Bleeding Hearts: Colonialism, Religion, and Resistance in 19th-century China.

In 1870, tales of kidnapping and sorcery swirled around the city of Tianjin. The local magistrate wanted to investigate the charges of witchcraft being made against a group of Catholic nuns. The head of the mission, a French soldier turned priest, vowed to protect the Faith. France’s consul in Tianjin insisted the missionaries were protected from prosecution by treaties signed with the Chinese government. In the middle was a hapless Manchu official unable to keep the peace. On June 21, 1870, the city of Tianjin exploded into a day of rage and violence which shocked the world and revealed the perilous position of foreign missionaries in 19th century China.

Jeremiah Jenne is a writer and history teacher who was based in Beijing for over two decades. He earned his PhD from the University of California, Davis and taught Late Imperial and Modern Chinese History for 17 years. His essays and articles on China have appeared in The Economist, South China Morning Post, The Journal of Asian Studies, Los Angeles Review of Books, and The World of Chinese. His writings can also be found in China in 2008: A Year of Great Significance, The Insider's Guide to Beijing, and the 2015 collection While We're Here: China Stories from a Writer's Colony. Along with David Moser, he is the host of the podcast Barbarians at the Gate.