Boxers and Saints
Boxers and Saints are two companion graphic novel volumes written and illustrated by Gene Luen Yang, and colored by Lark Pien. The publisher First Second Books released them on September 10, 2013. Together the two volumes have around 500 pages. Boxers follows the story of Little Bao, a boy from Shan-tung (Shandong) who becomes a leader of the Boxer Rebellion. Saints follows the story of "Four-Girl", a girl from the same village who becomes a Catholic, adopts the name "Vibiana", and hopes to attain the glory of Joan of Arc. One book cover shows the left half of Bao's face with Qin Shi Huangdi and the other shows the right half of Vibiana's face with Joan of Arc. Together the covers portray a divided China. Development Yang stated that the event that sparked his interest in the Boxer Rebellion was learning how, at the time, becoming Christian was perceived as forsaking Chinese culture, a concept alien to him as he grew up in a Roman Catholic Chinese American community in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yang said that he wanted to do two volumes because he was not sure which side in the conflict were "good" or "bad" and he