l-HO CH'UAN
In the summer of 1900, members of a secret society roamed northeastern
China in bands, killing Europeans and Americans and destroying buildings owned by
foreigners. They called themselves l-ho ch'uan, or "Righteous and Harmonious
Fists." They practised boxing skills that they believed made them impervious to
bullets. To Westerners they became known as the Boxers, and their uprising was
called the Boxer Rebellion. Most Boxers were peasants or urban thugs from northern
China who resented the growing influence of Westerners in their land. They
organized themselves in 1898, and in the same year the Chinese government - then
ruled by the Ch'ing Dynasty - secretly allied with the Boxers to oppose such
outsiders as Christian missionaries and European businessmen. The Boxers failed
to drive foreigners out of China, but they set the stage for the successful Chinese
revolutionary movement of the early 20th century.
E X E R C I S E 1: Find words or phrases in the passage which mean the same as:
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