Falun Gong At The Lake Of The Sun And The Moon

Chinese tourists to Sun Moon Lake in Taiwan are being treated to disturbing evidence of their government's persecution of Falun Gong.  And there are objections aplenty:

Tseng Kuo-chi (曾國基), director of administration, told the Taipei Times in a telephone interview that the protests by Falun Gong members were directed at Chinese tourists, who normally visit Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, the National Palace Museum and other popular tourist attractions.

Chinese tourists may have been the targets, but a Canadian visitor to the lake was found to be unhappy as well:

The Taipei Times contacted Tseng after it ran a letter on Monday from Canadian Paul Gallien, a high school teacher who visited Sun Moon Lake last week and was disturbed by a Falun Gong display he saw at one of the shoreline temples.

“Part of the display included very graphic images of dead bodies, including a pregnant woman with parts of her skin and flesh removed revealing an unborn child within the womb,” Gallien wrote.

[…]

Traveling with his two-year-old daughter and her five-year-old cousin, Gallien said he doubted the two youngsters “have necessary faculties to avoid being traumatized by such photographs.” 

Even though I don't have children, I know where he's coming from.  On the other hand, the Canadian government requires cigarette makers to print gruesome images on cigarette packs, in an effort to discourage people from smoking.  51 billion cigarettes sold yearly in Canada works out to . . . oh, I don't know HOW many packs.  But it's a good bet Mr. Gallien's kids will come across at least some of these at grandpa's house or the neighbor's living room or even as litter on the side of the road.

(You oughtta see the anti-smoking warnings the Aussie government requires.  Hope you're not eating when you take a gander at the gangrened foot.)

If governments mandate the printing of nasty photos to educate people on societal ills, they have absolutely no room to object when private individuals or organizations do likewise.

POSTSCRIPT:  Personally, I'm of the notion that "The Lake of the Sun and the Moon" is whole lot more poetic than the Chinglishy "Sun Moon Lake."

UPDATE:  Now, I guess I can't object if the Taiwanese government tries to REASON with the Falun Gong group about this.  Certainly, if I was a member of that religion, I would have concerns that distasteful images might turn some observers against my cause.  But if Falun Gong wants to run that risk, then that's their business.

UPDATE #2:  Falun Gong displays grisly photos outside a provincial legislature in Mr. Gallien's home country.  A few kids may have walked by, I dunno.

UPDATE #3:  Falun Gong displays similar pictures on a shanty outside a Chinese consulate in Vancouver, B.C. for 7 or 8 years.  On a public sidewalk.

(The mayor, under pressure from China, eventually got his way and had the hut dismantled.  While the fate of the structure is being appealed, Falun Gong adherents are nonetheless still at liberty to protest AND DISPLAY THEIR PICTURES outside the consulate, minus their makeshift hut.)

All this is not to pick on Mr. Gallien, whom I sympathize with.  I simply point out that Falun Gong is free to use graphic images in public places within Gallien's home country to protest China's ill treatment of their co-religionists.

So why should they not have that very same right in Taiwan as well?

UPDATE #4:  Now that Taiwan's opened the door to the Chinese, we can probably expect opponents of the regime to be attacked by hired goons or mobsters, as was done in this case.

UPDATE (Apr 23/09):  Wednesday's Taipei Times' editorial on the issue.

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