Just in time for Holy Week
Monday when Myles proceeded to the next unit in his world history program, we were a little stunned to see it would be about the Boxer Rebellion. It was curious timing, given we had just observed Palm Sunday and were soon to arrive at Triduum. I've often said that there's something really special about Catholic Holy Week in China, and I sometimes wonder if that isn't because the Catholics here haven't taken anything for granted in their history.
It's something we talked about as we searched the Internet for old pictures of Beijing churches where we've been to Mass or services and compared them to ones we have taken ourselves. Like this picture of the church in Wangfujing, also known as Dongtang.
And these of the church in Xishiku, Beitang. Unlike other churches in Beijing at the time, it was not completely razed during the Siege of Beijing. Thousands took refuge inside the church which was defended by a small regiment of Italian and French soldiers.
More after the jump
In addition to our usual resources for this unit, we consulted Gene Luen Yang's recent graphic novel duology Boxers & Saints. I had read these in March and knew that I wanted to share some of it with Myles when we studied the Boxers. Myles isn't old enough to read the whole thing himself, since it is definitely young adult (mature) reading. But I was able to tease out a few parts from both books so Myles could read some different perspectives on the Boxer Rebellion.
For the purpose of what Myles was working on, I showed him parts of the stories about the main character Bao of Boxers, Four-girl/Vibiana from Saints, and the priest Father Bey who appears in both volumes. Fr. Bey, I thought, really showed how the local people could develop a poor impression of the foreign Christians. When we first meet Fr. Bey, it is early in Boxers. He shows up in Bao's village with some thugs that had caused some trouble there before, and in broken Chinese tells the villagers that he has come to help these thugs get justice for how they have been wronged. As he leaves the village, he grabs the town's ceramic god and smashes it, calling it devilry. This scene also appears in Saints as Four-girl witnesses it as well. In Saints, though, Yang gives a bit more of Fr. Bey's back story, as well as other characters filling in more details about how Fr. Bey became associated with the thugs and then parted ways with them. Yang doesn't make excuses for the tightly-wound priest, but shows that Fr. Bey was an idol smasher long before he was sent to mission work in China away from the decadent culture of his home diocese.
I have been wanting to blog more about Boxers & Saints because I have really appreciated what Yang and colorist Lark Pien have produced. They have created some historic fiction that challenges the reader to see multiple sides (nothing is even just two-sided!). This is probably why I was so ticked that when I went to buy the set from the Bookworm, someone had bought only the Boxers part and left Saints on the shelf. These books are best read together, so I ended up ordering a new box set through the shop.
So then, after reading them, I have struggled with how to blog about these books. There's already been quite a few profressional reviews out there that I certainly cannot add to. Anything truly meaningful I have to say reveals too much of the story that is best learned by the reader as Yang intended.
What comes across strongly from my read of Boxers, was how abused and manipulated Chinese peasants were by foreigners, wealthy Chinese people, and even (or is it especially) by the Empress Dowager. Poor Bao tries to rise above this, but he cannot forever escape being a pawn.
Saints also addresses powerlessness. Four-girl/Vibiana is born at a disadvantage--not only is she a girl, she is born on an unlucky day and saddled with a name that is a homonym for Death-girl because of her inauspicious birthday. Vibiana is her baptismal name (in Chinese we call this 圣名 Shèng míng). Her conversion to Catholicism does eventually deliver her from the mistreatment from her family (who, in addition to considering her unlucky, are upset about her baptism because of their own family history associated with the Taiping Rebellion), though not to the lofty heights she hoped. Even her visions of Joan of Arc don't seem to lead her to where she thinks she should be. However, there is an amazing moment for Four-Girl (and me as the reader) in the Saints volume when she says, "My name is Vibiana." Again, I don't want to spoil the books, but I may have been a little overwhelmed when I read it the first time.
I hoped that studying the Boxers early in Holy Week would put us in a proper frame of mind to appreciate how openly we celebrate our Catholic Holy Days in China. Every once in a while we need that reminder, I think. We can't take any of that for granted, that is for sure.
It's something we talked about as we searched the Internet for old pictures of Beijing churches where we've been to Mass or services and compared them to ones we have taken ourselves. Like this picture of the church in Wangfujing, also known as Dongtang.
And these of the church in Xishiku, Beitang. Unlike other churches in Beijing at the time, it was not completely razed during the Siege of Beijing. Thousands took refuge inside the church which was defended by a small regiment of Italian and French soldiers.
More after the jump
In addition to our usual resources for this unit, we consulted Gene Luen Yang's recent graphic novel duology Boxers & Saints. I had read these in March and knew that I wanted to share some of it with Myles when we studied the Boxers. Myles isn't old enough to read the whole thing himself, since it is definitely young adult (mature) reading. But I was able to tease out a few parts from both books so Myles could read some different perspectives on the Boxer Rebellion.
For the purpose of what Myles was working on, I showed him parts of the stories about the main character Bao of Boxers, Four-girl/Vibiana from Saints, and the priest Father Bey who appears in both volumes. Fr. Bey, I thought, really showed how the local people could develop a poor impression of the foreign Christians. When we first meet Fr. Bey, it is early in Boxers. He shows up in Bao's village with some thugs that had caused some trouble there before, and in broken Chinese tells the villagers that he has come to help these thugs get justice for how they have been wronged. As he leaves the village, he grabs the town's ceramic god and smashes it, calling it devilry. This scene also appears in Saints as Four-girl witnesses it as well. In Saints, though, Yang gives a bit more of Fr. Bey's back story, as well as other characters filling in more details about how Fr. Bey became associated with the thugs and then parted ways with them. Yang doesn't make excuses for the tightly-wound priest, but shows that Fr. Bey was an idol smasher long before he was sent to mission work in China away from the decadent culture of his home diocese.
I have been wanting to blog more about Boxers & Saints because I have really appreciated what Yang and colorist Lark Pien have produced. They have created some historic fiction that challenges the reader to see multiple sides (nothing is even just two-sided!). This is probably why I was so ticked that when I went to buy the set from the Bookworm, someone had bought only the Boxers part and left Saints on the shelf. These books are best read together, so I ended up ordering a new box set through the shop.
So then, after reading them, I have struggled with how to blog about these books. There's already been quite a few profressional reviews out there that I certainly cannot add to. Anything truly meaningful I have to say reveals too much of the story that is best learned by the reader as Yang intended.
What comes across strongly from my read of Boxers, was how abused and manipulated Chinese peasants were by foreigners, wealthy Chinese people, and even (or is it especially) by the Empress Dowager. Poor Bao tries to rise above this, but he cannot forever escape being a pawn.
Saints also addresses powerlessness. Four-girl/Vibiana is born at a disadvantage--not only is she a girl, she is born on an unlucky day and saddled with a name that is a homonym for Death-girl because of her inauspicious birthday. Vibiana is her baptismal name (in Chinese we call this 圣名 Shèng míng). Her conversion to Catholicism does eventually deliver her from the mistreatment from her family (who, in addition to considering her unlucky, are upset about her baptism because of their own family history associated with the Taiping Rebellion), though not to the lofty heights she hoped. Even her visions of Joan of Arc don't seem to lead her to where she thinks she should be. However, there is an amazing moment for Four-Girl (and me as the reader) in the Saints volume when she says, "My name is Vibiana." Again, I don't want to spoil the books, but I may have been a little overwhelmed when I read it the first time.
I hoped that studying the Boxers early in Holy Week would put us in a proper frame of mind to appreciate how openly we celebrate our Catholic Holy Days in China. Every once in a while we need that reminder, I think. We can't take any of that for granted, that is for sure.
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