Timeline: 1900 - 1927

Boxer's Rebellion

European leaders dividing a pizza labeled China

“What shame, what shame! Our country is falling. Our country of 5000 years of great history is being invaded by foreign devils. What good have they done? They have taken our villages, our homes, to make a closed off area for themselves. They have tried to change our culture with their European ways and make us follow their alien religion. They come into our own country and tell us that what we believed for centuries was wrong. They have put our sons out of work by bringing in their machines. It seems like these foreign devils are taking one of our cities every single day with their unequal treaties. Son, join the Yi-Ho Tuan. Don’t you want to support your Chinese heritage?” My mother, disturbed by the European influence, had told me the same thing everyday. She tried to convince me to fight against the Europeans by joining the Yi-Ho Tuan.

Chinese Christian converts seeking refuge

Everybody knows about the Yi-Ho Tuan’s intents to destroy foreigners and Christians. Although I knew about the horrifying changes brought about by foreigners, I didn’t find it necessary to be violent against them. It wasn’t after the foreigners affected me personally that I began to feel the anger to revolt. Unfortunately, my own brother was pulled into their evil ways. Those missionaries converted him to follow the Christian religion. For some reason, he willingly left the beliefs, those that our father, our grandfather, our great-grandfather believed in, behind. He brought chaos and embarrassment into our family. My mother couldn’t believe that her own son had become one of them. She had told me one last time: “What are you going to do now? Are you going to fight to get your brother back?” It was then that I listened to her, I lost my brother to those devils and I decided that I was going to revenge.

Six-nation force in Beijing

A few months after joining the militia, I marched towards Taiyuan with the others of the Yi-Ho Tuan. We felt the same anger. We marched strong knowing that what we were doing was right. We marched strong keeping our slogan in mind. “Support the Dynasty, Destroy the Foreigners!” We went into Taiyuan doing just that, we destroyed foreign Christian missionaries. Following that massacre were many other attacks. As we attacked more and more foreigners, the European governments grew more and more furious. A six-nation force was assembled just to stop our massacres.

All of this that I think about has lead to this moment as I wait for my turn to be beheaded. Under the unforgiving sun, crowds and crowds of people stand around watching the execution. They have tied my body to a pole and my hands behind my back. I lift my head unafraid to encourage the crowd to stand for themselves as I have done. In moments I will leave this world but I am not afraid. I know that I have shown the other Chinese men that you can revolt.