Here's the activity I created per Boxer Rebellion/Sino nineteenth-century internal/external history. I believe Sara has a specific rubric to accompany it.
55 Days of Peking (June 20-August 14)/The Boxer Rebellion
Information about the Boxers:
• Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists—secret society founded in Shandong Province (Confucius’ home province).
• Thru training, diet, martial arts, prayer, Boxers believed that they could fly and were immune to bullets and swords.
• Boxers believed that spirit soldiers would descend from heaven and help them in battle.
• Blamed foreigners and Christian missionaries for China’s decline. Angered over extraterritoriality.
• German foreign minister killed on June, 20, 1900; 182 Protestant missionaries and 500 Chinese Protestants killed/ 48 Catholic Missionaries and 18,000 Chinese Catholics killed during Taiyuan Massacre
• 473 foreign civilians, 409 soldiers (from eight countries), 3,000 Chinese Christians are refugees in Beijing Legation (foreign quarters join together near Forbidden City.
Background: It’s early August, 1900, and two elderly men in their late 70s are playing mahjong in a teahouse on the outskirts of Beijing. Both men have been friends since childhood and worked together as minor bureaucratic officials for the Qing Dynasty. Although these men were of different ethnicities—Wang Qi was ethnically Han and Li Zuoyue was ethnically Manchu—both men have mostly similar political viewpoints. Unfortunately these good friends were about to have a heated debate over the policies of Dowager Cixi and the Boxer Rebellion.
On July 20, after having put the Guangxu Emperor under house arrest, Dowager Cixi declared war on foreigners in China and supported an army called the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (Boxers).
Wang Qi had backed the Guangxu Emperor and believed that the Boxers needed to be stopped while his friend Li Zuoyue supported the Empress Dowager and the Boxers.
Of course to discuss and understand the present, one must have an understanding of the past. The ensuing conversation not only was a discussion about the Boxer Rebellion, it was also a review of China’s internal and external history from the early nineteenth-century onwards—each man having lived through:
• Opium War
• Taiping Rebellion
• Self-Strengthening Movement
• Sino-Japanese War
Assignment: Recreate how the conversation between Wang Qi and Li Zuoyue might have occurred. Half of the class will advocate Wang Qi (anti-Boxer) and the other half of the class will support Li Zuoyue (pro-Boxer). Remember, not only are you discussing the Boxer Rebellion, but you are also incorporating China’s nineteenth-century history of internal and external conflict (Opium War, Taiping Rebellion, Self-Strengthening Movement, Sino-Chinese War) into the debate.
The class will arrange itself into two groups positioned around a mahjong table and tea cups. Each group must designate and delegate the following positions:
• Opening statements
• Experts on Boxer Rebellion
• Expert discussion on Opium War, Taiping Rebellion, Self-Strengthening Movement, Sino-Japanese War
• Expert discussion on primary documents
• Expert discussion on China’s future—where does China go from here?
• Closing statements
***Please speak in first person. You are Wang Qi! You are Li Zuoyue!
***Please research primary documents discussed in class relating to pertinent themes.
Grading Breakdown: 25% handling of Boxer Rebellion
25% handling of Sino nineteenth-century history of internal/external conflict (Opium War, Taiping Rebellion, Self-Strengthening Movement, Sino-Japanese War)
25% handling of pertinent primary documents
25% handling of China’s future—where does China go from here?
[Edit by="sschumacher on Aug 13, 8:25:40 AM"][/Edit]
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