KUANG Yifei (Steve) Ms. Mazzorato ENG3U Aug.22th 2014 Similarities between the Hunger Games and the Taiping Rebellion In The Hunger Games, the author Suzanne Collins tells a mythical story that Capitol, the central government, holds Hunger Games annually as a punishment to 12 uprising districts of Panem. Panem used to be a flourished country where people lived peacefully. However, the dark time came. After the rebellions, the result was that 12 uprising districts were defeated, and the thirteenth district was even obliterated. (Suzanne Collins, Scholastic Press, USA, 2008). Qing Dynasty is known to be the last feudal dynasty throughout Chinese history. Qing Dynasty was powerful but its feudalism was notorious, such as barbarous dictatorship, …show more content…
Hong established a sect called “the Worshippers of Shang Ti”, and the sect became considerably strong in Kwangsi and developed quickly. Around 1849, a famine happened in Guangxi and the rebels rose in rebellion against the Qing Dynasty. In 1850, Hong gathered enormous quantity of followers and they stayed in Jintian Village to prepare for the uprising. Hong created organizations as troops with one commander for each. This is considered by historians as the beginning of the Taiping …show more content…
(Ho Ping-to, Studies in the Population of China, 1368–1953, pp. 246–247) There were various reasons why the rebellion failed. The most significant reason was, there was a great disparity in strength between the Taiping rebels and imperial armies. Imperial armies were well-equipped and professionally trained while the Taiping rebels did not have such excellent weapons. Moreover, the Taiping rebels are farmers, which means they did not receive high level education. Hence they did not have professional knowledge about military so that disorders and conflicts were easy to happen among soldiers, which will affect their efficiency during wars. In The Hunger Games, the serious consequences were that the 13th district was destroyed by Capitol and other twelve districts were asked to pick two Tributes for annual Hunger Games, which was a kind of punishment. There were similarities between Hunger Games and the Taiping Rebellion. As a punishment, main forces of the Taiping Rebellion were sent to guillotine and other soldiers were killed during wars. To conclude, after analyses, comparing The Hunger Games with the Taiping Rebellion, it is obvious that there are similarities between both rebellions. For instance, the cause, status of initiator(s), how authorities punish rebels and so on. The