28 November 2013 BOXERS AND SAINTS (two book graphic novel set) by Gene Luen Yang, First Second, October 2013, 512p., ISBN: 978-1-59643-698-3 

"Take control of your mind and meditate

Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all"

-- Black-Eyed Peas "Where is the Love?"

From BOXERS:

"And at night, we gather around the campfire to listen to Lu Pai tell his stories.

"'They're not even human, I tell you!  The foreign devils have no compassion, no shame!  They grind up people's eyeballs for medicine!'

"'Eech!'

"'All their power comes from female Yin!  How do you think  they were able to defeat the Imperial Army during the Opium Wars?  China's army used to be the manliest in all the world! 

"'Before going to war, their foot soldiers smear menstrual blood across their foreheads!'

"'Eew!'

"'Their officers drink goblets of it!'

"'AACK!'

"'What's "menstrual blood"?'

"'They fly flags woven from women's pubic hair over their churches!'

"'Disgusting!'"

While our main character (in BOXERS), Little Bao, acknowledges (to us) that these are outrageous (albeit entertaining) lies, there is no question that the insular nature of late-nineteenth century provincial China helped build up such outrageous lies into common knowledge.

From SAINTS:

"'As we speak, murderers prowl the land, looking to kill every Christian they encounter!'"

I'm sure that back in tenth grade (the 1970-71 school year), I must have read a sentence or two somewhere about the Boxer Rebellion.  But I plead total ignorance.  This was all new, great history learning for me.

On one hand, BOXERS AND SAINTS is such a powerful read due to our being privy to what, on one level, are two diametrically opposed perspectives: that of a young man who goes from being entranced by the heroics of Chinese opera characters to becoming a leader of the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (the Boxers); and that of a young woman who is not valued by her family but finds identity through Christianity.  What becomes so enlightening in this notable work of history storytelling is the profound ignorance that pervades both points of view.  There is nobody among our characters who actually gets the big picture.  The economic imperialism of the west created widespread pain and hardship.  The nationalist upwelling at the close of the nineteenth century was a logical reaction, but the tactics employed by the Boxers were so barbaric as to make themselves their own worst enemy.  The intolerant attitude of the Christians, behind whom were exploitive westerners, made them, too, their own worst enemy.  They were all a bunch of fools. 

(We don't run across the Buddhists in the middle of this violence.  They were the ones who, even back then, knew which way was up.)

The combination of great character development and the nature of a well-illustrated graphic novel (and this one is extremely well-illustrated) makes the frequent gore pretty intense.  You get to know somebody and a hundred pages later you see them with a sword coming out of their belly or a hole through their forehead.  I'm pretty sensitive and so it really had my skin crawling at times.

Today being Thanksgiving, what I am grateful for, in reaction to reading this extraordinary two-book set, is the Internet and all those millions of miles of fiber optic cable that now encircle the globe. 

Because while one can make a case that there will always be hatred and violence going on somewhere, there are billions more people around the globe (and more every day) who get to see for themselves what is going on in a world that keeps growing smaller and smaller thanks to those technologies.  There may always be hate-mongers and power-seekers trying to command our attention and support, but in today's world it is so much easier and more likely that we will come to see ourselves in the faces of those half a world away, will find the love in ourselves, and will push back against the hate.

Peace and love, y'all.

Richie Partington, MLIS
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