1. Li Hongzhi's biography was removed from Falun Gong websites some time after 2001.
16 Facts About Li Hongzhi
1. 2.
Li Hongzhi's parents divorced whilst he was a toddler, and Li and his siblings remained with his mother.
3.
Li Hongzhi did not attend high school, but ultimately completed high school through correspondence courses in the 1980s.
4.
Professor David Ownby wrote in 2008 that Li Hongzhi was born Li Lai on 27 July 1952 in Gongzhuling, Jilin province, China.
5.
The Chinese government said that Li changed his name from Lai to Hongzhi because Hongzhi, meaning vast will, sounded more revolutionary.
6.
Li Hongzhi introduced Falun Dafa, or the Great Law of the Wheel of Dharma, on 13 May 1992 at the fifth Middle School in Changchun, Jilin.
7.
Li Hongzhi differentiated Falun Gong by prioritising "accessibility to the public" and moral content, away from esoteric notions often found in other Qigong systems.
8.
Li Hongzhi created a program that promises practitioners that they will have perfect health and supernatural powers quickly and easily.
9.
Li Hongzhi was critical of alternative systems within the Qigong movement, stating it was "rife with false teachings and greedy and fraudulent 'masters'" and set out to rectify it.
10.
Ian Johnson pointed out that during the greatest period of Falun Gong book sales in China, Li Hongzhi never received any royalties because all publications were bootleg.
11.
Li Hongzhi reputedly planted a Falun or "law wheel" in the abdomen of each student, and other "energy mechanisms" in other parts of their bodies.
12.
In 1998 Li Hongzhi stated that he believes alien invaders walk the Earth and that modern science and race-mixing are part of their ploy to overtake humanity, and he has reportedly said that he can walk through walls and make himself invisible.
13.
Li Hongzhi's first stop in March 1995 was to the Chinese embassy in Paris, where he had been invited to teach the practice.
14.
Li Hongzhi moved to the United States in 1996 with his wife and daughter, and in 1998 became a US permanent resident, settling in New York.
15.
At that time, Li Hongzhi was living in the United States.
16.
Li Hongzhi was nominated for the 2001 Sakharov Prize by over 25 members of European Parliament, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 and 2001, and in 2013 was ranked by Foreign Policy Magazine as one of the 500 most powerful people in the world.