Might, May, Can, and Could

A closer look at Falun Gong

For most Westerners who pay any attention to it, Falun Gong is not much more than a cult, given to synchronized dancing, exotic doctrines proclaimed by a mysterious Master, and possessor of a secretive retreat eighty miles northwest of Manhattan near the Delaware River water gap. For its standard version, you can’t do better than this lavishly illustrated story prepared by Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Or settle for this account, by New York Times technology columnist Kevin Roose, of Falun Gong’s “long struggle to obtain its bona fides against Beijing’s efforts to demonize it as an ‘evil cult.’”

The movement deserves a closer look.