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The Boxers remained controversial figures in China. Some Chinese historians and individuals see the Boxers as largely ignorant peasants who were misguided and xenophobic. On the other hand, China experienced a wave of nationalism in the early 20th century that paved the way for the transition between the last royal dynasty and modern China. This nationalism had seen the Boxers as being Chinese nationalists who were standing up to for their cause and fighting an aggressive foreign occupation. <ref>Purcell, Victor. 2010. <i>The Boxer Uprising: A Background Study</i>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pg. 271.</ref> In the decades that followed the Boxer Rebellion, Chinese anti-imperialists and nationals began to use the Boxer Rebellion as a rallying cry that helped to bring about political change within China.
The Boxer Rebellion also exposed divisions within China, namely those who looked to the West and those who aspired for nationalism. China descended into a chaotic period after 1911-1912, when the last emperor of China abdicated, with warlords and factionalism replacing various parts of China. Soon, the influence of Communism began to affect China and the Chinese Civil War (1927-1950) was in part shaped by the events of the Boxer Rebellion. <ref>For an overview of key events that shaped China from 1911 to the Chinese Civil War see: Clubb, Edmund. 1964. <i>20th Century China</i>. New York, N.Y.; Columbia University Press.</ref> Resentment to the West, including what was seen as Western Capitalism, lingered in many areas and many peasants and young intellectuals had joined the Communist party which was seen as a cure for China’s ills brought about by the Western encroachment initially and then the collapse of the state all together in 1911-12.<ref>Sheel, Kamal. 1989. <i>Peasant Society and Marxist Intellectuals in China: Fang Zhimin and the Origin of a Revolutionary Movement in the Xinjiang Region</i>. Princeton: Princeton University Press.</ref>
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