BBC Timewatch - The Boxer Rebellion Siege of Beijing (2008)

The Boxer Rebellion might only be dimly-remembered, but as Timewatch reveals, it was pivotal in world history. Based on the eyewitness accounts of the entrapped, and drawing on the latest historical research by Western and Chinese historians, this programme illustrates a unique historic episode in which, brought together in war, the Middle Kingdom and the western states wrote world history. Peking, June 1900 The “Society of Rights and Harmonious Fists”, known by the Europeans as “Boxers,” have entrapped more than 3,000 foreigners and Chinese Christians in the diplomatic quarter. The Boxers want to kill all foreigners and free China from the influence of the 'western devils'. It was the start of 55 days of fear, terror - and bravery. The rebels, supported by imperial Chinese forces, want to rid China of Western control and of the hated Christian missionaries. They accuse the “foreign devils” of abusing Chinese religious sentiments. Soon, hundreds of diplomats and their families, as well as thousands of Chinese Christian converts, are under siege in the Western legations, cut off from the outside world. In an unprecedented alliance, the foreign powers, among them the USA, Great Britain, France and Germany, send a relief force to rescue the beleaguered. For nearly two months, the men and women confined within the city's hastily fortified diplomatic compounds battle the insurgents. Yet as the casualties mount and the stocks of food and ammunition dwindle, the morale and the resolve of the defenders grows… The Beijing siege forced China to face the realities of a new age. In retrospect, the siege of Beijing stands out as the moment when the slumbering Chinese dragon was finally reawakened. China realized that it had to accept the West and evolve new strategies to deal with it - an approach that has helped it reach its new status as a global superpower. Told through Chinese sources and the diaries and memoirs of the outnumbered European defenders, the siege helped to bring down the imperial monarchy, precipitating a century of destruction, revolution and ultimate renewal.

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