Just 55 Days at Peking and the rebels in the film are depicted as using swords, spears and clubs as weapons. Considering the fact Chinese people invented gunpowder and used gunpowder cannons, bombs, mechanical landmines and arquebus since the Ming Dynasty, the movie appeared inaccurate for me. But I could not find any source too.
What weapons Boxers used in the Boxer rebellion? Thank you.
An older answer of mine goes over this:
The film, like much of popular memory in the West, consigns the Boxers to a 'Rebellion' (with the implied assumption being against the Qing), when they would more accurately be considered an 'uprising' in relatively general terms, as they supported the Qing state against the foreigners. Not all in the Qing court wanted the help (which is a story for another time), but nevertheless, after the initial spate of uprisings, the Qing army opened up its arsenals and handed out spare breechloading rifles, ranging from 1860s Snider-Enfields to the latest German and Austro-Hungarian magazine rifles.
Also, the film glosses over the fact that the Legation siege was mainly carried out not by Boxers, but by Qing regular forces, under commanders admittedly largely belonging to the camp that was not quite as keen on Boxer 'help', and there were many reprieves in the fighting, as well as the odd supply delivery to Sir Robert Hart in the British legation (Hart was, technically, a member of the Chinese civil service, as chief of the imperial customs office). The siege of the Church of the Saviour, on the other hand, was decidedly more brutal as it did involve Boxers, as well as a far larger number of Chinese Christian converts (a particular target of Boxer vitriol, and also severely mistreated by their supposed Western guarantors during the Legation siege).