Boxers & Saints

Boxers & Saints #1-2

by Gene Luen Yang, Lark Pien (Inker)

Boxers & Saints Boxed Set Edition

One of the greatest comics storytellers alive brings all his formidable talents to bear in this astonishing new work.

In two volumes, Boxers & Saints tells two parallel stories. The first is of Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy whose village is abused and plundered by Westerners claiming the role of missionaries. Little Bao, inspired by visions of the Chinese gods, joins a violent uprising against the Western interlopers. Against all odds, their grass-roots rebellion is successful.
 
But in the second volume, Yang lays out the opposite side of the conflict. A girl whose village has no place for her is taken in by Christian missionaries and finds, for the first time, a home with them. As the Boxer Rebellion gains momentum, Vibiana must decide whether to abandon her Christian friends or to commit herself fully to Christianity.

Boxers & Saints is one of the most ambitious graphic novels First Second has ever published. It offers a penetrating insight into not only one of the most controversial episodes of modern Chinese history, but into the very core of our human nature. Gene Luen Yang is rightly called a master of the comics form, and this book will cement that reputation.
 
This boxed set includes the trade paperback Boxers as well as the trade paperback Saints, packaged together in one slipcase.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Historical Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, China, Historical

512 pages, Paperback

First published September 10, 2013

About the author

Gene Luen Yang writes, and sometimes draws, comic books and graphic novels. As the Library of Congress’ fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely. American Born Chinese, his first graphic novel from First Second Books, was a National Book Award finalist, as well as the winner of the Printz Award and an Eisner Award. His two-volume graphic novel Boxers & Saints won the L.A. Times Book Prize and was a National Book Award Finalist. His other works include Secret Coders (with Mike Holmes), The Shadow Hero (with Sonny Liew), Superman from DC Comics (with various artists), and the Avatar: The Last Airbender series from Dark Horse Comics (with Gurihiru). In 2016, he was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. His most recent books are Dragon Hoops from First Second Books and Superman Smashes the Klan from DC Comics.

Reviews

[First Second Books]

You guys, these books.

Gene's been working on them since he finished AMERICAN BORN CHINESE in 2006, and he's gone to China and gone to France (with the Jesuit missionaries) to do research about this historical period, and all the issues -- of faith and identity and nationalism -- are all tied up with his own personal beliefs, so in short:

These books are so powerful and moving and emotional and personal and really, really wonderful.

Also, since this is a review of the boxed set, let me note the excellent design by our designer, Colleen AF Venable! There's no type on the front or the back cover, just on the top and the spine. And the faces match up on the two books where they sit in the box!

It's wonderful!

[Seth T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve argued for a while now that one of the most prominent powers of literature is its ability to promote empathy—and this without the reader ever noticing what’s going on.

Among the greatest troubles when discussing faith and culture is that we all come from such different structures. I and you and everyone you know are by nature unable to project ourselves into experiences we have not had. The shorthand of this is that everything that feels foreign to me feels comfortable to someone else. And what feels cozy and warm to me feels wrongheaded to someone else. And we have a hard time seeing this kind of thing—because we begin in ourselves.

Forget for a moment that most of us in the U.S. are products of a culture that is superbly focused on individualism and the rightness of personal experience. Even without that formidable personal origin, our biological nature prompts this initial self-concern as well. The typical human experience is to perceive the world from behind the eyes and within the head. Proprioception gives us the sense that our thoughts and calculations and beliefs and rational self all exist within the geography of our skulls. Rather than five feet outside ourselves or in that tree over there or in this hand here or even, more romantically, in the space between you and me—rather than any of the thousands of possible places for the self to reside, the general experience is that the έγώ sits firmly and (usually) immovably a couple inches behind the eyes. From this starting place, the entirety of our unadulterated life experience is wholly our own. My life and all that it contains is my own alone. It is not yours and you can only guess at what it would be like to be me. And vice versa. The things others see and feel are alien to us. The only way for us to be someone else or feel as someone else is through the imagination—and even then, we’re still only ever us pretending at what it’s like to be someone else.


[She doesn’t even realize that raccoons don’t have tear ducts]

This is why it’s so hard to love other people, so hard to engage a true and honest compassion for those who are unlike us. With those who are a bit like us, we can short-circuit our lack of empathy by pretending the other person is us (or near enough). We can think that if they were us, they would want this or maybe that. For most of us, that’s what compassion or charity looks like. It’s doing to others as we would have them do unto us. A fine rule so far as it goes, but when the things that others want are not the things that we ourselves would want, guessing how to do good to them or for them becomes excruciatingly difficult enough that most of us don’t even bother. Hence wars and sexism and religious intolerance and human trafficking and nationalism and homophobia and racism and school rivalries. We who would hope to love fail to love because we simply don’t understand what love would require.

This is where literature comes in as one of the most powerful tools the world has yet devised. In literature, the reader doesn’t just escape their own troubles for the space of a book. In literature, the reader doesn’t merely learn new things about the location or period in which the novel occurs. In literature, the reader doesn’t just sift through new ideas and philosophies in carefully packaged trifles designed to thrill even while delivering pedagogy. In literature, the reader doesn’t simply take in some beautiful prose and carefully worded text. Any or all of those things may occur, but in every novel, readers are silently invited into something more wonderful than any of that.



In literature, the reader is smuggled behind the eyes and into the head of a person wholly different from themselves—and often, into the heads of several persons.[1] In literature, through a subtle mystery, we become other people while remaining ourselves. Our desires, interests, circumstances, personality, history, abilities, and beliefs are all altered. We are transformed temporarily. And as long as we can hold on to the memory of that experience, we can better relate to at least one kind of person who is not us. The more books we read and the more often, the better we will be able to relate to that which is alien to us. And the better we can relate, the better we can empathize. And the better we empathize, the better we may love—because empathy is the gateway to love and without it, your love will be hollow and ineffectual.

Gene Luen Yang’s Boxers & Saints is, by its nature and structure, a work deeply concerned with empathy. It bleeds the stuff.



When I was in school, we covered the Boxers and their rebellion at least every other year. I still remember the little paintings and illustrations that were used in our textbooks to pique our interest in the movement and its Western response. It may strain credulity, but if I told you I never once grew tired of hearing about the Boxers so often, would you for one minute believe me? You probably should. I never wearied of learning of either the Boxers’ efforts to overcome foreign influence nor of the bizarre names they chose for their movements. This is mostly because we never talked about them save to say, Yes there was a Boxer Rebellion around the turn of the century. Yes America sent a handful of soldiers to China. Yes there were probably other important details there, and Yes we won’t talk about them ever again unless it’s to mention the rebellion in passing and then dismiss it as unimportant.


[It’s good to have a slogan]

In introducing the historical events of the Boxer Rebellion, Paul A. Cohen describes a group exercise he takes his students through when approaching late imperial Chinese history. He requests they write down in a couple sentences their associations with the Boxers and the Taipings. He reports:[2]

The results of the quiz are remarkably consistent. Year in and year out, while a substantial majority of the students have at least a glimmer of information concerning the Boxers and are able to identify them as “anti-foreign” or a “rebellion” or a “revolution,” well over 90 percent have never heard of the Taipings.

While I myself had not heard of the Taipings (or more correctly, had not caught them in my memory when hearing of them), I’m surprised that Cohen reports that most students could tie the Boxers to an anti-foreign element. “Rebellion” is easy to account for since they were only ever referenced in my history class as the Boxer Rebellion. I didn’t know what or whom they were rebelling against. I didn’t even know who was doing the rebelling. Boxers? People who opposed boxing? What was clear was that there was a Boxer Rebellion. Everything else, at least in my two decades of education, was immersed in an impenetrable mist.

Yang’s book does this thing that I’ve found graphic novels particularly useful for. It educates seamlessly, easily. I love graphic novels that explore historical moments because they breathe life into those events in a way I haven’t discovered in any other medium. I was excited to finally be introduced to the Boxer Rebellion in a manner that hamstrung the abruptly curtailed style of history that my typically nationalistic education[3] reveled in. And right away, it expanded my understanding of the flow of world history in exciting directions.



Boxers & Saints is really two books[4], Boxers and Saints. Each represents a different facet of the generalized experience of the rebellion and the events (and kinds of events) that brought it about. Boxers relates the events through a young man who joins the Boxer movement in a leadership capacity after seeing a fantastic vision and follows him and his brothers as they seek to purge China of the influence of the “hairy ones,” the foreign imperialistic forces (notably found in the form of the Christian missionary movement, both Roman and Protestant sects).

(I wasn’t even aware of either the involvement of Christianity in China at the time nor in the prevalence of mystic vision amongst the Chinese people in that era. I’m always slightly more curious about works that involve the way the human condition is interpreted in light of the Mysterious, so discovering this pre-ignited my interest in Yang’s project.)

Saints takes on the perspective of a Chinese girl (and then young woman) who joins the church and experiences visions of the Maid of Orleans (or Joan, if you’re on familiar terms). Life becomes more tumultuous as she seeks to understand her calling—what she is meant for—and the countryside becomes increasingly hostile toward “foreign devils” and “secondary devils” (those Chinese who’ve converted to the foreign gods).


[Death to the stutterers]

The books each tell their own story (and are stand-alone to some degree) but intersect in crucial points and cannot be fully understood apart from each other. A person may read one or the other and feel satisfied in the story presented, but together they illuminate each other. This, interestingly, is a reflection on the reality of human existence itself. Living life wholly from my own view, I may gather a seemingly complete story of a life—of what it was to be me. But it’s only when one considers also the lives with which mine intersected—how theirs reflected on mine and how mine affected theirs—that anything approaching a true vantage of who I was can emerge. In taking the stories of Little Bao (Boxers) and Vibiana (Saints) on their own, we see a fraction of their realities. Yet taken together, the two figures come into fuller relief, a touch closer to their real selves.

Early on in Boxers, Little Bao sees Vibiana (then known as Four-Girl) and describes the moment as “meeting his future.” Despite how little their paths will cross in the books, at the point from which he narrates, Bao knows just how important their interactions have been. But since the powerful fruition of their relationship isn’t revealed until the final pages of Saints, it takes the reader exploring both books to make sense of what exactly happens with Boxers' lead. Further, Saints climaxes with a particular religious vision (Vibiana sees visions throughout the entirety of the book), the details of which seem mere artistic embellishment unless one has already gone through the final pages of Boxers.


[Since her previous name was Death-Girl
even a name like Vibiana is a step in the right direction]

The manner by which Yang weaves these two narratives together is wonderful. They at first feel simple and rather straightforward, solid but nothing spectacular. That is their deception and a mark of Yang’s gifts. The more I return to their pages, the more the complexity of Yang’s story unfolds. And not just in their cross-pollination, either. The books chart a careful course through the details of the history, drawing in events and figures in such a way that readers will feel comfortable that, though historical fiction and though likely a compression of timelines and events, this is for all its fictions a true story of the Boxer Rebellion.

And even as the books differ with respect to protagonists and perspectives, they vary in size and composition. Boxers is nearly twice as long as its companion, Saints. Lark Pien’s precise and judicious colouring tells different stories in each book. Little Bao’s rise to powerful figure within the movement and eventual fall as the rebellion is crushed[5] is a colourful affair—not the least because of the inclusion of the gods of the opera, who possess the Boxers, enabling them to fight with skills beyond mortal ken. There is still plenty of sepia dust in Bao’s story, but the skies are blue, the waters are blue, and fires rage red and gold. Vibiana’s story is sepia throughout. Mud skies, mud water, mud fire, and mud blood. The only exceptions are Vibiana’s mystic vision (which interrupts with striking clarity), Vibiana’s and Father Bey’s narration, and flames in the epilogue to Saints.[6] The reason for this is well-considered and really only unveils itself after the fact. There are other tricks to narration that play themselves out according to each book’s purpose, but it would be unfair to spoil them here.


[It’s okay mei-wen
We all go a little crazy in the midst of bloodbaths and massacres]

Yang’s art is brilliant for his task. His figures are simple and clean. His wide cast features a variety of looks and body types, and all are wrangled neatly into the stable his style maintains. He produces characters whose presence is cartoony but dignified. These are not figures meant to be laughed at,[7] but instead objects of interest and compassion. Yang is proposing a real world represented in spare lines and bold actions. And it works just as you’d expect if you previously read his American Born Chinese, in which he used a similar style. These books are beautiful and fully merit the careful production value of their publishing.


[This is like one of those Dude-Where’s-my-car moments
where you wake up out of a crazy trip to find you don’t quite know what you’ve done]

A couple days ago, my wife and I were discussing Boxers & Saints in relation to the non-fictional history book I was ready on the subject (to supplement this review). As well as commenting on how interesting Boxers & Saints is, she (a teacher) remarked on just how powerful a tool for teaching things like this could be. Graphic novels are uniquely digestible. They are able to present a full story in a vessel that can be consumed in a couple of hours, and then poured over in order to absorb further details.[8] Something like Boxers & Saints would not take the place of a history textbook, but would make a wonderful complement to that text. I spent forty years not knowing a thing about the rebellion, but after reading Yang’s books here, I found myself on Wikipedia discovering more—and then even checking out a whole book on the matter from the library. I imagine I would have behaved similarly in junior high, had this kind of thing been available.[9]

In Boxers & Saints, I find something beautiful that’s rather elusive in the bulk of religious works by religious folk. Boxers & Saints, while from the pen of a religious person (Yang is part of a Chinese Catholic community) and religious in nature (the books definitely work out of his faith structure), does not really feel like a religious work. Certainly we may acknowledge the parts in which Christian doctrine filters in and actually directs the books’ conclusion. And there are evidences of Yang’s personal eschatology at play, his sense of what becomes of the believer’s self after death. But the book plays so honestly with the faults and beliefs of its characters, Christian and pagan, that it just feels like an exercise in human observation—a riveting story of the condition of the species. Yang treats the Boxers with the same humanity with which he treats the saints. Part of this stems from his recognition of his own kind as fallible, a humility he describes in an interview with Wired from last January:

“The more I read about the Boxer Rebellion, the more conflicted I felt. Who were the protagonists here? Who was more deserving of our sympathy? The Boxers or their Chinese Christian victims? In many ways, the Boxer Rebellion embodies a conflict that some Asian and Asian American Christians struggle with, a conflict between our Eastern cultural heritage and our Western faith”

[My advice: when Jesus is telling you a story, you don’t rush him]

To this end, Yang has intentionally created a work designed to interact with our sense of self by pushing us to understand the human story from multiple vantage points. We are ourselves. Simultaneously, we become Vibiana, who struggles to find balance between her heritage in a nation that despises her and a new heritage that proposes she sacrifice everything for the good of a new and heavenly nation. Simultaneously, we become Little Bao, who sees Christians and their foreignness as a very real threat to the goodness and sanctity of Chinese life. Simultaneously, we become Father Bey, a hardened priest whose frustration with the besetting sins of all who surround him drive him to feel betrayal at every turn. Simultaneously, we become Mei-wen, a woman who straddles the line between warrior-maiden and goddess of mercy and compassion. We are made victims and victors and victims again. Yang offers us a wealth of opportunities to see through eyes unclouded by hate. In a vision, the crucified Christ admonishes Vibiana to be mindful of others as he is of her. By proposing so many windows into so many souls, Yang fulfills his own Lord’s will somewhat, giving the reader the chance to inhabit the souls of others and learn to be mindful of them—a practice run for carrying the conviction into real life.
_______

[Review courtesy of Good Ok Bad.]
_______

Footnotes
1) Usually, at the least, the reader takes in the life, perspectives, and interests of the protagonist and the author. In most cases, these are somehow similar but in some ways strikingly different.

2) From Paul A. Cohen’s History in Three Keys: The Boxers as Event, Experience, and Myth , p. 14. Yang recommends Cohen’s book (among others) in a helpful section labeled “Further Reading” in the books’ backmatter.

3) If a nation seeks to promote its own ends (and why wouldn’t it?) in education, its courses on history are … [Goodreads cuts my footnotes off here. Please go to Good Ok Bad to read full review]

[Melania 🍒]

3.75|5 || Read Harder Challenge 2018 - A Comic Written or Illustrated by a Person of Color ||

[Agnė · Rating 3 out of 5]

WHAT IS IT ABOUT?

Gene Luen Yang’s “Boxers & Saints” is a two-volume graphic novel about The Boxer Rebellion in China at the turn of the 20th century. Although each book can be read as standalone, they work best as a set because they tell parallel stories of two Chinese bumpkins caught up on opposite sides of the same war.

The first volume, “Boxers,” follows Little Bao, a poor Chinese village boy who grows up witnessing foreign soldiers and missionaries bully, rob and kill Chinese peasants. With the help of ancient Chinese gods, Bao starts a rebellion in order to rid China of “foreign devils” and their allies “secondary devils,” Chinese converts to Christianity. The second book, “Saints,” tells a story of Four-Girl, a poor Chinese village girl who feels unwanted and unloved by her family. Unexpectedly, Four-Girl finds refuge among Chinese Christians and, guided by the spirit of French heroine Joan of Arc, becomes Christian herself.

THUMBS UP:

1) Aim high, score high.
Although Yang’s project is very ambitious, it is executed flawlessly. The story is thoroughly researched and carefully thought-out, the presentation is impressively creative, the artwork is, as always, superb, and the characters are multidimensional and relatable.

2) Entertaining and educational.
“Boxers & Saints” is both an engaging magical realism story and a thought provoking interpretation of the motives behind a significant historical event, The Boxer Rebellion (which I knew nothing about!).

3) Perfect format.
Yang’s decision to divide this original story into two parallel stories is ingenious. By telling two different sides of the same story the author allows the reader to understand the war and its motives from the opposing perspectives. But more importantly, such division enables the author to remain objective because there is no need to favor, judge or justify either side. And in this case it is the author’s objectivity that makes the whole story so powerful.

VERDICT: 3.5 out of 5

Gene Luen Yang’s “Boxers & Saints” is a unique look at a significant event in the history of China - The Boxer Rebellion - as it is seen from two opposing camps. Such a serious topic together with the author’s creativity, talent and effort put into researching results in a very appealing sort of read: both entertaining and educational.

POST SCRIPTUM:

Although I found Gene Luen Yang’s “Boxers & Saints” entertaining and thought provoking, it is also quite violent and dark, and thus, I personally prefer his earlier graphic novel “American Born Chinese,” which is much more uplifting and hilarious.

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jen Ambrose's discussion both introduced me to these books and got me interested. Then I saw that other much trusted readers (the Hodges) were all on board and that got me really, really interested. These are graphic novels which I would have sworn is a medium I do not enjoy, until I got these from the library and simply could not put them down.

Boxers & Saints tells two parallel stories. Boxers is about Little Bao, a Chinese peasant boy whose family and village are abused by Westerners who are missionaries. Inspired by visions of the gods, he joins a grass roots uprising to cast out the foreigners. I never knew the history of the Boxer rebellion before and this was a fascinating way to learn it. The nuanced story does not give all good or bad attributes to one side but it does allow us to understand the motivations behind the rebellion in a fairly personal way.

Saints tells the story from the opposite side. It is about Four-Girl who is so unloved by her grandfather that he didn't allow her to be given a name. Visions of Joan of Arc lead her to Christian missionaries and ultimately her destiny as the Boxer Rebellion sweeps over everyone associated with the foreigners. I loved Gene Yang's clear vision of the girl's reasons for being attracted to the faith. They are hilarious and understandable, as are the reactions of the missionaries who take her in. No slack is cut to those who think they know what is going on but never ask questions.

These books impressed me because of Yang's honest insights into human nature, motivations, and the way we can get sidetracked when we don't understand our own motivations.

Highly recommended.

[Nicole · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-executed project, to be sure.

My girlfriend asked, "WHY are you reading this?" and my answers were all rather esoteric and academic. Because it's a great project, because he does such a good job of framing the story and cultivating the Turn of the Page, because it's smart and savvy and clearly well planned.

She was not impressed.

I don't love these books, but I respect the hell out of them. GLY has some brilliant spreads (see page 173 of Boxers) and his research and story-telling prowess are admirable. I enjoyed the predictable hero quest folk tale-siness (not a word) of Boxers far more than the religiously infused Saints. Though the spunkiness and "F you" attitude of Vibiana was good fun.

Pick them up, read them, and then discuss them in your best pretentious, literary criticism, academic over the top "but the graphic novel is such an underrated GENRE" voice. That's what I intend to do.

[da AL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stunning presentation, brings new layer to important history

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

The amount of historical research necessary for this two-book set to succeed is impressive enough to make the read worthwhile, especially since the Boxer Rebellion has always been such a complex event to understand as a Westerner. And the final revelation is pretty incredible as well in regard to religious imagery, but I won't spoil it for readers.

However, Yang didn't explore the nuance of each side -- Boxers and Saints -- as much as I would have liked. The Boxers seem motivated by misunderstandings and myths about Christians, instead of the very real imperialistic violence and greed that permeated many of the white foreigners and even some missionaries in China the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Similarly, Four Girl's motives for turning to Christianity seem underdeveloped, though I do like how Yang used her quest for identity, belonging, and economic stability in describing her desire for community and purpose.

Overall, the book contained a lot of violence, and I would have liked more character development instead. Perhaps I've read too much Pearl Buck and have some to expect a more nuanced approach to Chinese history. Thus, while I definitely have a clearer understanding of this conflict, I don't have as deep an understanding about individual motives to join warring factions as I get when I read Buck's novels on the topic. Still, Yang is a clever writer and a brilliant artist, so I'm glad I read Boxers & Saints.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like many other readers, I had little knowledge of the Boxer Rebellion before reading these books. Yang has taken an important event in Chinese history and personalized it through the stories of two young people. Young Bao, who is influenced by the heroes of Chinese opera, chooses to join the Boxers who want to free China from the influence of foreigners. VIbiana becomes Christian, joining a community that offers her love and acceptance she never found in her family. IN slightly different circumstances, their stories could have been reversed.

The two-book format gives the viewpoint of both “Boxers” and “Saints.” (I was somewhat appalled that my library system sends the books out separately, because they make the most sense when read together.) Little Bao and Vibiana both die in the struggle and young readers will be challenged to think whether their deaths had meaning given the outcome of the rebellion.

Yang’s vibrant art and graphic style will draw in a wide variety of readers, some of whom will be changed by reading these books and realizing that high ideals aren’t always so easily categorized as “right” or “wrong.”

[Kim Lockhart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was more emotionally affecting than I expected. Through showing both sides of The Boxer Rebellion, the author does a very good job of presenting how perspective and circumstances are perhaps more important than our ironclad sacrosanct values.

People can be selfish and self-serving, but that should not deter us from trying to do what is right by others, rather than focusing only on how we think we are right. Caring for each other, having generosity and compassion, is always right. Most of the people in this story never learn this.

[Washington Post · Rating 5 out of 5]

The two books in this set are marvelously crafted. “Boxers” begins like the kind of legend the rebels might have told themselves, with its scrawny young hero seeking out the magical Master Big Belly to earn his sword, then conjuring up visions of gods as he single-handedly slaughters a cohort of imperial troops. Likewise, “Saints” (colored in sepia tones, aside from a handful of religious visions) has the tone of a fable at first, as the girl who will become Vibiana is advised by a raccoon on how to become a “devil.”

Yang’s bold, lucid artwork emphasizes that his characters see themselves and the world in clear-cut, cartoonish terms of good and evil, which makes it doubly shocking when their ideologies lead them into moral disasters and their visions of glory give way to meaningless carnage.

Read our review: http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...

[Naren · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Boxers first, and I really really liked it until he started killing the christians. He does it without explaining why he feel obligated to do it, and it feels very wrong. This guy is supposed to be the protagonist, we're supposed to like him!

Saints goes a similar way, I almost liked the main character, but she makes bad choices as well. Hers are justified a little more though.

Visually I liked these books a lot though. Their facial expression looked a little fake, but it was really good otherwise. I liked the colours a lot, especially in Saints.

The world building was also really nice. But the protagonists are evil, which didn't make me like this book very much.

[H.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've written, deleted, rewritten, and redeleted my previous attempts at reviewing this, out of disappointment that I can't give this the eloquent praise it deserves instead of my gut reaction: Holy shit, this is so good. Gene Luen Yang is a graphic novel maestro. He orchestrates his dual-perspective retelling of the 1899 Boxer Rebellion in China with nuance and depth without backing away from its horrors. It's as ambitious as it is original, and as brilliant as it is unforgettable.

[Rosamund Hodge]

THIS IS SO GOOD I CAN'T EVEN.

[Forrest · Rating 5 out of 5]

** See the original review as posted on Newsarama on Sep.11, 2013 here:
http://www.newsarama.com/18898-best-s...

I'm going to go on a limb and guess the majority of Western readers aren't terribly familiar with the Boxer Rebellion, which took place at the turn of the 20th Century in China. Yet, this is where award-winning creator Gene Luen Yang sets his sights for his two-part original graphic novel set, Boxers and Saints, which tells two stories: The first book - Boxers - tells the story of a young boy who becomes the rebellion's leader while the second - Saints - focuses on a young girl struggling with both faith and self-acceptance. Although Yang's book takes on a true-to-life historical event, he demonstrates his ability to masterfully weave fiction into facts that results in what is arguably his most ambitious work in comics to date.

The first book, Boxers, constitutes the bulk of the two-part narrative as it explores China from the perspective of young Bao – the young Chinese adolescent who finds himself leading the resistance against the colonizing Western powers. It is a powerful story of a young dreamer finding himself the agent of the traditional gods of his people as they seek to wipe the ever-spreading influence of the European and American powers in their homeland through the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist. Or perhaps, one it is a case of the reader simply experiencing the hopes and desires of the people embodied in the imagined Chinese pantheon. Regardless of how one interprets it, Yang deftly blends historical fact with elements of traditional Chinese lore to elevate this rebellion to a near epic level. Not only does Boxers readily lend itself to postcolonial readings of the ways Western powers have historical victimized the people whom they have conquered, but it also opens itself to a larger discussion on the nature of national heroes and the ways their true identities can be romanticized. While Bao finds himself at the center of ballads being sung in his and the Society's honor, the book shows that there are steep costs to pay for being a hero in the eyes of one's people and only a select few are truly willing to pay this pirce. And this notion carries forward into the second part and the conclusion of the work as a whole.

In Saints, Yang shifts the perspective to a different narrator in order to provide an additional layer of depth to the grand narrative he is telling. In this second book, readers hear from Four-Girl – a young girl from the same village as Bao – who relates her experience of living in the Beijing providence during the time of the Boxer Rebellion. She is never given a name as being the fourth-born was an omen of death in traditional Chinese culture, and her grandfather did not expect the young girl to survive past her infant years. Although she does go on to survive, she is never given a name and the psychological impact of this failure to be named drives her character's actions until the book's end. Where she found only rejection from her family's Chinese culture, Four-Girl finds acceptance from the rapidly spreading Christian culture brought to China during the European-American colonization of China – the very catalyst that gave rise to the formation of the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist. Her story then becomes one that stands in contrast to that of Bao – instead of finding her identity from within her own culture like Bao, Four-Girl creates herself anew through adopting the foreign culture of the Christian missionaries. Yang makes a few really interesting decision, however, in the way he presents this conflict. First, Christianity itself is never presented from a singular perspective. Instead, readers get different depictions of what Christianity means to Four-Girl, to her family – and by extension, traditional Chinese culture – as well as other Chinese Christians, all of whom perform Christianity in ways somewhat different from one another. Some use it as a means of aligning themselves with the European powers in order to gain material and political benefits; on the other hand, there are some who appear to understand and believe in the religious precepts of the faith. Four-Girl, however, sees it as an available means of breaking away from the culture, which previously rejected her, and finds a new identity with a name of her own: Vibiana. Although she never truly seems to grasp the Christian faith as seen in her awkward, and at times, disinterested response to her teachers, it is in the legend of Joan of Arc that she finds her patron saint whom she models herself after amidst a similar period of cultural conflict.

Artistically, Boxers and Saints both share the same visual aesthetic that marks Gene Luen Yang's body of work: Clean, cartoon-inspired line work that is both enjoyable to take in while still proving capable of conveying the emotional weight of his story. With this work in particular, Yang manages to strike a balance in his depiction of violence to underscore the life-and-death nature of this conflict and the costs of standing up for what one believes in along with keeping the focus on the characters and the story – not on glorifying the fighting and resulting deaths of those involved. In Boxers, Yang's means of representing the fighting spirit of the Chinese people through the deific possession that takes place is something that works incredibly well in the comics medium that might have otherwise been lost in other mediums and serves as one example (of many) of his skill as a comic creator. I also found his judicious use of colors in Saints to be highly effective as he employs a muted palette for the entire book with the exception of those scenes in which Christian icons appear as seen when either Joan or Christ appears before her. Given that these are the moments that are arguably the most influential in forming her notions of self, the coloring provides an important means of cueing readers in to not only their otherworldliness but also their significance to Vibiana.

Yang's two narratives complement each other as they provide readers with dual views on many of the same events. While it might initially seem to make sense for these two parts to have been published together, I argue the emotional impact at the end of Saints is preserved through keeping both parts separate and distinct. From tackling issues related to Western colonization abroad to exploring the theme behind Polonius' oft-quoted "To thine own's self be true," Yang's grand narrative is epic in its scope and yet careful in the treatment of its characters as nuanced individuals and not two-dimensional pawns used to move the greater plot forward. Boxers and Saints is truly a creative and thoughtful re-imagining based on historical events that, while having taken place over 100 years ago, still contains lessons present day readers will find all-too-relevant given the inter-connectedness of today's global community. American Born Chinese is the original graphic novel that put Yang on the map and rightly earned him much critical praise and awards; however, I would argue that with Boxers and Saints, he delivers a story that is both deeply personal and global in its concerns setting an even higher mark for any of his past works.

[Alex E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two stories that weave around each other, Boxers and Saints presents to us the perspectives of each side within the Boxer rebellion, and the motivations for those on either side.

I'm always pleasantly surprised when I read something that is generally considered all ages, but then goes above and beyond that label to present a fully realized and dynamic book such as this. Gene Luen Yang doesn't pull any punches simply because his audience may be younger. He sacrifices none of the emotional impact in order to give us this highly entertaining and historically fascinating tale.

The first book has to do with Bao, who is considered little and not really worthy of the attention of his big brothers or father. However he goes on a journey to master Kung Fu and lead the boxer rebellion's against the "foreign devils"- Western Christians, who are settling in their land and converting the people to Christianity. He bands together with the other men of his village and forms the Righteous and Harmonious Fists, who roam the land of China, freeing their country men from foreign devils wherever they go. They are empowered by the belief, or in the comics case, the literal power that ancient spirits inhabit their body and render them powerful and nearly invulnerable. After gathering strength and amassing an army, their final battle is in Peking, where the rebellion ends.

The second book has to do with a young girl named Vibiana, who converts to Christianity if only to escape her family's oppressive view of her, and for the snacks really. She's the type of person who is swept away by life, and not really trying to take control of life. She jumps at opportunities that arrive and is a bit impulsive. This leads her to eventually moving to Peking, where she is present when the Righteous and Harmonious Fists attack, and we see how the two storylines converge.

I did find the ending a bit strange as it felt like Yang gives us an epilogue that I think was supposed to feel hopeful, but to me it felt like a definite down note. I don't want to spoil it, but suffice to say that someone betrays their ideals in order to save their life. It's a thought provoking ending to say the least.

I would highly recommend this for fans of history and really anyone who enjoys good storytelling.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably one of the best graphic novels I've read, Boxers & Saints (two volumes, which can be bought separately or together) probably ranks with Maus as one of the bleakest. A fictionalised account of the rise of the Boxer Rebellion (with fantastic elements added) it tells the dual stories of Little Bao and Four-Girl, two protagonists on different sides of the conflict. Birthed out of author Gene Luen Yang's conflicted feelings about this complicated historical event, it is basically two separate stories that intertwine slightly at pivotal moments.

Little Bao comes from a loving traditional Chinese family. He grows up in a loving home and enjoys life in his village. But things are not well in China. Fallout from the Opium Wars with Britain have weakened the Imperial regime and bands of foreign soldiers, exempted from local laws, wreak havoc on the lives of the poor. The soldiers ostensibly protect the Christian missionaries and their Chinese converts from attacks, but mostly treat the Chinese as inferiors. After a missionary, Father Bey, destroy their village god (after standing up for a thief) Bao's father is attacked by soldiers who beat him to a pulp, causing brain damage. The attack devastates Bao, who mourns that his father is now only a shadow of his old self. But after training with a traveling warrior named Red Lantern and receiving instruction from a mystical man on top of a mountain, Bao finds himself wielding powers which he plans to use on the "foreign devils" who brought nothing but grief to him and his village. The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, as they call themselves, live by a set of moral codes, but as they march towards Nanjing Bao finds himself systematically betraying these codes more and more, particularly as he is visited by the spirit of a god in black, who tells him that the only way to save China is to commit more and more acts of cruelty.

If Little Bao's story is more epic in scope, Four Girl's story is more intimate and psychological, and more difficult to summarize without skipping the border into spoiler territory. As the fourth child, born on the fourth day of the fourth month, she is seen as an omen of ill news by her superstitious family, particularly her grandfather, who refuses to give her a proper name. In the end she is only referred to, dehumanisingly, as Four Girl by everyone, including her mother. Four Girl receives little love from anyone and is mentally (and sometimes physically) abused by her grandfather, who refers to her as a devil. After being taken to an acupuncturist, who is a Christian, she finds herself drawn to the religion of the "foreign devils" as she finds thing in their community that she never had; love, acceptance and even an actual name, though her reasons for joining it may not have been pure. She meets Father Bey, the priest whom Bao blames for so many ills, who becomes a surrogate grandfather to her. He's not a cruel or heartless man and shows great compassion, but he is also extremely prickly, to the point where you could reasonably refer to him as a jerk. But as the Boxer Rebellion begins to rage Four Girl begins to have visions of Joan of Arc and believes she, like Joan, must protect her fellow Christians from the Boxers.

An important thing to understand about Boxers & Saints is that its not entirely historically accurate. If you truly want to understand the complexities of the conflict then this is not the best work to look for it. Even if Bao is the fictional originator of the Boxer movement we see that he is young and uneducated, and it is hinted towards the end that he and his followers have become pawns in Imperial schemes to get the foreigners out of China. Similarly, you get the implication that the Christians in China, both foreign-born and domestic, are used as pawns to destabilise China to make it easier to exploit. These ideas are never explored fully, though it makes sense as the focus tends to stay around the main cast, limiting one sense of the greater scope.

Though the characters are relatively simple the themes that both books share are rich, complex and will haunt you for days afterwards. Bao's journey from a naive hero to a warlord is horrifying, while Four Girl's devastating story reminded me of Shusaku Endo's Silence, which has similar themes, though the latter explores them in more detail. In the end, though both stories are very good, the Saint's story touched me the most and has probably the strongest elements, though my only beef with it is that it's the shorter tale of the two. This is the first work by Gene Luen Yang and look forward to reading his other graphic novels.

[CrystalIsReading on StoryGraph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Technically I read two separate volumes, but I can't imagine reviewing these stories separately. They were two beautiful, tragic halves of one whole story. Gene Luen Yang is a master at his craft, and this books tugged me into the stories of Bao and Vibiana, as they came to identify with separate sides of the Boxer Rebellion in China. I'd not learned much about this part of world history in school or in college, so only recently did I start to understand even a part of what was going on with the Boxer Rebellion. The complex issues. The horrible colonial abuses, especially as they were interwoven with Christianity, a religion that should be without national loyalties. and how people on both sides could think that they were doing right and serving God/(s) with their often horrific actions. This book was a great primer on history that is shamefully unknown to me.
the author's "magical realism" didn't detract from the stories--if anything, Bao's visions of the ancient Chinese gods and kings and Vibiana's visions of Joan of Arc made the story more real. more passionate.
At the heart, these are tragic stories of a tragic time, but beautifully written and rendered, nonetheless, and incredibly educational, for such short books. They're probably too tragic to go on my read-and-reread shelf, but they do inspire me to seek out more works by Gene Luen Yang and more information on China and colonialism and the Boxer Rebellion. If you even THINK that you might enjoy these books, do yourself a favor and pick them up.

[Jessica · Rating 5 out of 5]

These were great comics. I sort of wish the two volumes weren't separated, as they make so much more sense when taken as a whole. I would recommend this box set over the volumes separately. I rather wish they didn't come separately at all. I received these books through Netgalley.

In Boxers, Little Bao is a peasant boy whose village is plundered by Western "missionaries". He joins a group fighting against the Westerners, but eventually splits off to form his own rebellion.
In Saints, a young girl who doesn't have a real place (or even a real name! They call her four-girl as she was fourth born) in her family or village leaves to travel with a Christian missionary. With the Christians, she gains some purpose and a name, Vibiana.
While neither character has a completely happy story, it's easy to understand both sides completely. Vibiana and Little Bao are both well developed and rounded, and they drew me into the story. Their decisions make sense in their particular situations, even despite their similarities. I particularly liked the way the stories twined together in small ways. I didn't know anything about the Boxer Rebellion before reading these books, and I feel they are a good introduction to the topic for anyone from middle school through adult. The whole conflict is made understandable and easy to relate to in a way I have rarely identified with historical events.

[Ben Gresik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew nothing about the Boxer Rebellion before reading these books. Now I know slightly more than nothing, and am also aware that the story has nuance to it that I might not otherwise have been aware of. I'm interested to learn more.

I also enjoyed the storytelling in this book. The way it makes use of parallel stories from different characters encouraged me to consider where they might be meeting up while reading the first volume and then seeing the reveal in the second.

[Sooraya Evans · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertaining.
Loved the simple art style and how the two separate tales are tied together.
However, I thought the Boxers segment was a lot better than the Saints.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first exposure to the graphic novels of Gene Luen Yang was American Born Chinese which I enjoyed very much. As I usually do when I find an interesting author, I checked out his other books and Boxers & Saints sounded very interesting. And, lo and behold, it was.

Boxers and Saints is two intertwined stories told in separate graphic novels. It's historical fiction based on the Boxer rebellion which took place in China in 1900. I remember a movie I saw when I was just a kid, 55 Days in Peking, which dealt with the siege of Peking by the Boxers. It was very exciting as a young boy. Anyway, this story is told by two Chinese, Little Bau, a young man who leads a group of Boxers to try and take back his country from foreign intruders and also Four-Girl, a young girl trying to find out who she is, eventually becoming a Christian.

Both of these young people live in the same village but don't really interact. Bao sees Four-Girl (so named because she was the 4th daughter and grandfather decided not to give her a proper name. When she becomes a baptized Christian, she is named Vibriana) one day at the market. Four-Girl is trying to be a demon (she's always in trouble) and is freezing her face, like an opera mask, so that's how Bao remembers her.

Bao, after a series of events leave his father injured and damaged from an attack by Christian Chinese, wants to learn how to fight back and learns how to use a sword. Gradually he gathers a group of other young men, including his brothers and they begin to wander the countryside saving villages from Christians who are exacting tribute. They begin a journey to Peking where they hope to throw out the foreigners who live in their own enclave within Peking.

In the other book, we follow Four-Girl who wants to discover herself. She begins taking lessons from a nearby acupuncturist who is also a Christian. Even though she finds his teaching quite boring, she does like the cookies she gets from his wife. When she is beaten by her grandfather, she decides to follow a Christian priest to learn more about how to become a Christian and she moves to another walled town that is run as an orphanage. She will later meet Bao again when his followers attack the settlement on their way to Peking.

There is so much more to this story. Each main character is guided by mystic spirits; Bao by the ghost of one of the first Emperors of China. In fact when his followers begin an attack they go through a mystical process that changes them into various Chinese gods who help them attack. Four-Girl sees visions of Joan of Arc and tries to follow her. Neither of these mystical spirits is perfect with their guidance and it's questionable how much they actually help the two.

It's a very strong story. Treatment of women and girls is harsh. It's an all around harsh life for the Chinese peasants, in fact. The foreigners abuse them. Neither Bao nor Four-Girl are perfect either. The story covers their flaws very well and each of their quests to discover who they are and their purpose one of the main aspects of the two stories. It's gritty, violent and very strong. But it's a very interesting story which gives you some insight, maybe, into the Boxer Rebellion itself an also of a portion of Chinese history from that period. It's powerfully written, beautifully drawn and colored and just a real page turner. (4.0 stars)

[Aspasia · Rating 4 out of 5]

**This originally appeared on a Historical Fiction for Youth discussion board for my Children's Literature class**

The main theme between Boxers and Saints is parallelism. The first and obvious sign of parallelism is the simultaneous release of both volumes and their corresponding artwork:

Each cover features the protagonist accompanied by his or her supernatural mentor. Our protagonists are teenagers who have experienced various kinds of tragedy: Four-Girl/Vibiana is the victim of domestic violence by her grandfather, uncle, and cousin. Bao watched his father never fully recover mentally from a physical beating. Both Bao and Four-Girl are warned about the “foreign devils” by an elder:
“Daughter, we Chinese are not meant for the foreign devils’ religion. Their beliefs will poison your mind and destroy your spirit” (Saints, Yang, 2013, p. 74).
[Master Big Belly to Bao]: “Those devils have no respect for our ways. They blemish our skies with smoke and build metal railroads across our dragon lines. They incite the land’s anger” (Boxers, Yang, 2013, p. 85).

Four-Girl’s conversion to Christianity was a slow process; her visits to the local Catholic priest were a way for her to eat more snacks, avoid her chores, and escape her abusive family. When she announces her conversion, her family’s violent reaction forces her to leave the only home she’s ever known. Bao’s “conversion” to the mercenary lifestyle occurs after watching his fellow countrymen and women suffer from the greed of the foreigners and their Chinese converts (referred to as secondary devils). Four-Girl is assisted on her journey of self-discovery through visions of Joan of Arc; Bao’s warrior journey is encouraged through rituals and dreams of Chinese opera gods.

While these two volumes and plots shared many characteristics, an interwoven plot, and tragic endings, there a few slight differences between the two texts. Saints starts off on a negative tone and the panel colors are muted, almost sepia tone like vintage photographs. Boxers starts off on a positive note (springtime and spring festivals) and the all the panels are full color illustrations. (Any thoughts or theories on why the difference in coloring between the two books?). The sections in Saints are divided by Four-Girl’s age while the sections in Boxers are divided up geographical location and year. I believe that Yang created and released these two volumes simultaneously to show young readers that there are two sides to every story- even in war. The Christian missionaries and their disciples thought they were fulfilling God’s work converting the Chinese to Christianity and taking care of orphans. The non-Christian Chinese viewed their converted countrymen as traitors to the glory of China, and thought the missionaries were greedy, rude, and disgusting. It probably didn’t help that every time Bao met a foreigner, that foreigner was committing some kind of anthropological no-no (smashing idols, taking food without asking, practicing bodily harm on another human being, etc.).

While I was reading Boxers and Saints this week, my 10-yeard old son saw these books and took one while I was reading it and ended up reading both. He loves to read graphic novels but my husband and I got a chuckle that I had to wait for my turn to read a book for my class (Hubby turned to me and said, “I had a feeling this would happen at some point during this class). My son reads below grade level so we encourage him to practice reading as much as possible. Thankfully, these graphic novels aren’t too violent and the few sexual innuendos went over his head. When he was done, reading them, I asked him what he thought of them: “They were crazy. Just crazy.”

After my son’s remark I decided to look for children’s books on the Boxer Rebellion, to supplement the graphic novel. And I found very little children’s books on this subject. Publishers and historians- you need to get on to this! A search through the PINES catalog (the statewide online catalog for public libraries in Georgia) found these titles:

Fifty-five days of terror: the story of the Boxer Rebellion by Burt Hirschfield (published in 1964)
The Boxer Rebellion: anti-foreign terror seizes China, 1900 by Irving Werstein (published in 1971)

Recommended Readalikes:
Persepolis, Volumes 1 &2 by Marjane Satrapi
(From my review on Goodreads): “Chronicles the life of Marjane Satrapi as she grew up during the political unrest in Iran from the late 1970s through the late 1990s. It's her autobiography in graphic novel form and it gives Westerners a rare glimpse into a mysterious country and region. As a little girl, Marji parrots the political slogans and ideologies she hears from the grownups around her. As a preteen her eyes slowly open to injustice in the world as she and the other females in Iran are subject to harsher and harsher rules regarding dress, opposite-sex relationships, and public etiquette. Marji's parents send her to Europe for her safety and to continue her education; although Europe is not dangerous, Marji's ethnicity keeps her from truly fitting in. She returns to Iran but finds that her home country has changed dramatically under the leadership of religious fundamentalists.”

Above the Dreamless Dead: World War I in Poetry and Comics – edited by Chris Duffy (Goodreads synopsis): “As the Great War dragged on and its catastrophic death toll mounted, a new artistic movement found its feet in the United Kingdom. The Trench Poets, as they came to be called, were soldier-poets dispatching their verse from the front lines. Known for its rejection of war as a romantic or noble enterprise, and its plainspoken condemnation of the senseless bloodshed of war, Trench Poetry soon became one of the most significant literary moments of its decade. The marriage of poetry and comics is a deeply fruitful combination, as evidenced by this collection. In stark black and white, the words of the Trench Poets find dramatic expression and reinterpretation through the minds and pens of some of the greatest cartoonists working today.”

Citations:

Duffy. C. (editor) (2014). Above the dreamless dead: World War I in poetry and comics. NewYork: First Second.

Hirschfield, B. (1964). Fifty-five days of terror: the story of the Boxer Rebellion. New York: Julian Messner, Inc.

Satrapi, M. (2000). Persepolis. New York: Pantheon.

Werstein, I. (1971). The Boxer Rebellion: anti-foreign terror seizes China, 1900. London, UK: Franklin Watts.

Yang, G. L. (2013). Boxers. New York: First Second.

Yang, G. L. (2013). Saints. New York: First Second.

**You can read more of my reviews at http://thesouthernbookworm.blogspot.com/

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books must be read together, one will not get the full narrative without it.

A lovely depiction of history, done in such a way that shares the struggles and honors both sides - specifically the Chinese people- of the Boxer Rebellion.

[Ebookwormy1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

While GoodReads formatting forces these books to be listed as separate titles in a series, PLEASE do not read one without the other, or you will miss the genius of what Yang has accomplished in telling the same history from diverse perspectives. These two concurrent graphic novels are several kinds of extraordinary. The setting of the Boxer Rebellion is little covered and often misunderstood, but the historical context presented by Yang is outstanding. The writing is excellent, featuring strong character development and intriguing plotting that is interwoven between the texts. Character development throughout both books/ perspectives is deep and nuanced, recognizing complex geopolitical forces and giving us backstories that are not simplistic. While we are certainly rooting for each protagonist, we see their flaws play out as Yang illuminates how and why they are drawn into conflict. The plot lines also serve to highlight how outside forces impact our characters, both in terms of their worldview and actions. As sociology, Yang’s observations about the cultural foundations of the East meets West conflict are insightfully presented within his well-crafted narrative. Visually, the books have a unique appeal, presenting setting, characters, and conflict in a way that both attracts the reader and enhances comprehension. Boxers & Saints is well written and presented. It works as history, literature, art, and sociology. However, it doesn’t work as well as theology.

Yang effectively presents the Boxer Rebellion as a cultural conflict with religious inspiration. From the East, the concept of yin and yang is deftly incorporated. Also, Chinese Opera, including it’s pagan connections, is presented as a key cultural unifier. From the West, Yang choses a Catholic priest and parish to highlight how the Church makes room for those in distress and how the saints of the church inspire believers. Yang has created a brilliant fictional narrative illustrating how people develop agency as they live into their cultural setting. Without giving anything away, another strong point is how each side does not fulfill the ideals of their religious moorings. We also see how they miss each other due to nefarious actions of rabblerousers who want to break out of lawfulness or misperceptions of the intention of those foreign to them.

Alongside paganism and opera giving inspiration and motivation to the Chinese Society of the Harmonious Fist, we see Catholicism and the saints infusing inspiration and motivation into the Catholic Mission. This equivalent interweaving of culture with religious belief, while helpful in understanding cultural differences, becomes problematic from a theological perspective. The Bible teaches the one true God, the God of Israel, transcends, transforms, and defines culture. Therefore, to have His image shaped by culture is syncretism, yet how to show (and not tell) that in a historical fiction graphic novel? And what interpretation of God is free from the culture from which it arises? Nonetheless, syncretism reduces God from Almighty to one of a pantheon of lesser gods, each of which leads to some sort of universal religious enlightenment – a distinct cultural aspect of Eastern religions that attempts to gloss over the search for truth with false commonality. I also wrestled with this in another of Yang’s works, American Born Chinese.

American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang, 2006
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

So, I’m a bit flummoxed. What this series does, it does well. I like it, have learned a lot from it, and have a copy in our home for reading and discussion with our students. I enjoy Yang’s writing and the unique perspective he has as a person who lives between the United States (as a Catholic believer) and China. One can easily see why schools have embraced it as an engaging educational text, though I was disappointed to hear that my nieces and nephews were only assigned the first book and not the second – It should not be done that way! I expect educators to understand why only reading one half of the series is limiting. I do not expect secularists to understand the religious conundrums arising from Yang’s approach. Particularly for young people or new believers, I would want to clarify the theological implications of this type of presentation. For this reason, I would hesitate to use these two books with grammar and dialectic stage students, whose concrete thinking limits their understanding of how universalism leads to a nullification of the search for truth, a rejection of Jesus Christ and God’s Word as revealed in the Bible, and (in militant form, when claiming universalism is the only acceptable way) a stifling of free speech in favor of secularist religious dogma.

For more on syncretism, see:
https://www.gotquestions.org/syncreti...

For more on universalism, see:
https://www.gotquestions.org/universa...

For more on secularism, see:
https://www.gotquestions.org/what-is-...

For another review that raised these books up my to-read, see....
http://cbldf.org/2013/10/using-graphi...

[Jennifer Mangler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I got the box set and read both volumes together, and I can't imagine reading it any other way. I love how Yang tells the story of the conflict from both sides. Makes me want to learn more about the Boxer Rebellion.

[Meredith Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

devastating but fascinating

[Felipe Assis · Rating 4 out of 5]

É uma história boa, divertida e fundamentada em fatos históricos, mas não achei tuuuudo isso que dizem, na amazon as pessoas cagam uma goma tenebrosa pra isso... Achei boa apenas.

3.5

[Jimmy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was teaching weekly Bible studies when some of the children in my class introduced to me this graphic novel called Boxers. The kids told me it was a good story and that I would like it since it has to do with God and religion. After doing a little research myself and seeing glowing reviews of the book online I decided to give the book a shot. What at first began as a concern for the kids of whether they were reading appropriate materials turned out to be quite an enjoyable read. Although I rarely read fiction (let alone Graphic Novels!) I must say that I really enjoyed this book and its companion work titled Saints.
The book Boxers and its sequel Saints is situated in the late nineteenth century historical even known in Chinese history as the Boxers Rebellion. During the rebellion some Chinese whom we often called “Boxers,” took it upon themselves to attack foreigners and Chinese. The turmoil eventually ended when eight foreign states united to put down the rebellion militarily. As one might have guessed, the book titled Boxers tells the story from the perspective of a young boy that grew up to lead the Boxers’ rebellion while the second volume titled Saints tells the story of a Chinese girl that later became Christian. I like how the author overlapped both stories in a similar fashion as Clint Eastwood’s movies Flag of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. Incidents from one book is covered in the other book and one get a better picture of what happened after going through Saints. If you only read one volume without the other I think each story would be able to stand but it would not have the same depth as it is when read together.
Both books are very well researched. The author did his homework and the amount of historical detail is amazing for graphic novels. I loved how the author also gave the readers recommended readings to learn more about the history of the Boxers’ rebellion.
What I really like about Boxers is that it allows the readers to see the motive of what drove the boxers. The characters were believable and even have endearing characteristics. It is important to realize that the author is not trying to communicate that their violence was justified, even though we can empathized with them as one of us. In fact, as the story continued the plot gets darker and I myself started to question the legitimacy of the protagonist’s cause. One needs to read the end of the sequel to see that the author’s main point was not a moral justification for what the Boxers did.
What I really like about Saints is the author’s ability to describe what Christianity must have sound like to those who first heard about Christianity (note: the author’s Catholic background does come through the book). The author has a gift of being acutely aware of cultural barriers between East and West in his other comics and it is put to good use here in our story here as well. The author was able to do a good job giving a portrait to the readers of what good can come about through sincere Christians while also balancing that with the shortcoming of Christians and even hypocrites. The author is able to portray so many interesting characters in the limited space of the book.
Both books were beautifully illustrated. The author has good humor although at times it seems a little bit juvenile, which reminds us that this book was intended for a younger audience! However, the book is not just for kids; both volumes make us think about the good of faith, how some would abuse religion, what human nature is like, and the role of peace-making in contrast to violence. It is fast paced and has an amazing conclusion in the sequel. You wouldn’t want to miss both books!

[Brendan Hodge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yang's tale of the Boxer Rebellion and the search for cultural and political identity in turn-of-the-century China at first appears to be two almost independent stories that touch at only a couple points, but in the end the stories prove to be deeply connected. This is the sort of historical fiction which makes past events come viscerally and painfully alive, letting the reader identify deeply with people who for reasons that seem irresistibly compelling end up on opposite sides of a vicious conflict.

Volume One tells the story of Little Bao, a youngest son who becomes a leader among the "boxers" or The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist, who use kung fu and the magic of the the Chinese gods to fight against the injustices of the "foreign devil" Europeans and their followers the "secondary devil" Chinese Christians.

Volume Two tells the story of Four-Girl, an unwanted daughter who isn't even given a proper name by the family patriarch. A series of events, and her belief that she needs forgiveness for a terrible crime, leads her to embrace Christianity, where she receives a real name for the first time at baptism, becoming Vibiana. However, as stories of the violence of The Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist against Chinese Christian converts spreads, Vibiana struggles to decide the meaning of her identity as both Chinese and Christian and also the meaning of a series of dreams she begins to have in which she sees a Christian warrior girl.