Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-27T01:06:33.669Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Burning for a Cause: Four Factors in Successful Political (and Religious) Self-Immolation Examined in Relation to Alleged Falun Gong “Fanatics” in Tiananmen Square

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2015

Paul Hedges
Paul Hedges*
Affiliation:
RSIS, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Paul Hedges, Studies in Interreligious Relations in Plural Societies Programme, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. E-mail: ispmhedges@ntu.edu.sg
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article theorizes the self-immolation of alleged Falun Gong practitioners in Tiananmen Square in 2001 in relation to literature on martyrdom, self-immolation, and political protest. It explores the cultural context in relation to Buddhist traditions of self-immolation, Chinese political protest, and other uses of self-immolation as political protest. It will seek to expand the analysis of why these self-immolations may be said to have “failed” as a form of protest, and present a set of four key factors. Issues of legitimation and authority in the events and their representation will be raised, especially the contested nature of whether the self-immolations were “religious,” looking at the different meanings of this term in Chinese and Western contexts. It is argued that both secular and religious self-immolation can be seen as legitimate in the public sphere.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 8 , Issue 4 , December 2015 , pp. 797 - 817
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Abouzeid, Rania. 2011. “Bouazizi: The Man Who Set Himself and Tunisia on Fire.”http://www.content.time.com/magazine/article/0,9171,2044723,00.html (Accessed on May 14, 2015).Google Scholar
Adams, Ryan J. T. 2014. “New Religious Movements, ‘Cults,’ and the State.” In Controversies in Contemporary Religion: Education, Law, Politics, Society, and Spirituality, ed. Hedges, Paul. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, vol. 3, 145–168.Google Scholar
Andriolo, K. 2006. “The Twice Killed: Imagining Protest Suicide.” American Anthropologist 108:100–113.Google Scholar
Bays, Daniel H. 2012. A New History of Christianity in China. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
BBC. 2013. “Sri Lanka Inquiry into Buddhist Monk's Self-Immolation.” http//www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-22681763 (Accessed on July 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Benn, James A. 2007. Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
Biggs, Michael. 2005. “Dying Without Killing: Self-Immolations, 1963–2002.” In Making Sense of Suicide Missions, ed. Gambetta, Diego. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 173–208.Google Scholar
Browne, Malcome W. 2003 [1963]. “The Buddhist Protests of 1963.” http://www.pbs.org/weta/reportingamericaatwar/reporters/browne/protests.html (Accessed on May 14, 2010).Google Scholar
Chang, Maria Hsia. 2004. Falun Gong: The End of Days. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Chau, Adam Yuet. 2013. “A Different Kind of Religious Diversity: Ritual Service Providers and Consumers in China.” In Religious Diversity in Chinese Thought, eds. Schmidt-Leukel, Perry, and Gentz, Joachim. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 141–154.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clearwisdom. n.d. “The Staged Self-Immolation Incident on Tiananmen Square.” http://www.en.minghui.org/emh/special_column/self-immolation.html (Accessed on July 18, 2015)Google Scholar
CNN. 2001. “Tiananmen tense after fiery protests.” http://www.web.archive.org/web/20070222110517/http://archives.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/asiapcf/east/01/24/asia.falun.03/ (Accessed on July 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Cole, Alan. 1998. Mothers and Sons in Chinese Buddhism. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Crosby, K., Rhee, J-O., and Holland, J.. 1976. “Suicide by Fire: A Contemporary Method of Political Protest.” The International Journal of Social Psychiatry 23:60–69.Google Scholar
Dudbridge, G. 2004. The Legend of Miaoshan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile. 2006. On Suicide. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Farley, Helen. 2014. “Death by Whose Hand? Falun Gong and Suicide.” In Sacred Suicide, eds. Lewis, James R, and Carole, M. Cusack. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 215–232.Google Scholar
Fierke, Karin M. 2012. Political Self-Sacrifice: Agency, Body and Emotion in International Relations. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Timothy. 2007. Discourse on Civility and Barbarity: A Critical History of Religion and Related Categories. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Foreign Ministry of the People's Republic of China. 2002. “Falun Gong Survivors Speak of Self Immolation.” http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/ce/ceun/eng/zt/flgwt/t29527.htm (Accessed on June 12, 2012).Google Scholar
Goossaert, Vincent and Palmer, David. 2011. The Religious Question in Modern China. Chicago, Il: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Gouin, Margaret. 2014. “Self-Immolation and Martyrdom in Tibet.” Mortality 19:176–183.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutenberg, . 2015. “Hongwu Emperor.” Project Gutenberg Self-Publishing Press. http://www.self.gutenberg.org/articles/hongwu_emperor (Accessed on June 25, 2015).Google Scholar
Hanh, Thich Nhat. 1967. Vietnam: The Lotus in the Sea of Fire. London: SCM Press.Google Scholar
Hedges, Paul. 2014. “Discourse on Discourses: Why We Still Need the Terminology of ‘Religion’ and ‘Religions.’” Journal of Religious History 38:132–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hedges, Paul. 2010. “Can We Still Teach ‘Religions’?: Towards an Understanding of Religion as Culture and Orientation in Contemporary Pedagogy and Metatheory.” In International Handbook for Inter-Religious Education, eds. Durka, G., Gearon, L., DeSouza, M., and Engebretson, K.. Volume I. New York, NY: Springer Academic Publishers, 291–312.Google Scholar
Jan, Yün-hua. 1965. “Buddhist Self-Immolation in Medieval China.” History of Religions 4243–268.Google Scholar
Kavan, Heather. 2008. “Falun Gong in The Media: What Can We Believe?” http//:www.academia.edu/655693/Falun_Gong_in_the_Media_What_Can_We_Believe (Accessed on July 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Khushkadamova, Kh. 2010. “Women's Self-Immolation as a Social Phenomenon.” Sociological Research 49.:75–91.Google Scholar
King, Anna, and Hedges, Paul. 2014. “What is Religion? Or What is it We're Talking About?” In Controversies in Contemporary Religion, ed. Hedges, Paul. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, Vol. 1, 1–30.Google Scholar
King, Sallie B. 2000. “They Who Burned Themselves for Peace: Quaker and Buddhist Self-Immolators during the Vietnam War.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 20:127–150.Google Scholar
Lee, Sing, and Kleinman, Arthur. 2000. “Suicide as resistance in Chinese society.” In Chinese Society: Change, conflict and resistance, eds. Perry, Elizabeth J., and Selden, Mark. London: RoutledgeCurzon, 289–311.Google Scholar
Lemish, Leeshai. 2008. “Why Falun Gong is Banned?” http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-faith-column/2008/08/falun-gong-party-chinese (Accessed on May 14, 2010).Google Scholar
Li, Junpeng. 2014. “The Religion of the Nonreligious and the Politics of the Apolitical: The Transformation of Falun Gong from Healing Practice to Political Movement.” Politics and Religions 7:177–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCutcheon, Russell T. 1997. Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Masuzawa, Tomoko. 2005. The Invention of World Religions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Michelson, Nicholas. 2015. “The Political Subject of Self-Immolation.” Globalizations 12:83–100.Google Scholar
Minghui. n.d. “Self-Immolation Hoax on Tiananmen Square.” http://www.en.minghui.or/cc/88/ (Accessed on June 17, 2015).Google Scholar
Nedostup, Rebecca. 2013. “The Transformation of the Concept of Religion in Chinese Modernity.” In Religious Diversity in Chinese Thought, eds. Schmidt-Leukel, Perry, and Gentz, Joachim. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 157–70.Google Scholar
Ownby, David. 2008a. “In Search of Charisma: The Falun Gong Diaspora.” Nova Religio 12:106–120.Google Scholar
Ownby, David. 2008b. Falun Gong and the Future of China. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Palmer, David A. 2008. “Embodying Utopia: Charisma in the Post-Mao Qigong Craze.” Nova Religio 12:69–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pan, Philip. 2001. “Human Fire Ignites Chinese Mystery; Motive for Public Burning Intensifies Fight Over Falun Gong.” The Washington Post 4 February 4, 2001.Google Scholar
Park, B. C. Ben. 2004. “Sociopolitical Contexts of Self-Immolations in Vietnam and South Korea.” Archives of Suicide Research 8:81–97.Google Scholar
Penny, Benjamin. 2012. The Religion of Falun Gong. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Rahn, Patsy, 2002. “The Chemistry of a Conflict: The Chinese Government and the Falun Gong.” Terrorism and Political Violence 14:41–65.Google Scholar
Rahula, Walpola. 1978. Zen and the Taming of the Bull: Towards the Definition of Buddhist Thought. London: Gordon Fraser.Google Scholar
Rapoport, David C. 1984. “Fear and Trembling: Terrorism in Three Religious Traditions.” The American Political Science Review 78:658–677.Google Scholar
Liu, Ruixiang, and Lin, Zhihe (trans). 1998. The Classic of Filial Piety/ 孝經. Bilingual Edition. Jinan: Shandong Friendship Press.Google Scholar
Schilibrack, Kevin. 2012. “The Social Construction of ‘Religion’ and its Limits: A Critical Reading of Timothy Fitzgerald.” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 24:97–117.Google Scholar
Schraeder, P. J., and Redissi, H.. 2011. “Ben Ali's fall.” Journal of Democracy 22:5–19.Google Scholar
Shuning, Yu. 2000. “Falun Gong: An Evil Cult.” http//:www.china-embassy.org/eng/zt/ppflg/t36582.htm (Accessed on May 14, 2010).Google Scholar
ter Haar, Barend. 2002. “Falun Gong: Evaluation and Further Resources.” http://www.faculty.orinst.ox.ac.uk/terhaar/ (Accessed on July 18, 2015)Google Scholar
ter Haar, Barend. 1999. The White Lotus Teachings in Chinese Religious History. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.Google Scholar
Toscano, Alberto. 2010. Fanaticism: On the Uses of an Idea. London and New York, NY: Verso.Google Scholar
Tuoitrenews. 2013, “Tribute Offered to Bodhisattva Thich Quang Doc.” http://www.Tuoitrenews.vn/society/9946-tribute-offered-to-bodhiattva-thich-quang-doc (Accessed on June 18, 2015).Google Scholar
Weller, Robert P. 2013. “Chinese Communist Thought and Practice on Religious Diversity.” In Religious Diversity in Chinese Thought, eds, Schmidt-Leukel, Perry and Gentz, Joachim. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 171–86.Google Scholar
Westcott, Kathryn. 2011. “Why do People Set Themselves on Fire?” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12206551 (Accessed on March 8, 2015).Google Scholar
Wright, Arthur F. 1959. Buddhism in Chinese History. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Xie, Zhibin. 2006. Religious Diversity and Public Religion in China. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Yang, Michelle Murray. 2011. “Still Burning: Self-Immolation as Photographic Protest.” Quarterly Journal of Speech 97:1–25.Google Scholar
Yao, Xinzhong. 2000. An Introduction to Confucianism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Yao, Xinzhong, and Zhao, Yanxia. 2010. Chinese Religion: A Contextual Approach. London: Continuum.Google Scholar
Yu, Jianrong. 2014. “Do China's Tang Fuzhens Regret Self-Immolation?” Contemporary Chinese Thought 46:51–54.Google Scholar