By: Mark Petersen on June 21, 2018
Gene Luen Yang’s two-part graphic novel series, Boxers & Saints, was an unconventional way to introduce our cohort to the Boxer Rebellion, the turn-of-the-(20th)-century resistance by Chinese against foreign rule in China. Uncovering a more nuanced history is a good remedy for those of us who are trapped by our cultural blinders. Up to now,…
By: Mary Walker on June 21, 2018
With these thoughts churning in my head, I recalled my life in China, my family and all those people I knew, and at that moment I longed to tell the world our stories and how the Chinese really felt. My urge to write returned.[1] Grandmother, Mother, Jung (with ribbons in hair) and siblings. Jung Chang…
By: Dave Watermulder on June 20, 2018
In a recent LA Times article, Charles C Camosy, a professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Fordham University asks the question, was “the Star Wars Rebel Alliance freedom fighters or terrorists?”[1]After all, the “rebels” were a group of people who “were willing to kill innocent people to advance a political agenda.”[2] As an ethicist, Camosy…
By: Stu Cocanougher on June 20, 2018
What is worship? I have seen a lot of things which are called “worship,” that are less than inspirational. A visit to a large Church in America might expose you to a carefully prepared performance by talented soloists, backed by professional musicians who are paid to play at their “church gig” every Sunday. Some…
By: Jennifer Dean-Hill on June 20, 2018
What an amazing story of China’s history seen through the lens of multi-generational women. The trials and hardships they experienced were intense, as they were often traded, oppressed, and marginalized like objects. The resiliency of each woman was impressive and inspirational as they survived torture, war, cultural oppression, and abusive relationships while taking care of…
By: Dan Kreiss on June 20, 2018
The second Boxer Rebellion in China as the century turned from the 19thto the 20th(by Western reckoning) was a response to the evident imperialism of European nations and the exploitation of a people and the resources of a long isolated region. Sadly, frequently complicit in this were missionaries and other representatives of the Christian church.…
By: Lynda Gittens on June 20, 2018
Author Juno Chang, in her book Wild Swans, she shares her family story. She reveals a great love story although torn with problems yet overthrown with love. Who doesn’t like a good love story? Her grandmother was given to General Xua as a cumberbine. This was not acceptable to her, but she had…
By: Mary Walker on June 20, 2018
Here is the web address for my Prezi, “The Road to Finishing Well” https://prezi.com/p/tvqokz_ojf3t/
By: Katy Drage Lines on June 20, 2018
“Let me become a cat or a dog, but not a woman”[1] Throughout the narrative telling of twentieth-century Chinese history, we observe the move from traditional society to idealistic Communism, on to the Cultural Revolution—a power-centric second iteration of Communism, and the messy outcomes of years of distrust and revenge. Jung Chang’s Wild Swans: Three…
By: Mike on June 20, 2018
Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers and Saints is a gruesome story told in a graphic-novel format based around the Boxer Rebellion in China. Yang offers two opposing fictional perspectives via a visual medium in a comic-book style presentation. One perspective, Boxers is anti-Christian that displays the “Boxers,” skilled in martial arts, driving out the Colonial devils…
By: Jake Dean-Hill on June 19, 2018
Reading Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang was an interesting introduction to the Boxer Rebellion that I was not previously familiar with. I enjoyed the lighter version of reading and found it a very creative medium to communicate such a horrific story. Wesley Yang (a different Yang 🙂 ) summarized it well by stating,…
By: Kristin Hamilton on June 19, 2018
There is no way to capture the sadness, disgust, awe, and prophetic fear I felt when I read Jung Chang’s Wild Swans. This is what rolled through me when I tried: “We are so much better, so much more civilized;” Western eyes roll in disgust; Atrocities through three generations; But don’t we have our…
By: Kyle Chalko on June 18, 2018
Boxers and Saints by Gene Luen Yang is a graphic novel with a style similar to anime, that tells a story not meant for children. (My four year old found this book and started thumbing through the pages because it looked like his cartoons. I was panicked when I saw him turning the pages and…
By: Christal Jenkins Tanks on June 17, 2018
I was reflecting upon my early years. One of my best friends in elementary school had family from Hong Kong. They were a very well to do family. They moved into a very affluent community and lived their lives in a very traditional manner. Her parents rarely showed affection for one another. I always knew…
By: Greg on June 16, 2018
It is almost a utopian scene to describe a world that everyone works, lives and strives for the betterment of everyone else. This “imagined community” in which all work together sounds like something only possible if you are smoking something the hippies call Ganga. This image of communism is such a stark contrast to those…
By: Jean Ollis on June 15, 2018
There are many important themes in Jung Chang’s text, Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. This text highlights family – and the love within a family – as well as loyalty, self-sacrifice and the connection of the three (family loyalty and self-sacrifice as women). As we’ve learned through reading Simon Chan’s, Grassroots Asian Philosophy, Jackie…
By: Jason Turbeville on June 15, 2018
When I first started reading Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang one of my friends stopped by my office, she saw the book sitting on my desk and asked, “Are they having you read romance novels in your class”? Of course, she was joking with me but in actuality this book is a…
By: Chris Pritchett on June 15, 2018
The secret untold story of the cultural revolution in China in the 1960s came as just that – a huge surprise to me. I had no awareness of the atrocities of Mao and his youthful army. That’s a little embarrassing. It’s a part of the world of which I am quite unfamiliar. Jung Chang is…
By: Jay Forseth on June 14, 2018
I have a twin sister named Sandy. No we are not identical–she got all the hair and brains, all I got was the height (it is surprising how many people ask if we are identical). My twinkie Sandy is a VERY courageous woman, as she proves DAILY, through one of the most selfless acts humanly…
By: Shawn Hart on June 14, 2018
“It has been a very long time since I’ve learned so much from a memoir. Chang was extremely careful to verify the facts of the historical events surrounding her family’s various issues.[1]” I must admit, there have been a number of our reads thus far that have invoked more of a negative apprehension for myself,…
