New Zealand Herald: 

Showing Falun Gong's Flag Of Free Choice
By WARREN GAMBLE

17.08.2002

Shelley Shao's exercises are 'slow, gentle, peaceful ... How will it harm the Government?' Picture / Brett Phibbs

Headlights in the pre-dawn dark of Auckland's Great South Rd pick out a still figure on the footpath.

In a yellow, hooded raincoat and red trousers, Shelley Shao sits crosslegged on a thin cushion, eyes shut in meditation.

Meters away early commuters shoot by on the four-lane road, one of the city's busiest. Behind, a chill breeze ruffles the red flag in the grounds of the Chinese consulate.

In a plastic bag in the gutter at Shelley Shao's feet is a smaller flag. It has Chinese characters and the words Falun Dafa.

This has been the start to her day for the past year.

Shelley Shao has become a [...] public face of Falun Dafa, known more commonly as Falun Gong, in New Zealand. Her profile has been heightened after recent brushes with the Chinese Embassy, notably Auckland Airport's removal of a Falun Gong poster after an embassy complaint.

The Chinese Government outlawed the movement in 1999 after mass protests over crackdowns on Falun Gong [practitioners] stunned the communist leadership. The state branded Falun Gong [...] with followers arrested, detained and allegedly tortured. Some have died in prison; supporters say because of torture, the Government says through suicide and illness.

Supporters say it is a non-political, non-religious movement, practicing the [teachings] of its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi.

His teachings are [...] around three guiding principles of truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance.

For Shelley Shao, forbearance is two hours every day on the footpath outside the iron fence of the consulate. From 5.30 to 7.30 she goes through the cross-legged meditation and the four other slow motion exercises that form the physical side of Falun Gong.

She says consulate workers occasionally ask her why she does not practice at home. At other times a large black dog keeps watch behind the consulate gates, she suspects to intimidate her.

'I know the Chinese Government has banned this and a lot of people, especially Kiwi people, they don't know why. Every day I do these exercises, and I thought why not here where I can show people. It is slow, gentle, peaceful, it does not harm anyone. How will it harm the Government?' It is hard to imagine the small, calm 45-year-old as a threat. She came to New Zealand from a city in northeastern China, near the border with Korea, in 1998. Two holidaying friends had given her a good impression of the climate and the people.

She had hoped to continue working in the import-export industry, but within six months the Falun Gong ban meant she could not travel freely between here and her home.

She became a New Zealand citizen this year, has part-time translation work, and her teenage son is going to school in Auckland.

Over coffee at her modest Greenlane flat Shelley Shao says she did not practice Falun Gong before she left China, but her ex-husband had given her a book written by Li Hongzhi.

In Auckland she joined a group of practitioners, mainly ethnic Chinese but including several New Zealanders, who meet in Cornwall Park.

Shelley Shao estimates there are up to 200 Falun Gong practitioners in New Zealand. Anyone can join by learning the exercises in free classes or from the movement's website - a key to its rapid spread - and by reading Li Hongzhi's two books.

She says the attraction is simple. The exercises, resembling simplified t'ai chi moves, keep her healthy and energetic. Last year she was part of a group who walked from Auckland to Parliament, averaging 30km a day.

[...]

In essence she says Li Hongzhi's teachings help achieve inner peace, remove negative thoughts and habits, and 'make you think of others first instead of yourself'.

That, and her proficient English, explain her volunteering to lead the dispute last month over Auckland Airport's removal of a Falun Gong poster.

During a television debate on the issue she remained composed as interviewer Paul Holmes and the Chinese Ambassador carried on an angry duel.

She cannot understand why the airport bowed to embassy pressure in a free country. She says another poster contract with a Christchurch bus company has been cancelled for no reason this month.

But she was heartened by the Speaker's decision last week to allow a painting exhibition in the Beehive featuring the work of Falun Gong-inspired artist Zhang Cui-Ying despite an embassy complaint.

Shelley Shao says she does not understand how a peaceful movement can be regarded as a threat by the Chinese Government. [...]

Commentators point to the 1999 sit-down of 10,000 Falun Gong followers outside Communist Party headquarters as the backlash trigger in a country where organized opposition has been banned since 1949.

They say the movement's popularity in the spiritual vacuum of communist China was fuelled by the uncertainty of rapid social and economic change.

Shelley Shao believes the reason for its spread is its simplicity, easy access and ability to benefit body and mind.

She believes the crackdown was simply because of its popularity (the movement claims 70 million Chinese followers, the Government says two million) and the personal threat felt by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

The party backlash may have backfired. It has sent the movement underground in China, but has brought large international exposure and support, including demonstrations in Tiananmen Square this year by foreign followers.

The repercussions have reached Shelley Shao's own family. A letter she sent home with Falun Gong material was intercepted and her elderly parents had to go to the local police station.

'They were told they had to sign a form guaranteeing that I don't mail Falun Gong information again.

'If they did not sign this they would be put in a detention center for 15 days.'

Several New Zealand-based practitioners who returned to Beijing had been detained, she said, one alleging electric shocks.

Shelley Shao hopes the Government's attitude will change over time.

In the meantime she is determined to keep showing the flag her own way.