Rebellion in never easy
When I first opened up Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang, I was surprised to see a graphic novel. I love graphic novels, I have been reading them for most of my life. The one thing about graphic novels is they are a quick read but they convey so much through the artistic medium. In other words, if all you do is read and skim the pictures, you miss out on over half of what the creators are trying to convey. The same is true for our reading this week. If you are a moderate reader you can read them both in one sitting. If you get into the art of the story you can linger for a long time. The two novels are the story of the Boxer Rebellion told from the point of view of two Chinese, one who takes the road of rebelling against “foreign devils” the other rebelling against her family and becoming a Christian.
I have heard of the Boxer Rebellion, but that is where my knowledge stopped. So I decided to do some reading about it, It came back to Western powers inflicting their desires upon a sovereign nation. As I have talked about in other posts, the wrong done to a country or a people from an outside group seems to have repercussions that are still felt today. “Boxers came from various parts of society, many were peasants, particularly from Shandong province, which had been struck by natural disasters such as famine and flooding. In the 1890s, China had given territorial and commercial concessions in this area to several European nations, and the Boxers blamed their poor standard of living on foreigners who were colonizing their country.”[1] The idea of coming into a country and bringing it “civilization” can seem like a noble pursuit. If in bringing civilization you destroy a culture then what have you actually done. I do realize there are implications of helping a society move forward, bringing clean water, electricity modern medicine, the message of Jesus Christ, in my opinion these are all good things. It is hard to find the fine line.
One of the most compelling things about these novels was there did not seem to be a side that did the right thing. Both the Boxers and the Christians/Foreigners were guilty of crimes against each other. Whether it was the Christians stealing and killing from the local citizens to the Boxers slaughtering innocents neither, at the end of the day, can say I was completely good. At the beginning of the Boxer novel, you have a hooligan stealing and getting beat for it, he comes back two weeks later with a Christian priest who makes the decision to take from the man who stood up to him in the name of “justice” he then destroys the villages idol Tu Di Gong, while telling the gospel. [2] This only escalates until murder is the order of the day. This causes the books hero, Little Bao, to seek justice and retribution which results in mass death for both the Christians, the foreign government officials, and Chinese Christians, as well as his whole group and himself.
The Saints novel introduces the reader to Four Girl, so named by her grandfather because she was the fourth girl, born on the fourth day, of the fourth month. The explanation being that four is the number of death.[3] She is mistreated by her family and ends up running away and becoming a Christian. In the end she is killed by Little Bao for not recanting her faith. The two of them seem to have the best heart of any of the characters. They are both led by the spirit world, Bao by an ancient Emperor and Four Girl by Joan of Arc. Both are led down paths where they begin to understand the implications of their sides. Bao sees the Emperor as a force for good to destroy the invaders but finally understands his guide was a “conflicted” man at best and a murderer as worst. Four Girl thinks Joan is her example as a warrior but at the end sees that Joan died for God as she must as well.
These books give an interesting look into the heart of Chinese culture, from the anger of invasion to the soft spirit of understanding. They are well worth the time to help the reader to begin a journey of understanding, albeit a brief understanding, of Chinese history.
[1] “Boxer Rebellion.” History.com. 2009. Accessed June 20, 2018. https://www.history.com/topics/boxer-rebellion.
[2] Yang, Gene Luen. Boxers & Saints, 1: Boxers. New York: First Second, 2013. 10-19.
[3] Yang, Gene Luen, and Lark Pien. Saints. New York: First Second, 2013. 1.
About the Author
Jason Turbeville
A pastor, husband and father who loves to be around others. These are the things that describe me. I was a youth minister for 15 years but God changed the calling on my life. I love to travel and see where God takes me in my life.11 responses to “Rebellion in never easy”
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Jason,
Great introduction and good job highlighting that neither side seemed to do the “right thing.” What did you think of all the spirit world images, actions, influence. Do you see the Eastern view on the spirit world as something the Western Christian leader could learn from?
Can you link any of Yang’s themes to your dissertation research? Good post!
Stand firm, 站立得住
M. Webb
Mike,
While I found it hard to link these books to my dissertation, one thing is for sure, the spiritual warfare is the root cause of our issues. I really enjoyed Yang’s use of the spirit world as guides for the “heros”.
Jason
Jason, great insights. I missed some of the themes you picked up on. I missed that four-girl was rebelling by being a Christian. I saw her mostly rebelling against her Christian leaders, and only being a Christian for the food and safety for where she was.
Kyle,
It actually took me two readings to see that her rebellion at first was against her treatment. She kept saying things like, I wont listen I am just there for the food.
It was an interesting turn for me.
Jason
Hi Jason,
I never even knew there was such a thing as “graphic novels”. The closest thing I have read is spider man and super man comic books, and they were quite graphic (grin). I bet you did comic books, too. Am I right?
Be careful Jay…don’t you pick on on us Comic book readers. LOL
Jay,
My comic books were my life growing up, partly because I was a chubby kid and they were part of my escape. I love the movies nowadays.
Jason
Jason, I too embraced the misled motives of the two main characters, and from that asked myself what must have happened to lead up to the misconceptions they were both motivate by. Sadly, in the stories, both reacted to the treatment from others, and as a result, neither ever truly learned what they needed to learn. At least Four girl was finally willing to die for the cause, even though I am not sure she every really understood what she was actually dying for.
So what do you see the actual tragedy of this story to be?
Shawn
The tragedy for me was the loss of who they were in themselves. I understand the rebellion, just as much as I understand the motives of missionaries. Both just acted, in my opinion, out of hate. To often I see Christians react this way and it just brings shame to the name of Christ.
Jason
Thanks Jason for your thoughts on journeying through this book’s perspectives. I know that Yang is a catholic and took the approach from that perspective but would have loved to here one of the many Christians in China that did things correctly and lovingly. I did like that he protested each story from a individual point of view. It made it personal and we got to see through there eyes.
Greg,
I really enjoyed Yang’s approach as well. It would have been and interesting third book though to see maybe each perspective motivated by love.
Jason