An international webinar reviewed challenges to freedom of education throughout the world, which also emerged in the Tai Ji Men case.
by Daniela Bovolenta


On January 24, 2024, U.N. International Day of Education, CESNUR, the Center for Studies on New Religions, and Human Rights Without Frontiers organized a webinar on “Freedom of Education, Freedom of Belief, and the Tai Ji Men Case.”
The webinar was introduced by Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist who serves as editor-in-chief of “Bitter Winter” and managing director of CESNUR. Introvigne reported that at the beginning of January he visited Taiwan with other scholars. They were there both to attend the 17th International Conference on Taoist Studies in Taichung and to visit Tai Ji Men and participate in important events with its Shifu (Grand Master), Dr. Hong Tao-Tze. Tai Ji Men, Introvigne said, is a menpai (similar to a school) of self-cultivation, Qigong, and martial arts rooted in esoteric Taoism, although open to dizi (disciples) of all religions.
The Italian scholar underlined the importance in Taoism both of education and the figure of the sage or master, who is called Shifu when he teaches martial arts in addition to self-cultivation, as is the case for Dr. Hong. Introvigne noted that Dr. Hong embodies the three traditional characters of a Taoist sage: compassion, humility, and wisdom. He added that the history of Taoism suggests adding a fourth, sometimes unmentioned, character. Taoist masters are often persecuted, because they teach how to think freely, which may disturb the powers that be. This also happened to Dr. Hong, Introvigne concluded, and is the deep root of the Tai Ji Men case.
The first speaker of the first session, Austrian journalist Peter Zoehrer, who serves as executive director of Forum for Religious Freedom Europe (FOREF), underlined the importance of freedom of education, recognized by the United Nations as both the freedom to be educated and to educate others. By harassing Tai Ji Men, Zoehrer said, Taiwanese bureaucrats violated both aspects of freedom of education. Dizi were harassed and bullied in schools or colleges, while the international educational activities of their Shifu, who was also put under an ill-founded travel ban, encountered unjust obstacles created by the Tai Ji Men case.
Zoehrer compared the Tai Ji Men case with the unfair campaign against the Unification Church, now called Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, in Japan, which also threatens the right of its members both to be educated by the movement and to educate others.


Introvigne then introduced a video by the United Nations General Secretary Antonio Guterres, prepared for the previous International Day of Education in 2023. Guterres reported how he was shocked when he learned how low are the investments for education in many countries. They should certainly be increased, he said, but financial support is not enough. Efforts should be made to eliminate discrimination in education based on ethnicity, gender, or religion, which unfortunately still exist in many countries.
The second speaker of the first session, Italian Islamic scholar and historian Davide Suleyman Amore, proposed a comparative analysis of education in Islam and Tai Ji Men. Education, Amore said, plays a central role in Islam and indeed Muslims established in 859 CE in Fes, Morocco, the University of al-Qarawiyyin, the oldest continuously operating educational institution in the world. Particularly the more mystical branch of Islam, Sufism, insists on holistic education involving both body and spirit and the role of a Shaykh, or Master. This is, Amore noted, the same role of the Shifu, Dr. Hong, in Tai Ji Men; and both Sufism and Tai Ji Men offer a holistic education. However, the progress of Dr. Hong’s global educational enterprise was slowed down by the so-called Tai Ji Men case. It is great time, Amore concluded, to “resolve the case, so that the educational journey of Tai Ji Men may continue undisturbed for the greater good of its dizi, Taiwan, and humanity.”
The second session was introduced by Willy Fautré, co-founder and director of Human Rights Without Frontiers, who first presented a video on how a young female dizi managed to overcome her shyness and flourish physically and spiritually through the practice of self-cultivation and Qigong with Tai Ji Men.


Fautré noted that Tai Ji Men as an ancient menpai can only continue to exist through time and history if new generations are educated into its teachings, which is only possible if freedom of education is granted to it. The content of Tai Ji Men’s teachings runs counter contemporary materialism and pressures to conform to the opinions of the majority, Fautré said, which explain why “evil forces” within the Taiwanese judiciary and bureaucracy tried to stop its educational activities. He expressed the hope that the government emerging from the recent elections in Taiwan may finally solve the Tai Ji Men case.
Fautré then presented the testimonies of five dizi. Maryann Chuang, a Certified Public Accountant, reported that in November 2023 she accompanied Dr. Hong to the 24th International Conference of the Chief Justices of the World in India, where a central theme was the rule of law. This theme, she said, is also important in the field of taxes. She quoted Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek, who famously said that arbitrary taxation violates the rule of law. Tai Ji Men Shifu and dizi were victims of such violation, Chuang said. However, this became an opportunity for them for studying what was wrong in the Taiwanese tax system and becoming a driving force for tax reform in Taiwan. This role was praised by legal Taiwanese scholars, Chuang concluded, who also insisted that the Tai Ji Men case should be solved without delay.


Juni Hung, a marketing manager in a biotechnology company, was another participant in the 24th International Conference of the Chief Justices of the World last November in India. She particularly appreciated the speech in that conference of the former President of Kiribati and current Ambassador of Kiribati to both the United States and the United Nations, Teburoro Tito. He emphasized the importance of the acknowledgement by world leaders of the primacy of conscience, which is a central teaching of Dr. Hong. In Taiwan, on the other hand, it was a lack of conscience that led rogue bureaucrats to continue persecuting Tai Ji Men, Hung said. An awakening of conscience among Taiwanese politicians would be the key to solve the Tai Ji Men case, she concluded.


Nick Su, an account manager in a semiconductor company, also participated in the 24th International Conference of the Chief Justices of the World in India. It was an opportunity, he said, to reflect on the central role of conscience advocated by Dr. Hong and on the promotion of peace in a world plagued by wars. Not to become empty words, commitments to promote peace should also guarantee justice. Su mentioned the fabricated Tai Ji Men case, and quoted opinion by leading Taiwanese scholars who see in it a serious abuse of power by the government, damaging the international image of Taiwan.


Melanie Wang, a senior high school student, celebrated Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani female education activist who at age 17 became in 2014 the world’s youngest Nobel Prize laureate. She both demonstrates the importance of freedom of education and how this right is limited by oppressive forces throughout the world. Outraged by the Tai Ji Men case, Wang became interested in the shortcomings of Taiwan’s tax system, the more so because her own grandfather was a victim of a tax bill ten times larger than what was due. His appeal failed, his company was seized, and anger caused a stroke. Wang became a volunteer promoting tax reform in Taiwan and a solution of the Tai Ji Men case. She urged the audience to support this fight.


Emily Hung, who works as a flight attendant and chief purser, reported how the Tai Ji Men teachings and the practice of Qigong helped her to overcome the problems she encountered in her work, including unpolite passengers who had unreasonable requests. She even won professional awards, served on the presidential plane, and met several celebrities. However, her most moving flights were when she accompanied Dr. Hong to international events, she said, including the World Peace Goodwill Visiting Mission to Türkiye in 2017. She enthusiastically participates in different Tai Ji Men projects, she added, including the “change the world in one minute” campaign, which asks those who love peace to pray and meditate with conscience for one minute every day.


Marco Respinti, an Italian scholar and journalist who serves as director-in-charge of “Bitter Winter,” offered the conclusions of the webinar by reflecting on the concept of education. The words “instruction” and “schooling” are part, but not synonyms of “education,” Respinti said. Education is a broader concept that refers to a lifelong pursuit not limited to the time spent in schools or universities. It is what makes humans different from animals, according to the famous verse of Italian Medieval poet Dante Alighieri, “You were not made to live like unto brutes.” Education, however, Respinti added, can only flourish when it is free, and there are no oppressive powers trying to impose their unique ideological model on everybody. This is what happened in Taiwan, he concluded, where the educational enterprise of Dr. Hong and Tai Ji Men was limited and disturbed by legal and tax harassment. But when freedom of education is not granted, Respinti concluded, humans really become “brutes.”


The event concluded with a musical video that summarized the Tai Ji Men case through the powerful music of rock and roll.