{"id":18285,"date":"2018-06-21T09:46:25","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T16:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=18285"},"modified":"2018-06-21T09:46:25","modified_gmt":"2018-06-21T16:46:25","slug":"yin-and-yang-in-yang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/yin-and-yang-in-yang\/","title":{"rendered":"Yin and Yang, in Yang"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When looking at the cover of Boxers & Saints<\/em>, one might think they are a two-part story of one person but upon closer inspection and, especially after diving into the text, the reader learns Boxers & Saints <\/em>are two different people\u2019s perspective to the same story of China at the turn of the twentieth century. One half presented about a boy, Little Bao, being raised by his father with his two brothers and eventually forming the \u2018brother-disciples\u2019 in rebellion to the intruding foreign religion and imperialist movements of the day. The other half is about a girl, Four-girl, who is the fourth daughter her mother has conceived bringing shame to their family for her gender. Raised without a father and connected to Joan of Arc in her visions, Four-girl, later renamed Vibiana, represents the Christian converts of China in opposition in faith and calling from Little Bao. The intensity of the clash between Bao and Vibiana\u2019s people groups grows throughout the two books as each has their own moral and spiritual struggles. Both become archetypes, seeking justice from their noble, albeit largely ignorant perspectives.<\/p>\n

Presented as an easy dive into a complex history, Gene Luen Yang\u2019s text graphically describes the yin and yang of the society through the coming of age stories of Bao and Vibiana. As one reviewer noted, \u201cThe books truly are yin and yang: you must read both for the full picture.\u201d[1]<\/a> \u201cIn Chinese philosophy, yin and yang describes how seemingly opposite or contrary forces may actually be complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they may give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another. Many tangible dualities (such as light and dark, fire and water, expanding and contracting) are thought of as physical manifestations of the duality symbolized by yin and yang.\u201d[2]<\/a><\/p>\n

In Boxers & Saints, yin and yang come through in a number of ways. Two predominant aspects of opposition that complement (or have the potential to support one another) in the story are the male and female perspectives from the two characters and their supporting actors. Second is the variation of two sides to the same story, one seen as good, the other as evil.<\/p>\n

Male \/ Female<\/p>\n

\u201cYin\u201d is referred to by the brother disciples as part of the woman\u2019s hora, being very dangerous as a potential seduction tactic to make the men weak. Throughout the Boxer text, Bao\u2019s brother is continually assumed to be under the influence of the yin of the women and Bao himself is concerned about his own weakness toward them at points though he eventually sees their value as part of their army. The men come to realize their need for the women as they are decimated in battle by their poor choices. The women help them to survive.<\/p>\n

In Vibiana\u2019s story of Saints she represents the other side of the story but also does so as a woman raised by a woman with no father or brothers. She attempts to escape the shame of her lowly place through deciding to become a \u2018devil\u2019 but eventually recognizes the church as a healthier escape and finds acceptance there. Her meetings with Joan of Arc bolster her confidence in her calling to be a leader and allow her to settle into her own skin although all of the people outside of her visions she depends upon are male figures. They guide her and she even leads the orphan boys toward the end of the text. Even farther she has an influence on Bao from a young age without recognizing so.<\/p>\n

While both Bao and Vibiana are tied to one gender and have reservations about the opposite, they both depend on the other to support them and even survive in Yang\u2019s text. They are interrelated whether they prefer so or not and once they allow the opposite gender into their lives in a safe way, they both benefit from the other in educational, emotional, and relational ways.<\/p>\n

Insider \/ Outsider<\/p>\n

While the foreigners were seen as devils throughout the text and their converts secondary devils being polluted by them, the work of the \u201cRighteous and Harmonious Fist\u201d (previously the brother-disciples) struggle to live a more righteous life than those they are harming. As one critic explains, \u201cBoxers speculates on how a religious society attempting to mete out justice and return the country to spiritual harmony could repeatedly engage in atrocities such as murdering defenseless women and children, and burning whole congregations locked inside their churches. Yang’s interweaving of realistic story-telling with supernatural experience may very well come close to capturing the actual experience of the people of the time.\u201d[3]<\/a> Although the foreigners may have been devils, the boxers, though not named as such, were seen as devils by those whom they tormented.<\/p>\n

Throughout both halves of the text there is a continual passionate pursuit of justice for their ideals while condemnation is heaped on the outsider. Misperception based on lack of relationship and understanding abound and the story tragically ends in defeat and death for much of both parties, including the main characters.<\/p>\n

In thinking about the text and yin and yang in China, could there have been a way to co-exist that would be mutually beneficial with regard to the missionaries and foreign imperialists?<\/p>\n

With regard to my own work of developing leaders with the church and the engagement of those who are potentially the \u201cyin to our yang,\u201d we need to consider the lessons of Boxers & Saints.<\/em> We may choose to only be dependent upon our own and shun the outsider, leading to our demise. Or we can recognize our need for the yin-yang balance in relationship and create a new possibility for actual harmony among varied peoples.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Heitmann, Owen. \u201cYang, Gene Luen. Boxers and Saints.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cGraphic take on yin and yang of rebellion\u201d The Australian: Australia, March 2014, 20.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> \u201cYin and Yang.\u201d Wikipedia. June 17, 2018. Accessed June 19, 2018. https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Yin_and_yang.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Blasingame, James. \u201cBoxers & Saints.\u201d English Journal, High school edition; Urbana\u00a0Vol\u00a0104, 2. Nov 2014, 106-108,112.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When looking at the cover of Boxers & Saints, one might think they are a two-part story of one person but upon closer inspection and, especially after diving into the text, the reader learns Boxers & Saints are two different people\u2019s perspective to the same story of China at the turn of the twentieth century. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1311],"class_list":["post-18285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-gene-luen-yang","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18285"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18285\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18286,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18285\/revisions\/18286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}