Comic Book Review: Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang
Disclaimer: I received this boxed set as a Goodreads giveaway on the premise that I would review it.
Little Bao is a farm boy who loves the Chinese operas performed at the spring festivals every year. But one year a foreign devil, a missionary, appears and disrupts the festival, destroying the image of the Earth god that protects the village. Disaster follows soon thereafter, both for the village and for Bao’s family.
Bao comes to hate the Christian missionaries and their foreign backers, as well as the “secondary devils”, Chinese who have converted to the Christian faith. The government is in the pocket of the foreigners, but eventually Bao becomes part of a liberation movement, the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist.
Four-Girl is an unwanted child, a fourth daughter who is so unwelcomed by her own family that they don’t even give her an actual name. Called a “devil”, she resolves to become the best devil she can be–and this leads her to Christianity. In that community, she finds things she never had before: cookies, compassion, acceptance, and the ability to choose her own name (Vibiana) and purpose in life.
It’s too bad that the Boxers are going around killing all the Christians.
This pair of graphic novels by Gene Luen Yang, creator of American Born Chinese, are set during the Boxer Rebellion (primarily 1899-1901) and are reflections of each other. Both Bao and Vibiana find themselves unable to accept their circumstances, and rebel in different ways. These counterpart viewpoints cross over during their stories, showing that events have more than one interpretation, and the cruel ironies of incomplete information.
Bao and Vibiana also both have spiritual experiences, Bao channels Ch’in Shih-huang, the first Emperor of China, who turns out to be a very demanding ghost. Vibiana has visions of Joan of Arc, who encourages the young woman to seek her own path, but whose final fate foreshadows the ending of both stories.
As these books are fictional versions for the young adult audience, historical events have been simplified somewhat. to fit into the narrative. No side ends up the “good guys” however. The Harmonious Fist has high principles, but not everyone in their group keeps all of them, and even Bao finds himself committing atrocities. Father Bey, an antagonist in Boxers, is a more sympathetic character in Saints, but his judgmental nature and bluntness cause more than one bad outcome.
Trigger Warning: Bao’s brothers bully him initially, though they come to respect him later. Four-Girl goes through years of emotional abuse, ending in a cold-blooded act of physical abuse that drives Vibiana away from her family forever.
These graphic novels cover a period of history that most Westerners are likely unfamiliar with beyond a brief mention in World History or the Yellow Peril literature of the early Twentieth Century. They are best read back-to-back, and now come in a boxed set for that purpose. Parents should consider reading these with their young adults to discuss some of the more difficult subject matter, and checking out the Further Reading in the back which lists more scholarly looks at the history.
Overall: Very good, and well worth a look.
