Jocelyn Castillo

Gina Srmabekian
English 114B
Final Draft
It is often forgotten by people how a story came to be and who told the story in the first
place. The story tellers are often the people who won a battle in history, in which two or more
parties were fighting for power. Some stories may be told in the perspective of the people who
lost the fight, but more often dominant parties feel the need to share their accomplishments in
history. In the graphic novel Boxers and Saints Gene Luen Yang creates a two sided graphic
novel with magical elements that support the different types of Chinese religions, in order to
illustrate both sides of the Boxers Rebellion battle between the Catholic Chinese and point out
the reasoning behind their actions. The creation of a two sided novel helps the reader understand
the dominant group and the non- dominant group in a society where religion was the main source
of power. This also helps the reader notice that learning about both sides to a story is crucial to
defining the reasoning behind the conflict in the first place. In addition, the following two
articles Christianity in China by Kenneth Scott Latourette and The Boxer Rebellion by
Diana Preston help further break down the history behind the Boxer Rebellion and the spread of
Christianity.
In Boxers Yang writes about the story behind polytheistic community that serves an
idol by the name of Tu Di Gong. This side of this story mainly focuses on a group called
Righteous Harmonious Fists, who traveled the city fighting any foreigner in order to stop the
spread of Christianity. The magical element that these group of fighters believed they had to

perform a certain ritual before fighting in order for them to be immortal to weapons also that
each of the fighters was his own God and therefore had their own special powers and skills when
fighting. In the novel Chin Shih-huang states, It was I who created China! The nation is my
child. Her every achievement belongs to me. In this scene of the story, Lil Bao wakes up from a
nightmare in which the Chin Shih-huang was speaking to him about his duties to save China
from the foreigners. The language that the emperor uses decentralizes this religion and makes it
seem that this religion is the most important one, therefore he must maintain it and keep it in
power. This is important because although people get to express themselves with this type of
religion, they are not united as one, they are more individuals and on their own. In the article,
The Boxer Rebellion, Diana Preston states, robbed the Chinese of jobs. In other words,
aside from religion being the main source of factor for the increase of hatred against foreigners in
China, but the increase in population and the increase in competition was another factor. This is
important because the Boxers did not have that much of a greater reason to kill the foreigners
over which religion should be dominant, in addition, no religion should be claiming brutality or
death towards other people.
On the other hand, in Saints Yang illustrates the perspective of a monotheistic
community, in which the main character is a female under the name of Four-girl. In this religion,
Christians were not allowed to kill, and they were only allowed to serve for one God. The
magical element shown in this part of the graphic novel is Joan of Arc. She is portrayed as a
goddess like mentor for Four-girl to decide on who she should be, and what she should do with
her life. Four-girl became Christian due to the lack of equality and justice back at home. She was
mistreated and she was told she was a symbol of death, back at home, where her family was
polytheistic. Four- girls grandfather states, Four is a homonym of death This comes to

show that he was really religious because he believed the religious theories in order to define his
grandchild, before meeting her. In the article, Christianity in China, Kenneth Scott Latourette
states, Chinese objective is giving to as many Chinese the knowledge of the Christian
Gospel Such events like these are important for others to know about. One may not enjoy a
certain religion therefore they should have the option to change religions when they feel that is
the only way they will be satisfied. On the other hand, giving service to one God might give too
much authority to one subject, yet at the end of the day, those who are monotheistic come
together.
In Boxers and Saints, Gene Luen Yang creates two graphic novels in order to expose the
importance of the Boxer Rebellion and the spread of Christianity in China. He incorporates
magical elements such as the Joan of Arc and the multiple Gods that each character fighting in
Boxers represented. Each of these magical elements interpret each religion differently. Each side
of the religion has its reasoning to why they needed to fight for their religion to be the dominant
one. It is important for religious people to learn about other cultures and their reasoning to
worshipping a god before they go out and try to wipe out that population, because different
religions should come together and work together.