The Boxer uprising and the development of Chinese national identity at the turn of the twentieth century

Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-72)This thesis examines the nature of Chinese national identity during and after the Boxer period (1898-1901). Among rural villagers who supported the Boxers' religious claima to uphold the Qing state and expel foreigners from the countryside, there was no sense of urgency to borrow from the West in order to begin the process of modernization. For Chinese intellectuals who lived in the treaty ports and abroad, the Boxer Uprising provided the crucial moment when China desperately needed to modernize or else face colonization by foreign powers. Through analyzing the different responses to the Boxers from rural and urban Chinese, this thesis argues that the financial, social, and political consequences of the uprising forced the Chinese to choose between upholding the imperial state that was founded on Confucian principles or choosing to incorporate Western technology similar to Japan's success in confronting imperialism in order to assure China's entrance as a major player among modern world powers. For Chinese revolutionaries, who eventually won out in the Republican Revolution of 1911, increased global awareness produced by the consequences of the Boxer debacle shaped the way that they imagined themselves as participants in the modern world, and therefore led to the revolutionary struggle that would even continue to exist throughout the twentieth century