Canada’s Miss World finalist Anastasia Lin comes out as a Falun Gong practitioner

Under different circumstances, Anastasia Lin might be a shoo-in for Miss World. A vocal human rights activist with prominent cheekbones, the Canadian candidate for the crown is also an accomplished piano player, a Chinese calligrapher, and an actress with more than 20 credits in film and television.

But the contest takes place in Lin’s native China.

And, as Lin revealed in an interview, she is a practitioner of Falun Gong.

Adherents say Falun Gong combines moral philosophy, meditation and qigong exercises, and emerged out of ideas prevalent in alternative Chinese medicine. Beijing has branded it an “evil cult”.

Falun Gong followers have been detained and killed in Chinese labour camps in their thousands, according to activists. The religion was outlawed in China 1999, following a silent demonstration by thousands of Falun Gong practitioners outside Communist party headquarters, who were protesting attacks on its members.

Lin, an outspoken advocate on human rights and religious persecution, had refrained from publicly disclosing her faith. As recently as August 9, she demurred when asked by Canada’s Maclean’s magazine if she was a practitioner: “I started doing the exercises. I don’t know why people give the title of ‘Falun Gong practitioner’. It’s just a meditation practice…If it weren’t for their persecution, people would probably view them as fancy yoga practitioners.”