This grassroots movement for self-defense was created in rural Shandong between the spring of 1898 and that of 1899. It united followers of a martial arts form imbued with religious and magical ideas who were faithful to the Qing dynasty and devoted to the goal of "destroying the foreigners". Individual groups, each practicing their own form of Chinese boxing (quan), had at first fought against bandits and then started to use organized force against Christian communities, many of which offered fringe groups protection if in exchange they converted to Christianity. The followers of t…