Professor of History and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Université de Montréal, in Montreal, Canada. He is the author of Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Qing China: The Formation of a Tradition, and the co-author, with Qin Baoqi and Susan J. Palmer, of The Millennium and the Turning of the Kalpa: The Historical Evolution of Apocalyptic Discourse in China and in the West.

• 1.: Introduction: Qigong, Falun Gong, and the Crisis of the Post-Mao State


• 2.: A History for Falun Gong


• 3.: The Creation and Evolution of Qigong


• 4.: The Life and Times of Li Hongshi in China, 1952-1995


• 5.: . Falung Gong Outside of China: Fieldwork among Diaspora Practitioners


• 6.: David Meets Goliath: The Conflict between Falun Gong and the Chinese State


• Conclusion: Unpacking Contexts


• Appendix I: Chinese Emgigration to North America, 1951-2002


• Appendix 2: Falun Dafa Practioners Questionnaire


• Notes


• Bibliography


• Index

On April 25, 1999, ten thousand Falun Gong practitioners gathered outside Zhongnanhai, the guarded compound where China's highest leaders live and work, in a day-long peaceful protest of police brutality against fellow practitioners in the neighboring city of Tianjin. Stunned and surprised, China's leaders launched a campaign of brutal suppression against the group which continues to this day. This book, written by a leading scholar of the history of this Chinesepopular religion, is the first to offer a full explanation of what Falun Gong is and where it came from, placing the group in the broader context of the modern history of Chinese religion as well as the particular context of post-Mao China.