delanceyplace.com 3/10/08 - the boxer rebellion

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In today's excerpt - the Chinese 'Boxer Rebellion' of 1899 to 1901, which left tens of thousands dead and changed the lives of millions. Like similar movements today and throughout history, it was born as a reaction to stress and rapid societal change—in this case a violent reaction to the rapid industrialization and pervasive missionary work in China of the British, Germans and other Western powers:

"[It began as] an obscure peasant movement, spreading across northern China like wildfire. Its members shared the same potent and explosive creed—they were virulently anti-Christian, antimissionary, and antiforeign. Westerners called them simply 'Boxers' because of the physical exercises they practiced en masse. ... Heirs to a long tradition of sects and societies in northern China, they fused religion, theater, magic and martial arts in their rituals. ... Their most striking feature was mass spirit possession. The Spirit Boxers would call on their gods to possess them, going into a trance that became a frenzy as the god entered. ...

"It was in essence a loose coalition, spreading organically from village to village using the traditional grapevines of rural life. ... Boxers seemed to offer a lifeline to the poor and destitute of the countryside. They set up boxing grounds, often in temple precincts, where they drilled and these became the movement's focal points. Young men flocked 'to watch the excitement,' ... and stayed, mesmerized by the drama of mass ritual. ... The movement's meteoric rise was above all a heartfelt response to desperate and worsening conditions in northern China and an increasing sense of impotence. [They had] been hard hit economically by the increasing tide of foreign goods flooding into China, particularly foreign textiles. New foreign technology was also wreaking havoc. The steamboats and steam launches ... had put thousands of bargemen out of work, just as, railways were destroying the livelihood of camel-men, mule-drivers, chair bearers and innkeepers. ...

"Against this background, Boxer propaganda...flourished, whipping up popular hysteria. Such propaganda projected people's anxiety about the present and fears for the future onto the foreigners and their Christian converts [from among the Chinese], and demonized them both. ... In the worsening conditions, with large numbers of hungry, dispossessed and desperate refugees on the move, old grievances resurfaced with a frightening intensity. ... They believed that the [trains]—the 'iron centipedes' or 'fire carts'—were desecrating the land and disturbing the graves of their ancestors. ... Telegraph lines were similarly feared. Wind moaning through the high telegraph poles sounded like spirits in torment. ... Foreign owned mines, dug deep in search of mineral wealth, were a worse violation, disturbing the beneficial spirits of the Chinese earth. Bloodthirsty manifestos now promised: 'When we have slaughtered them all, we shall tear up the railways, cut down the telegraphs and then finish off by burning their steamboats.' "