A martial arts demonstration, lectures, and testimonies were offered to scholars of all continents.
by Daniela Bovolenta
Scholars of all continents (Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania) attended the 2023 CESNUR conference, the main yearly gathering of scholars specialized in new religious and spiritual movements, held from June 20 to 23 at Vilnius University in Vilnius, Lithuania. Among the countries represented were Argentina, South Africa, Australia, the United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, and most of the countries in Europe.
A delegation of Tai Ji Men dizi (disciples) was also present. They had the opportunity of visiting Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities and interact with different religious communities present in the European country that, despite its small size (it has only three million inhabitants), hosts some of the oldest and most prestigious universities in Eastern Europe. Lithuania also has a tradition of academic, cultural, and business cooperation with Taiwan.
One session of the conference—and one of the best attended—was devoted to “New Religious Movements in Taiwan and the Tai Ji Men Case.” It opened with a martial art performance by Cheng Hsuan-Ming, which introduced the audience to the spirit of the ancient Tai Ji Men culture.
Massimo Introvigne, managing director of CESNUR, introduced five dizi who presented their testimonies and different perspectives on Tai Ji Men and the Tai Ji Men case. Liu Yin-Chun, a dizi from Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, with a M.Phil. in Literature, Interculturality, and Slavic Studies, currently working as executive in a biotechnology company, offered a general overview of Tai Ji Men. It is an ancient menpai (similar to a school) teaching qigong, martial arts, and self-cultivation, and spreading throughout the world a culture of peace, love, and conscience.
She then presented an outline of the Tai Ji Men case, emphasizing the importance of the book “The Victim of Truth,” published in 2013 by former prosecutor Da Lin and explaining the reasons of the politically motivated crackdown on several spiritual movements that hit Taiwan in 1996. Tai Ji Men was among the victims, and although found totally innocent of all charges, continued to suffer until today for a by-product of the unjust criminal prosecution: ill-founded tax bills. One of the latter led to the seizure, unsuccessful auction, and confiscation in 2020 of land Tai Ji Men regard as scared, generating protests that continue to this day, with the support of many international scholars and human rights activists.
Huang Hsin-Yung, who is obtaining a master’s degree in Supply Chain Management at Saint Louis University in the United States, reported on a qualitative study on how freedom of religion or belief is perceived, which she performed by interviewing fellow students at her college from Bolivia, United States, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Uzbekistan—Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Muslims. Although from different backgrounds, all interviewees insisted on the crucial role of freedom of religion or belief in today’s world and on interreligious and intercultural dialogue as a way of improving the situation of religious liberty internationally.
Huang described the international events she attended with the Shifu (Grand Master) of Tai Ji Men, Dr. Hong Tao-Tze, as a way of achieving these aims, including the 2019 World Taxpayer Rights Conference in Australia, the 2013 World Leader Summit in New York, and the 26th Eurasian Summit in Türkiye, also in 2023. Huang also emphasized the importance of Dr. Hong’s proposal of adding to the United Nations days of observance an International Day Against Judicial and Tax Persecution by State Power, to be celebrate on December 19, the day the Tai Ji Men case started in 1996.
Cheng Hsuan-Ming, a senior manager in a technology industry, reviewed the main international documents on freedom of religion or belief, and focused on two lesser-known aspects of the Tai Ji Men case. The first is that because of the unjust criminal and tax cases, Dr. Hong was restricted from leaving Taiwan for a total of 2,233 days and his wife for 782 days, and their assets were seized and frozen. This limited their international benevolent activities on behalf of Tai Ji Men. The second is the sad story of the Swiss Mountain Villa, a beautiful property bought for dizi as a place where they can practice, stay, and train. Because of different methods used by the authorities to seal and freeze it, or prevent its disposal, it has now, after more than 23 years, been returned to Tai Ji Men but in a dilapidated status almost beyond repair. As a technology specialist, Cheng expressed the hope that new technologies may be mobilized to promote freedom of religion or belief and justice for Tai Ji Men.
Lu Yu-An, a recent graduate from a school of medicine, described his introduction to holistic medicine and found similarities between “holism” as a medical concept and Tai Ji Men’s approach to solving both personal and social problems. He described his experience of promoting with Dr. Hong the International Day of Conscience, now included among the U.N. official days of observance. As other speakers, Lu also emphasized two specific aspects of the Tai Ji Men case. The first is the accusation of “raising goblins,” used by Prosecutor Hou Kuan-Jen, who started the Tai Ji Men case. Although inherently ridiculous, it confirms that all kind of slander, no matter how absurd, was used against Tai Ji Men. The second is that the Tai Ji Men case is not unique in Taiwan. Statistics show that only 6.11% of administrative tax litigations are won by taxpayers, which confirms that the system of tax administration and tax justice in Taiwan is systematically dysfunctional and needs reform.
Shelly Tu, a dizi from Taiwan, described the problems of her youth in Taiwan when because of the media slander she was singled out as a member of a “tax evasion cult.” The topic of her paper was what strategies Tai Ji Men resorted to in order to react to the unjust criminal and tax cases. The first was to use, always peacefully, all possible legal actions and protests, including by submitting more than 20,000 petition letters. Tai Ji Men did not pursue a settlement with the tax authorities, though, as this would have implied admitting that they had been guilty of tax evasions, something that was both false and excluded by the Supreme Court 2007 decision in the criminal case.
Second, undaunted by the harassment, Tai Ji Men continued its normal public activities and international efforts to promote a culture of conscience, love, and peace, visiting over 300 cities in the world and organizing more than 3,000 cultural performances both in Taiwan and international.
Third, internally Tai Ji Men reinforced its efforts at continuing its practices aimed at physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being, which greatly helped the dizi’s resilience in front of persecution, and also improved their personal lives.
Karolina Maria Hess, a researcher at the Center for Comparative Studies of Civilizations, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland, offered the conclusions of the session. She reported how she was led to study the Tai Ji Men case as an important and representative issue of violation of freedom of religion or belief. She was particularly moved by the fact that a movement whose contribution to world peace education is outstanding has been harassed and persecuted in its home country. She also emphasized how the continuing participation of Tai Ji Men dizi in international scholarly conferences, including CESNUR 2023, is making the case more and more known to academics and thus difficult to ignore for Taiwan’s authorities.
Source: Bitter Winter