The Boxer Rebellion

by Diana Preston

ISBN: 0-425-18084-0

First published: 2000

360 pages

Publisher: http://www.penguinputnam.com

Cover Design: Krystyna Skalski

Cover photograph: National Archives (U.S.)

3.5/5 Stars

A full account, using eye-witness descriptions of the Boxer Rebellion in North-Eastern China in 1900.

The Boxers started as one of a number of religious orders, but its emphasis on freeing China from the grip of Westerners and doing so by the use of ancient Chinese magic, appealed to many peasants in the north-east of China.

Capitalizing on growing anti-industrial sentiment, Boxers tore up railway lines and tore down telegraph poles. However, it was the covert support of the Empress Dowager that enabled the Boxers to gather their strength and trap the western ambassadors within the walls of Peking during the summer of 1900 (shown below).

It is interesting that the ‘war’ did not spread to the southern or eastern provinces.

Also, the western ‘allies’ also behaved badly, some nations more than others, as the cartoon below illustrates;

Cartoon by René Georges Hermann-Paul.

Full caption: “It’s all a matter of perspective. When a Chinese coolie strikes a
French soldier the result is a public cry of ‘Barbarity!’ But when a French
soldier strikes a coolie, it’s a necessary blow for civilization.”

The major problem with any analysis of the Boxer rebellion, including this book, is that most of the diaries were written by Westerners.

The events of 1900 laid the foundations for a modern state and any analysis of modern China must first look book at the events of 1900.

It is interesting again that the centenary of the Boxer rebellion in 2000 was judged ‘by both the Western and Chinese governments to be too sensitive to mark’….