boxer rebellion posted on Sunday, September 25, 2005
Their lives had long been a losing struggle against cycles of flood, drought, and famine. The arrival in China of increasing numbers of foreigners had only deepened their misery
Some foreigners came in pursuit of commerce, and the new technologies they brought with them - steamboats and locomotives, telegraph systems and mining equipment - not only offended the spirits of earth, water, and air but also robbed many chinese of their jobs
Often ignorant, dissmissive, or contemptuous of the native culture, they (christian missionaries) and their aggressive proselytising threatened the very fabric of chinese family and village life. The boxers despised their chinese converts as traitors, "rice christians" who had sold themselves for a square meal
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Their lives had long been a losing struggle against cycles of flood, drought, and famine. The arrival in China of increasing numbers of foreigners had only deepened their misery
Some foreigners came in pursuit of commerce, and the new technologies they brought with them - steamboats and locomotives, telegraph systems and mining equipment - not only offended the spirits of earth, water, and air but also robbed many chinese of their jobs
Often ignorant, dissmissive, or contemptuous of the native culture, they (christian missionaries) and their aggressive proselytising threatened the very fabric of chinese family and village life. The boxers despised their chinese converts as traitors, "rice christians" who had sold themselves for a square meal
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