The Courage of his Convictions

Ten confrontational minutes in Tiananmen Square were a statement of principle for Leeshai Lemish '05.

Sitting cross-legged in the middle of Marston Quad, eyes closed meditatively and arms outstretched as the sun sets in a blaze of red and gold, Falun Gong practitioner Leeshai Lemish '05 is the picture of serenity.

But things are not always as they seem. For Lemish, the peaceful calm he exudes as dusk quietly descends on the quad belies the fact that he is inside the eye of a powerful storm.

An Ohio native who grew up in Israel, Lemish was one of 35 foreign supporters of the controversial Falun Gong movement who were arrested in November and expelled from China after a brief demonstration at Tiananmen Square in Beijing. A publicity whirlwind ensued, and neither his activism in support of Falun Gong nor the media attention has abated.

Lemish at 23 is older than most first-year students, having served in the Israel Defense Forces before coming to Pomona. He said that he has been practicing Falun Gong for about a year, and that it has benefited many aspects of his life. But much of his passion centers on the battle against the Chinese government's suppression of the movement, an issue with deep political, historical and cultural dimensions within China and among overseas Chinese.

"When I heard about the persecution, I wanted to do something to help those people out," Lemish said. "I firmly believe that when enough people in the world have a clear picture of the situation, the persecution will have to end."

Posing as tourists, he and other demonstrators from a variety of mostly Western countries assembled in late November at Tiananmen Square, the most politically sensitive ground in China. Some held up a large yellow Falun Gong banner while others sat in meditative positions. Ten minutes later, it was over. Police encircled the group and loaded the demonstrators into vans. They were detained for periods ranging up to several weeks and were questioned by police, then expelled. Lemish was put on a flight to Canada, then he returned to Pomona to finish the fall semester.

Lemish said he was struck and mentally abused during his two-day detention. He is a plaintiff in a chiefly symbolic lawsuit filed in federal court against the mayor of Beijing, alleging that the treatment of some of the demonstrators during their detention constituted torture under U.S. law.

Back in this country, Lemish has spoken at press conferences and public gatherings about Falun Gong, especially its suppression by the Chinese government. He also has spoken to fellow Pomona students in a class on Religious Traditions of China, taught by Zhiru Ng, assistant professor of religious studies. In examining the Falun Gong movement, Ng said, "We focus primarily on its relationship with religious traditions of China, and to what extent it is appropriating Buddhist beliefs. We talk a lot about whether it is considered a religion. One of the issues we discuss is the relationship between magic, science and religion."

Falun Gong is often described as a spiritual practice that incorporates elements of traditional Chinese mind-body exercises called qigong. There is more to the movement's teachings than is commonly known, however. Some Chinese Americans actively practice or support Falun Gong, but polls and interviews show that others regard the movement, its founder and foreign involvement in it with skepticism or suspicion.

Translated as "the practice of the wheel of law," Falun Gong is the creation of Li Hongzhi, a former clerk at the Changchun Cereals and Edible Oil Supply Company in northeast China, a hotbed of qigong practitioners. Available on the Internet, Li's works promote the practice of a series of meditative exercises and a virtuous approach to life that embodies the principles of truthfulness, forbearance and compassion. However, critics deride many of Li's other teachings--which speak of alien visitation, a vast array of supernormal powers and a prehistoric society equipped with a nuclear reactor--as anti-science, anti-feminist and anti-gay. Most controversial is Li's claim that, through the proper development of "cultivation energy" and a ceaselessly spinning "law wheel" installed telepathically in their abdomens, advanced Falun Gong practitioners can cure or prevent disease.

Although Li has been in the United States since at least 1998, he lives reclusively, and the head of a Manhattan media management firm and other individual practitioners have been the voice of Falun Gong in the West.

"When I first came across Falun Gong, it seemed very extreme, pretty far out there," said Lemish. "When I started practicing, I found I had more energy and was more calm, more relaxed." He said that the movement is apolitical and that Falun Gong is not a religion, sect or cult. "There are no churches, no temples, no worship, no hierarchy," he said. Lemish said he considers the controversial aspects of Li's teachings to be "tangential issues" that detract from the focus on the peaceful practice of meditative exercises and the movement's suppression.

Estimates of the Falun Gong following in China at its late 1990s peak range from 2 million, by the government's account, to 100 million, a figure often cited by practitioners. It burst into international prominence in April 1999, when, not long after the publication of a derogatory magazine article, 10,000 to 15,000 Falun Gong practitioners staged a silent protest outside the government leadership compound in Beijing, a stunning feat of mobilization in China's tightly controlled single-party system. In July 1999, China banned Falun Gong. Among the reasons cited since then by the government or the state-controlled media are the movement's alleged manipulation by "foreign agents" and the threat it poses to "social stability," which some regard as a thinly veiled reference to China's long history of political uprisings led by secretive, mystical societies.

Lemish said there is no ulterior motive to Falun Gong. "We're not against the Chinese government," he said. "Falun Gong is not a political movement. Before the persecution started, nothing was said about Falun Gong being political or against the government. It is [Chinese President] Jiang Zemin's persecution itself which has brought on this no-win situation for his government."

Since the ban was enacted, a number of human rights agencies, including Amnesty International, have reported widespread detentions and allegations of torture and deaths among Falun Gong practitioners in China.

Lemish said his relatives and others have asked him why Falun Gong has become his cause, rather than one closer to home. Brutal and unjustified repression, Lemish said, and his interest in Asia have galvanized his activism on behalf of the movement. "Whether you agree with the metaphysical aspects [of Falun Gong] or not," he said, "it's a peaceful practice, a harmless practice, and to persecute people about this is wrong."

In a talk to Ng's class, Lemish's devotion to the fight on behalf of Falun Gong made an impact on other students. "I think they are impressed by the fact that he has given so much on behalf of a cause, that he has become very committed to this," said Ng. "Many students think that what he did was very, very courageous. Although they don't all agree with his views on Falun Gong, the students feel it's a very heroic kind of endeavor."

Lemish, who often practices the slow meditative exercises in late afternoon on the quad, said he doesn't view his actions in heroic terms. "Being an activist is not my motivation," he said. The Falun Gong suppression is the issue in his sights, he said, and he expects to keep it there as long as necessary.

"Some Chinese people have said to us, 'You don't understand China, what are you doing interfering?'" Lemish said. "But what I'm working for is people's personal freedom. All of my work is geared toward helping the people of the world understand what Falun Gong is about and what the persecution is about. I believe in Martin Luther King's quote that 'injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.' I've worked toward keeping this in the spotlight. I'm not going to stop until the persecution stops."

--Michael Balchunas