ABSTRACT
This chapter details the emergence of cyber-sectarianism in contemporary China by tracing the evolution of two quasi-religious qigong groups established in the late 1980s and early 1990s into nationally and internationally recognized movements. Broadly syncretic, both Falun Gong (Practice of the Dharma Wheel) and Zhonghua Yansheng Yizhi Gong (Practice of Life Preservation and Wisdom Accretion, hereafter Zhong Gong) interweave traditional Chinese religious themes with meditation, breathing and body cultivation techniques designed to preserve physical health and promote spiritual development. Both achieved national prominence during the so-called ‘qigong fever’ (qigong re) that gripped China during the Deng era, a popular fascination that was initially not only tolerated, but even encouraged, by political leaders. Part and parcel of the broader public fascination with supernatural and spiritual matters that erupted during the post-Mao period, the qigong craze mushroomed after 1989, despite a few early attempts to curb the trend. At the forefront of the movement was a handful of nationallyrecognized qigong masters who claimed hundreds of thousands of loyal followers, including a significant number of party and government cadres. Relying at least in part on their adherents within the power structure, several of these sects began to mobilize, both overtly and covertly, against state attempts to curtail their influence and activities during the 1990s. Alarmed by the increasingly political orientation of such groups and the potential of their leaders to challenge party authority, the Beijing leadership initiated a forceful crackdown against all so-called ‘heretical sects’ in 1999, which has indeed been successful in severely curtailing their efforts to recruit and retain members within the country. Yet by establishing bases overseas and transferring much of their work to the realm of virtual reality, these new cybersects have managed to hang on in defiance of the current ban, and continue to deploy high-tech strategies of organization, protest and resistance both on the Chinese mainland as well as abroad.
