A catalyst- and solvent-free Suzuki coupling reaction of sodium tetraphenylborate with hypervalent iodanes

Article abstract of DOI:10.1111/j.1540-6253.2006.00373.x

The catalyst- and solvent-free Suzuki coupling reaction of sodium tetraphenylborate with hypervalent iodanes was achieved under microwave irradiation in the absence of base. A rapid and convenient method for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds resulted in good yields.

Full text of DOI:10.1111/j.1540-6253.2006.00373.x

book reviews
459
Falun Gong: The End of Days. By Maria Hsia Chang. (New Haven,
CT: Yale University Press, 2004. 208 pp.)
Since April 25, 1999, when Falun Gong followers protested outside
the Communist headquarters in Beijing, news reports about this reli-
gious (or semi-religious) group has abounded in the mass media,
especially in the English-speaking world. The Western journalistic
portrayals of Falun Gong are often focused on how the Falun Gong
faithful suffered from persecution and how the Chinese government
was in the wrong. Finally, we have a book by Professor Maria Hsia
Chang, Falun Gong:The End of Days, which offers a balanced view of
both this group and the Chinese government. Academic studies of
Falun Gong are only at the beginning stage. A Chinese by birth and a
political scientist by training, Dr. Chang is well equipped to investi-
gate this new religious movement in a critical and yet sympathetic
way. She does not embrace Falun Gong’s view of the end of days, but
she is sympathetic toward the suffering of its followers. Her view of
the Chinese government is critical, and yet rational. By including a
chapter on the history of millenarianism in China, she places the
persecution of Falun Gong in a proper historical context.
There are five chapters in the book. In chapter 1,“A Religious Sect
Defies the State,” Dr. Chang details the emergence, development, and
persecution of Falun Gong, whose followers have defied the govern-
ment. To untrained eyes, persecution of Falun Gong is simply an
ideological combat. Dr. Chang has correctly pointed out that the
group’s effective organization and deep permeation into various
sectors of the Chinese society have aroused fear in the government,
which is very much aware of the countless uprisings in Chinese history
that were instigated by religious messages.
In chapter 2, Dr. Chang elaborates on the relationship between
Chinese religions and millenarian movements. In this chapter, Chang
discusses the folk religions of antiquity, Confucianism, Daoism and
Buddhism, and so on. She particularly singles out for treatment those
religious movements such as the White Lotus Society, the Eight Tri-
grams, the Taiping Rebellion, and the Boxers. She suggests that the
syncretic nature of Falun Gong very much resembles these move-
ments, with which I agree.
Chapter 3 explores central questions such as, “What do the Falun
Gong followers believe in?”and“How do they practice their beliefs?”
Here, Dr. Chang discusses the cosmology, gods, moral life, karma, and
reincarnation as well as cultivational practice as taught by Falun
Gong. Obviously, Falun Gong draws on Buddhism, Daoism, and
modern science and synthesizes them into what its followers believed
to be an integrated holistic system of belief and practice. Dr. Chang

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book reviews
does not make a value judgment on these teachings, as she just pre-
sents them as they are believed and practiced by the followers.
In chapter 4, Dr. Chang moves back again to the tension between
the government and the Falun Gong movement. The government
labeled Falun Gong as a cult, a label that the Falun Gong followers
resisted. Along with the label is the government’s strategy to crimi-
nalize the activities of Falun Gong. Here, Dr. Chang disapproves the
use of this label. She quotes Leo Pfeffer, “If you believe in it, it is a
religion or perhaps the religion, and if you do not care one way or
another about it, it is a sect; but if you fear and hate it, it is a cult” (p.
98). As an observer of Chinese politics, Dr. Chang also questions the
government’s claim that cracking down on Falun Gong represents the
will of the people.
In the last chapter, Dr. Chang discusses various religious move-
ments in contemporary China. She attributes the emergence of these
movements to the social ills caused by China’s new economic policies.
She concludes that, “by continuing the traditional Chinese state’s
intolerance of ‘heterodox’ faiths, the Communist Party may well come
to reap the same fate. It may discover that, by politicizing and driving
underground unapproved religions and other groups, it is hastening
the time when such groups, like the roiling flood waters of the Yellow
River, eventually break through the dikes to directly challenge the
state” (p. 158).
The whole book is highly readable. It is scholarly and yet popular.
In terms of the general absence of a serious study of Falung Gong, Dr.
Chang’s book will have its rightful place for years to come. There are
a few critical points that I would like to raise regarding this book,
however. First, the book relies heavily on secondary literature. Has
the author done any fieldwork or actually met and talked with Falun
Gong followers? Second, there is some confusing usage of the terms
that appear throughout the book, such as religion, faith, cult, and
secret society. One would legitimately demand that the author define
these terms, as such definitions do affect our perceptions of the group.
Last, one would expect Dr. Chang, as a political scientist, to offer her
views regarding possible solutions to the conflict between the Chinese
government and Falun Gong.
One logical conclusion that Dr. Chang could have drawn from her
analysis is that in order to stamp out millenarianism in contemporary
China, the government should allow the five officially sanctioned
faiths—Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Islam, and Daoism—
more social and cultural space, as these faith traditions do much
to offer solace and comfort to those people who suffer while the
country is experiencing a great transition, socially, economically, and
culturally.

book reviews
461
In spite of some shortcomings, Dr. Chang’s book is commendable
for its insights and richness of information. I would strongly recom-
mend it to students in courses such as Chinese Religions and
Contemporary Chinese Politics. I would also recommend it to general
readers who are interested in Chinese politics and religions.
Zhonghu Yan
Hope College, Holland, Michigan