. Mark Twain’s sympathetic writing about the Boxer rebels in China, which neglected the murder and violence the movement unleashed on Chinese Christians and foreigners, makes satire problematic reading when it comes to slaughter
. The eight-nation response to the turn-of-the-century Chinese uprising showed alarming hypocrisy as the allied force sought to quash the Yihetuan movement, raping and killing civilians
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History teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded on October 16 in a Paris suburb by a radicalised youth after he showed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad published in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo during a class discussion on freedom of speech.
History teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded on October 16 in a Paris suburb by a radicalised youth after he showed cartoons of Prophet Muhammad published in the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo during a class discussion on freedom of speech.
Charlie Hebdo is a French publication that has habitually courted controversy with its satirical attacks on politicians and religious leaders. The magazine caricaturised the prophet on its cover and pages in 2011 and 2012, angering Muslims in France and around the world. In January 2015, two armed terrorists stormed into the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris. They killed 12 people and injured 11 others.
The killings shocked the world, including Muslims, most of whom do not subscribe to the violent and murderous creed of the fanatical terrorists who commit atrocities in their name. Soon afterwards, the slogan “Je suis Charlie” (French for “I am Charlie”) began trending on social media and the internet, embraced by those who support freedom of expression and resist armed violence.
To this day, whenever a catastrophic disaster occurred anywhere in the world, the slogan “Je suis [insert name of location or person]” or its English equivalent would start flashing on screens around the world, like virtue-signalling fairy lights. The “I am X” slogan is, in fact, not a recent invention; it was spoken more than a century ago by the American writer Mark Twain in response to events in China.
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In his address at a meeting of the Public Education Association in New York City on November 23, 1900, he spoke the following words:
“China never wanted foreigners any more than foreigners wanted Chinamen, and on this question I am with the Boxers every time. The Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the countries of other people. I wish him success. The Boxer believes in driving us out of his country. I am a Boxer too, for I believe in driving him out of our country.”
The “Boxers” that Twain referred to were members of the Militia of Righteousness and Peace (Yihetuan). At the turn of the 20th century, the number of foreigners living in China increased, as did the number of Christians, both European and Chinese. With more frequent conflicts with the locals, a loosely organised armed group called the Yihetuan began to emerge. Soon, its membership swelled to tens of thousands.
In the spring of 1900, the Yihetuan launched what would be called terrorist attacks today in northern China. They slaughtered an estimated 20,000 Chinese Christians and more than 200 Europeans, and went on a rampage of burning churches and foreigners’ homes. The violence and bloodbath became known in the west as the Boxer Uprising. Foolishly, the Qing dynasty court gave its tacit approval to the Yihetuan’s violent tactics, thinking that these could work to their advantage in China’s resistance against foreign encroachment.
To protect their citizens in China, as well as their long-term strategic interests, the eight nations of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States formed an armed alliance that occupied the city of Beijing, decimated the Yihetuan and forced the Qing court (which had fled to Xian in the chaos) to sign the unequal treaty known as the Boxer Protocol the following year.
In the course of putting down the uprising, the armies of the Eight-Nation Alliance proved that they were no better than the Boxers, killing and raping civilians and making off with whatever loot they could carry.
Twain’s declaration that “I am a Boxer too” makes for problematic reading today, considering the Yihetuan’s brutal disregard for human life, not to mention their and Twain’s own xenophobia implied in that part of his speech. Perhaps the famous American humorist was being satirical, but as Charlie Hebdo and the ensuing tragedies show, satire can turn out to be horrifically unfunny.
