Challenging the dominant stories about the Boxer Rebellion: Chinese Minister Wu Ting‐Fang's narrative

Abstract

Taking a narrative perspective, this paper analyzes a public address titled “the Causes of the Unpopularity of the Foreigner in China”. It was given by a Chinese envoy named Wu Ting‐fang in 1900 immediately following the Boxer Rebellion. First, the paper represents the narrative event and context – the Boxer Rebellion, within which Wu's speech was given. It then analyzes how Wu challenged the dominant Western construction of the Boxer Rebellion and constructed a different story. Finally, it discusses how Wu's personal background and experiences legitimized his ability and qualification to proffer an alternative construction.

The rhetorical artifices Wu used to construct a coherent and factually grounded story include stating all the facts, reconstructing the ordering relations of these facts, and reestablishing the identities and images of the people involved in the story. Wu's special education and career background, which made him a welcome speaker on the topic of cultural differences in Western public forums, legitimizes his role as a truthful storyteller. Transculturally and transtemporally created, Wu's personal experience narrative is not merely an instrument to communicate personal experiences to other people. It transcends spatial and temporal limits and is productive of human knowledge. His speech is pertinent to the present, as all manner of civil and theological clashes of civilization both continue and start anew.

Keywords:

• anti‐foreignism
• the Boxer Rebellion
• culture
• personal narrative
• Wu Ting‐fang

Notes

1. On April 1, 2001, an American spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided off the coast of China. The Chinese jet crashed into the sea, and the pilot named Wang Wei is presumed dead. The American crew made an emergency landing on China's Hainan Island. They were taken to a hotel‐like setting where they were well cared for, but not permitted to leave. The Chinese people were outraged at the “arrogant” Americans and thought the plane had invaded the Chinese island. Jiang Zemin, the Chinese President of the time, called for an official apology from the United States. But President Bush refused to apologize and stated that the plane was over international waters. It seemed that the situation could blow up into a major international confrontation (http://www.chinanews.com.cn/zhuanti/fighter/index.html).

2. The membership of the AAPSS is inclusive and disciplinarily‐diverse. Notable individuals such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Harold Lasswell, Margaret Mead, and Mahatma Ghandi have served as special editors or contributing authors to the Academy's bimonthly journal The Annals. Please see the official website of the AAPSS (http://www.aapss.org) for more information.

3. The nine historical books about the Boxer Rebellion I reviewed are as follows: (1) History in three Keys: The boxers as event, experience, and myth (Cohen, 1997); (2) China unbound: Evolving perspectives on the Chinese past (Cohen, 2003); (3) The Siege at Peking (Fleming, 1959); (4) The siege of the Peking legations: A diary (Giles, 1970); (5) The Boxer Rebellion (Keown‐Boyd, 1991); (6) China and Occident: The origin and development of the Boxer movement (Steiger, 1927); (7) The Boxer Rebellion: The dramatic story of China's war on foreigners that shook the world in the summer of 1900 (Preston, 2000); (8) The Boxer Uprising: A background study (Purcell, 1963); (9) The origin of the Boxer War: A multinational study (Xiang, 2003).