At the outset of the twentieth century, along with the Western states' attempt to justify their military invasions and plunders, the missionary publications served as a medium to shape the prevailing narrative of the Boxer Uprising that "continue to circulate into the present".</ref> The Boxer Uprising occurred in 1900, in which the Chinese people in northern China stormed certain areas that they were barred from entering, such as the missionary stations and the legation areas in Beijing. In 1901, shortly after the suppression of the uprising, a series of Protestant missionary accounts were published, pioneered by Arthur Smith (1845–1932). The missionary discourse reiterates the "Chinese antiforeignism" underpinned by the Qing government, on the one hand; on the other hand, it highlights the missionaries' sacrifices for the preservation of Christian religion in facing "pagan barbarism". According to Hevia, despite the conflicting and inconsistent accounts given by the witnesses, these works help to make the Western military retaliation in responding to the "Chinese brutality" to be reasonable. The ongoing creation and circulation of such narratives and memory, therefore, solidified images of "Chinese savagery" and the victimized and heroized Western states.