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.