Who are the Fa-long Gong (some illegal cult in China) and what is so special about them?
819569
Vancityblunt seems to be mistaking China for North America. \nSince the hand over of Hong Kong, China has been accelerating its progress, with freedom of religious practice, though most Chinese people were Taoists before the cultural revolution, and felt the Emperor/Empress were Divine. This no longer applies, as there is no Emperor, and let's remember that the only religion wiped out during WW2 was Shintoism in Japan, made illegal by the Americans.\nThis comprehension that Tibet is the home of peaceful religion is rubbish. Historically, Tibet was the home of the Lama sect, who fought pitched battled with the Shaolin, before losing. After the original reveloution (Chiang Kai Sheks Russian Communist experiment), Tibetan terrorism was rife.\nAs to Serbia, well that is historically regarded by the USA as an enemy. Prior to WW1, Serbia was closely linked with Southern Russia, and in particular the Cossacks. They shared a similar religion and ancestry. As the terrorists who sparked WW1 were trained in Serbia, the US blamed them. This continued during the Cold War, where Serbia was aligned politically with Russia, and following the Gorbachev era, the US set out to get Serbia. Hence Milosevics trial, whilst Croat/Bosnian war atrocities were ignored.\nAs usual, one rule for the USs allies, another for their opponents.
941050
Dear $$$$,\n\nOne of the first things the Communists did in China after taking power in 1949 was to reform family law. Polygamous marriages (previously a strong tradition in Chinese culture) were outlawed and divorce was made available to women as well as men. The Communists also promoted the advancement of women in every area of society. In that regard, the Communists can indeed be argued to have dealt positively with some of the more unsavoury realities of traditional Chinese culture, which was often extremely unfavourable towards women.\n\nFor the rest, however, their record is frankly dismal. From the very beginning the Communists launched a massive attack on most aspects of Chinese culture, cracking down on religious practice and the millennia-old tradition of ancestor worship, which were dismissed as "bourgeois superstitions". Spiritual figures such as Buddhist monks and shamans, previously an integral part of Chinese culture, were imprisoned. Cultural festivals were abolished - even Chinese New Year was considered to be part of the "old superstitions", and the Communists replaced it by the politically correct appelation of "spring festival" (which is still in use today).\n\nIn the 1970s, Mao's wife Jiang Qing initiated a "criticise Confucius" campaign, seeking to cast shame and discredit on one of China's greatest cultural influences. There was even a plan at some point to abolish the Chinese writing system altogether and replace it with the Roman alphabet. Thankfully this plan proved to be unworkable and was quickly scrapped.\n\nBut nothing compares with the catastrophe unleashed upon Chinese culture by the Communists during the infamous Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). During that fanatical time, all icons of traditional culture were decreed to be "reactionary" and violently attacked. Classical Chinese literature was banned. Thousands of temples and churches across the country were ransacked, looted or destroyed and millions of priceless cultural artefacts were lost. \n\nThis is without even mentioning, of course, the millions of people who were brutally killed, tortured, or removed from their jobs and sent to undergo hard labour in the countryside for somehow becoming associated with "old ways of thinking". This was a huge trauma for Chinese society, and the country still has not finished recovering from it. All in all, the Communists have been very bad news for Chinese culture.\n\nBut it is also important to note that things have changed, and nowadays the Communist authorities have advocated a revival of Chinese culture. It is fine to read Confucius again, temples have reopened and the government has openly espoused a traditional Chinese architectural style for many of its buildings (and encouraged this trend in the private sector too). The Cultural Revolution has been cautiously condemned as a mistake.\n\nHope this helped,
1062250
In the super-mystical realm of Yahoo, JDism is a parody religion. Click on my dragon picture, click on my 360 link, scroll down to my groups, and click on the avatar with the body of an ape, and the head of a man (Darwin).\n\nJim is a spectre, he may be listening...
457473
Try http://www.xenu.net/ for a more objective view.  It's a cult.\n\nhttp://www.xenutv.com/ has some great videos of crazed scientologists.
146978
You'll find many chinese customs, superstitions and traditions listed here...\nhttp://www.britishbornchinese.org.uk/pages/culture/customs/
1040458
THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA, AND WEIRDOS DOING & EATING WIERD THINGS
330078
But taking God out of society always leads to repression and destruction of society. do not have to look any further then Nazi's Chinese Russians Vietnam . for people not to learn from their mistakes....
275216
hope this might help:\nhttp://www.buddhanet.net/budwork.htm\n\nby the way, previously in mainland (communist) china, it was a rough place to live in. anything can happen, in order to keep surviving.
748554
I guess the best place to find them is to search google with mandarin characters, the search engines will look all over the net for them..☺
11176
Both East and West have traditions of loud noises scaring away evil spirits and demons.  The pagan culture in parts of Europe would celebrate the coming of their New Year (always near April 1st) with loud demonstrations.  Later the Christians adopted the practice proclaiming that it represented the loud, triumphant shout of heaven's choir.\nIn the East, the Chinese have a similar tradition.  Their New Year (this year celebrated on January 29), was also brought in with a bang:\n\n“There is an old superstition that says that demons and evil spirits hate loud noises, and will leave if you make a lot of noise. This is the traditional reason why we blow and shake paper noisemakers and set off fireworks at the stroke of midnight - to drive evil spirits away from our homes to start the New Year off right.”
607909
read this link:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution\nand this one too,\nhttp://rwor.org/a/v20/960-69/966/redgrd.htm
51188
"Chinese paper money"?\nDo you mean the paper money that traditional taoists, mostly Chinese, burn for the dead? If so, they burn these believing that the dead people in Hell need paper money like on Earth to survive, and burn lots of it to ensure they have a good life. If it helps, they also burn paper clothes, paper houses (yes, almost life-sized houses), even paper handphones, beepers, make-up, and basically your everyday items in paper.\nIn Chinese tradition HELL isn't the Christian idea of hell. It's basically just an afterlife called "Hell" which isn't a land of suffering. Heaven is reserved for the Emperor of Heaven and his subjects, as well as exemplary people who have done great or good deeds in their lives who are awarded a special position/status within his palace.\nThere is a Hell for punishing evil people, also called, and it's 16 levels. The lowest being a hell that you can never fully 'graduate' from. (Meaning that you just pay for your sins for a period of time depending on the degree of seriousness to it)
923011
i dont know, never heard of them\nbut thank goodness in a communist country, the company would be shut down by the government
543506
Ther is too many to list all of them\ncheck out this website \nhttp://www.inventions.org/culture/asian/chinese.html
138638
The Chinese people consider the reign of the Han Dynasty which lasted for 400 years to be one of the greatest periods in the entire history of China. As a result, the members of the ethnic majority of Chinese people to this day still call themselves "people of Han," in honor of the Liu family and the dynasty they created.\n\nDuring the Han Dynasty, China officially became a Confucian state and prospered domestically: agriculture, handicrafts and commerce flourished, and the population reached 50 million. Meanwhile, the empire extended its political and cultural influence over Vietnam, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Korea before it finally collapsed under a combination of domestic and external pressures.\n\nIt is fair enough to state that the contemporary empires of the Han Dynasty and the Roman Empire were the two superpowers of the known world. Several Roman embassies to China are recounted in Chinese history, starting with a Hou Hanshu (History of the Later Han) account of a Roman convoy set out by emperor Antoninus Pius that reached the Chinese capital Luoyang in 166 and was greeted by Emperor Huan.\n\nThe Han dynasty was notable also for its military prowess. The empire expanded westward as far as the rim of the Tarim Basin (in modern Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region), making possible relatively secure caravan traffic across Central Asia. The paths of caravan traffic are often called the "Silk Road" because the route was used to export Chinese silk. Chinese armies also invaded and annexed parts of northern Vietnam and northern Korea (Wiman Joseon) toward the end of the 2nd century BC. Han control of peripheral regions was generally insecure, however. To ensure peace with non-Chinese local powers, the Han court developed a mutually beneficial "tributary system." Non-Chinese states were allowed to remain autonomous in exchange for symbolic acceptance of Han overlordship. Tributary ties were confirmed and strengthened through intermarriages at the ruling level and periodic exchanges of gifts and goods.\n\n\nSee full detailed report at link below:
759095
A cult is not a religion, but an aspect or character of a religion.\n\nCult expert Carol Giambalvo quotes from psychologists West & Langone, who give the following definition: \n\n"A cult is a group or movement exhibiting a great or excessive devotion or dedication to some person, idea, or thing and employing unethically manipulative techniques of persuasion and control (e.g., isolation from former friends and family, debilitation, use of special methods to heighten suggestibility and subservience, powerful group pressures, Information management, suspension of individuality or critical judgment, promotion of total dependency on the group and fear of leaving it, etc.) designed to advance the goals of the group's leaders to the actual or possible detriment of members, their families, or the community." (West & Langone. 1986).\n\nWhy are Cults a Problem?\nGod has given everyone a free will. Cults by their manipulative techniques, weaken a person's will. \n\nCults are a danger to their members because: \nCults create a dependency that gets harder to break the longer one is associated with the cult. Proof of this is that once someone has been removed from the cult, and has been told how dangerous it is, they will fight to return to the cult, because they feel "safe" there. \nCult members can be asked to do anything to themselves, and will even commit suicide to please the cult leader. \n\nCults are a danger to people outside the cult because: \nCult members can be asked to do anything to others, and will commit any crime, including murder and robbery, to please the cult leader. \nThus cults are a menace to everyone, even those who are not cult members.\n\nCultism is completely at odds with Christianity. A cult can claim the name "Christian" (like the Children of God from the 70's) but that doesn t mean it is.
557358
How about the "American" party since most Americans tend to prefer the middle ground over the extremes. Taoist is a religious philosophy and would offend some people.\n\nTaoism (or Daoism for the purists) refers to a power which envelops, surrounds and flows through all things, living and non-living. \n\n"We believe in the formless and eternal Tao, and we recognize all personified deities as being mere human constructs." Creed of the Western Reform Taoist Congregation