wrote that these "criminal actions brought unspeakable suffering to the nation and its people! These are all facts that everybody knows, and it is a national shame that the Chinese people cannot forget." For many years, history text books had been lacking in neutrality in presenting the Boxer Rebellion as a "magnificent feat of patriotism", and not presenting the view that the majority of the Boxer rebels were both violent and xenophobic. Professor Yuan stated that Manchu rulers did not comply with signed international treaties, and that it is wrong to blame "the Opium Wars of the mid-1800s entirely on foreign nations". On the other hand, such views are criticized and considered to be unfair, unneutral and logically absurd by some people and Yuan Weishi is even called Hanjian (漢奸, national betrayer) by some Chinese people.
The philosopher Tang Junyi viewed the Boxer Uprising as a religious war between the Chinese and Christianity. In fact, facing what they viewed as an aggressive religious invasion by Christianity, Chinese Righteous Harmony Society had the slogan "Defend Chinese Religion (保華教, or 保漢教) and Get Rid of Foreign Religion (of Christianity) (滅洋教)." Some scholars consider it to be a war against the invasion of China by the foreign religion of Christianity.
The rebellion was covered in the western illustrated press by artists and photographers. Paintings and prints were also published including Japanese wood-blocks.