Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2013-02-26T08:00:00+00:00

“I was once a fighter, a member of the Boxer Rebellion. I was so fearless that they called me the Lion.

“We invoked the old magic of China, the power of the craggy mountains and misty air, the deep marshes and the clear streams. We called on the old temples, built before the coming of Christian missionaries and their contempt for all that we revered. We painted ourselves with words of power so that bullets could not harm us.

“We rose, a thousand voices shouting as one, to drive the foreigners out of China, so that our children could walk with their backs straight, so that their children would know that they belong to a free people, not a people addicted to opium and subservient to the will of others.

“And for a while, we believed we could win.

“Then came that battle outside the bounds of Shanghai. The foreigners shot at us with their guns and cannons while we rushed at them with our spears and swords.

“My friend fell to the left of me. My brother fell to the right of me. Why was the old magic not working? Was it too weak to stop steel and gunpowder, much as the junks were too weak to stop British gunboats?

“And my courage, the faith that had sustained me for so long, suddenly fled. And the next thing I knew, I fell too, even though I hadn’t been shot. I hid myself among the bodies of my fallen comrades and watched as the rest of the Boxers were killed.

“I survived as a coward, and since that day, I have sought refuge in the oblivion brought by opium.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.