A Cult has infiltrated my Market
Daniel Ryan - 16th March 2026
Last month I was at a market, helping my wife with a stall she runs. It was a lovely, sunny day at one of the biggest NZ markets I’ve been to, packed with stalls along the main streets and bustling with life. At my wife’s request, I won’t name the market or out any of the pseudoscience stalls making bad therapeutic claims*.
About lunchtime, I noticed Falun Gong (aka Falun Dafa) and went over to have a look at their stall. You may remember the group from last year, with their Shen Yun show that was advertised across New Zealand. They had two stalls set up: one for exercises, and another with a spinning wheel game.
I went near one, and they handed me their pamphlet when I walked past.
Later, I stealthily took some photos without their lookouts noticing - they had a few people around. Most of their group is easy to spot, as they wear yellow tops and light-colored pants.
With their sign motto being “Falun Dafa is Good”, then all had to be well, right?
Well, no… Falun Gong is a religious movement founded in China, combining meditation, qigong exercises, and teachings rooted in Buddhist and Taoist traditions. Their leader, Li Hongzhi, is a god-like figure who has supposedly come to help humankind avoid possible destruction from the apparent evil in the world. The group opposes the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the CPP calls them a cult and sees them as a threat. Their religion has been banned in China, which has resulted in mass arrests, widespread torture, and plenty of abuse against Falun Gong.
While sadly persecuted, they are not as “good” as they say. Jaya Gibson from the NZ Charity Decult had been a Falun Gong practitioner - “14 years inside the cult impacted on Jaya’s mental and physical health”. He talks about their cult-like characteristics, forced child labour, financial exploitation, political interference, their misinformation and homophobia. You can read about his experience here:
Soon a documentary will be released to help tell his story and shed more light on Falun Gong here in New Zealand.
So I decided to tell the market’s organisers that they had allowed a cult into their market. They looked them up in their records, and nothing was found under that name. Had they even paid the fee ($250+) to be there? Did they sneak in after everyone had set up and found some empty spots where they could put up their stalls? I needed to get to the bottom of this. From talking to one of the organisers, it seems there is a history of people sneaking in without paying.
By the time I went and showed them where the Falun Gong stalls were, it was nearly the end of the market. I saw one of their stalls pack up 30 minutes early, unsure if that was due to my complaint.
Fast forward a month, and we were at the same market - they do two a year. This time, I was ready and on the lookout for yellow shirts. While we were setting up a stall, an organiser was helping out a conservatively dressed Chinese lady. They were helping her find her spot, but it wasn’t the empty spot beside us (our neighbour’s stall missed this one). I found this odd because the stall positions should have been the same as last time. I went out and looked for them, but couldn’t see them.
When an organiser came to check up on us at our stall, I said I was disappointed about allowing cult-like organisations in. We asked if Falun Gong was here again, and she recognised the name straight away. I questioned if they were stealing empty spots. Their spot was listed under a person’s name (not Falun Gong), with a note that it was promotional only. So my original thoughts the first time around were incorrect; they didn’t sneak in and steal spots. Instead, they had arrived under someone’s name, and the organisers had no idea who they were or what they did until they showed up. The organiser said the stall next to them was not happy to have them there, something about them asking children to scan a QR code. She said she would look into it further, and see what they could do.
I went and had a quick look and found they had two stalls again, at the same spots as last time (they were setting up late), and I also saw the same conservatively dressed lady at the beginning.
The same organiser came back and told us that since Falun Gong had paid, they couldn’t kick them out. However, the market’s own terms say they can remove any stall for any reason (but I didn’t know that at the time).
I decided to chat with each Falun Gong stall and record what they had to say. The first stall had a couple of people meditating, with one lady speaking to me saying it was Chinese meditation, and handing me the same flier as last time. “You can feel the energy through your body”, and it’s “easy and very powerful”, she explained. We spoke for a few minutes, and she said I should visit their website to download their videos. She invited me to join their meetup group, which had nine locations around the country, but “sadly” didn’t support Tarranki - I’d have to learn online. She then handed me another flier.
The next was the Gan Jing table, a company founded by Falun Gong. The one I thought had a spinning wheel game; instead, they had kids shooting a plastic bow and an arrow at it.
I was handed their flyer by one of the ladies there, and was told to scan their QR code to sign up for their service.
I couldn’t record much of the chat with the stall lady, as she was watching my screen while I signed up. But the gist I got was that it was a hub for news and videos. She explained (a few times) that Gan Jing, in English, means “pure” and that they were #1 for safety. I asked her how they are #1 for safety, and I got a generic explanation that they monitor content for anything bad. One example they gave was that they make sure there is nothing from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Since I was in “IT,” a second lady at the table suggested I should go create some content on the platform. Would they allow skeptical material about cults, I wonder?
Worryingly, while I was at this stall they had quite a few kids shooting the bow and getting involved.
I wasn’t able to get Falun Gong removed from the market, but I can at least raise awareness that this group exists, as they cause real harm. And now I’ll be on the lookout at other markets.
(*) My wife had death threats sent to her last year as a result of an ASA complaint I submitted (and subsequently retracted to ensure our safety), and doesn’t want anyone to target her or her business again. It was a very stressful event. I would like to expose the person who sent the death threats one day, because they got away with it without any consequences and they continue to spread pseudoscience today.