing Falun Gong for her illness. Chang doesn't know what the sickness was because his wife wouldn't consult Western-trained doctors, but he suspects cancer.

In any case, her illness subsided, Chang says, and he and his wife were persuaded to keep practising Falun Gong.

http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0212_26/p031china.html