I tried to make him understandable, but not justified. Little Bao would probably be labeled a terrorist if he were real and alive today.

The Boxers have a lot in common with many of today's extremist movements in the Middle East. Little Bao, for example, is really a fanatic, but you give him depth and a believable inner struggle.Įarly on in my research, I was struck by the parallels between the Boxer Rebellion and current events. This is a work deeply concerned with compassion - it draws parallels between Jesus and Guan Yin, and on a more personal level almost everyone in it is complex and hard to dislike. From their point of view, the Catholic Church was honoring traitors to Chinese culture.' Shortly after the Vatican's announcement, the Chinese government issued a statement of protest. And when I looked to the world outside my Chinese American Catholic community, I realized that the canonizations were controversial. 'When I looked into the lives of the newly canonized, I learned that many of them were martyred during the Boxer Rebellion. My home church was incredibly excited, because this was the first time the Roman Catholic Church acknowledged Chinese citizens in this way,' he says. 'In 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized 120 saints of China, 87 of whom were ethnically Chinese. In an email interview, Yang says his Catholic upbringing inspired his interest in the Boxer Rebellion. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Boxers & Saints Author Gene Luen Yang

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