ABOVE: detail from Chen Xiaoping’s Inhumane, an artwork depicting abuse of practitioners of Falun Dafa by Chinese authorities. A show of Falun Gong/Falun Dafa art is on tour in the U.S. right now to publicize the brutal Chinese crackdown.

Let’s ease back from the Independence Day long weekend by contemplating tyranny, this time in the form of the Chinese government hassling adherents of Falun Gong, the tao-Buddhish martial-art/millenial cult/political agitator network (depending on who you believe) that doesn’t enjoy the freedom to have barbecues, fireworks, bottomless white russians, or much else in China right now. While you were enjoying that tasty salmonburger and the occasional M-80 yesterday, for example, pregnant Falun Gong/Dafa (apparently these terms are interchangeable) practitioners were being beaten in excrement-smeared prisons for their adherence to the teachings of Li Hongzhi, who started Falun Gong in 1992 and appears to be, at the very least, seriously eccentric. At least, that’s what the paintings say.

This is all leading up to the main point, which is that Falun Gong is currently touring a generous handful of violent, lurid artworks around the country to publicize their persecution in China. The San Francisco Chronicle ran a story yesterday about the touring show and how it is stirring up some controversy because of the dark subject matter. The show, they note, was pulled from New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine last year because it was freaking out the frail patients. Now, we don’t want to pass judgment, and while Falun Gong has a flavourful little ripple of cultish tendencies, it does appear to be mostly some old fashioned qigong exercises with a stated focus on “Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forebearance”; undoubtedly noble sentiments. But the paintings in the Falun Gong art exhibit are a wee bit over the top, as you can see in their online art exhibit. We know already that the Chinese government treats these people very poorly. Whether it’s quite as bad as depicted here, we don’t feel qualified to say. Happy Independence Day indeed.

LINK: San Francisco Chronicle > Provocative art from Falun Gong followers Paintings on tour to publicize China’s alleged persecution