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I decided it was time for an easy and fun book so I read one of the nice little books I picked up before leaving Seattle published by China's Foreign Language Press. The book, well it was just a 120 pages so it almost wasn't a book, is called The Yi Ho Tuan Movement of 1900 usually translated as the Boxer rebellion. It was written by a committee shortly after the end of the cultural revolution and thus almost said more about Communism than it did about the Boxers.
It's always interesting to read another perspective. Books written for an English audience on the Boxers almost always focus entirely on the siege of the legations in Peking. This only got the briefest of mentions in this book, rather they focused on the terrible sackings and looting done by the foreigners and the terrible indemnities and consequences of the rebellion. It was interesting to read as at the time the Boxers were strongly favored as anti-imperialist revolutionaries and so the focus stayed on that side and ignored the spiritual side altogether, as that would seem superstitious, they also downplayed any links with the Ching government, and any killing of civilians, the targets were shifted to "deserving imperial missionaries" as opposed to Chinese Christians.
Still very interesting, I have a book on the Opium War from the same series which I am looking forward to reading. It's good to take a look at other interpretations, to see another side and emphasis.
It's always interesting to read another perspective. Books written for an English audience on the Boxers almost always focus entirely on the siege of the legations in Peking. This only got the briefest of mentions in this book, rather they focused on the terrible sackings and looting done by the foreigners and the terrible indemnities and consequences of the rebellion. It was interesting to read as at the time the Boxers were strongly favored as anti-imperialist revolutionaries and so the focus stayed on that side and ignored the spiritual side altogether, as that would seem superstitious, they also downplayed any links with the Ching government, and any killing of civilians, the targets were shifted to "deserving imperial missionaries" as opposed to Chinese Christians.
Still very interesting, I have a book on the Opium War from the same series which I am looking forward to reading. It's good to take a look at other interpretations, to see another side and emphasis.