1900 - The Wang Family

July 22, 1900

Wei Xian, Hebei

Joseph Wang Yumei and his family. [CRBC]

Throughout July 1900 the Boxers escalated their destruction of Christians. On July 21st they captured a number of Catholics at the gate of Majiazhuang village in Wei Xian, Hebei Province. The 68-year-old Joseph Wang Yumei—one of the Catholic leaders of the area—was martyred first, while the others were locked in a room and told to choose between their faith and death. The captives were inside a room known as the East Room, and told if they went to the West Room, it would mean they do not want to believe in God and would be released unharmed. Some chose to deny Christ by changing rooms, but most of the Catholics remained in the East Room, sealing their commitment with their own blood.

The next morning the Christians were led out for public execution. Many locals were appalled to see the Boxers intended to murder little nine-year-old Andrew Wang Tianqing. They remonstrated with the rebels, demanding they release him. Andrew’s mother, Lucia, held on to her son boldly announced, “I am a Catholic. My son is also a Catholic. If you want to kill me, kill us both. Please kill my son first. Then, kill me next.”[1] The cold-hearted Boxers agreed to her proposal. Little Andrew

“willingly knelt down, bent his little body, extended his neck, smiling and looking directly to his mother. The falling axe sent the little boy to heaven instantaneously. Shortly after, his mother, Lucia Wang Wang, and her 5-year old daughter were brutally beheaded. The saintly family went straight to heaven.”[2]

A further five women and a ten-month-old baby were also slaughtered. The “bandits even cut off a leg of the infant, threw it upwards, and cut it in half, throwing the remains beside its mother.”[3]

More than a century after the martyrdoms of the Wang family, this location remains the strongest Catholic area in the entire country. Generations of believers have been emboldened by the heroic example left for them by these martyrs. When the Vatican announced in 2000 that Pope John Paul II would canonize the Wang family as Catholic saints, strong protests arose from China, claiming the family had got what they deserved because they were traitors to the Motherland and had worked alongside the imperialists (missionaries). Despite the storm of protest, the four members of the Wang family were declared saints during a special Vatican ceremony on October 1, 2000.

One hundred years after the defenceless Wang family, and numerous others, were butchered in Wei Xian, the Communist government ordered the requisition of 30 acres of land to build a grand Boxer museum, complete with an artificial lake and landscaped garden.[4] To this day most Chinese view the Boxer Rebellion as a great moment in the nation’s history. Whatever the political motivations of the Boxer uprising, it is sad and pathetic that an event that slaughtered little boys and girls should be remembered with any fondness at all.

1. Taken from the www.cardinalkungfoundation.org website, Christmas 2000 newsletter.
2. www.cardinalkungfoundation.org, Christmas 2000 newsletter.
3. www.cardinalkungfoundation.org, Christmas 2000 newsletter.
4. Natalie Chou Wiest, “Chinese Boxers and Martyrs – another Interpretation,” UCAN, November 7, 2000.