Empress Dowager Cixi has both intrigued and perplexed the imaginations of scholars searching for emerging modernity in China.
Now, it is the turn of the infamous
Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) of the late Qing dynasty.
EMPRESS DOWAGER CIXI: THE CONCUBINE WHO LAUNCHED MODERN CHINA by Jung Chang (Jonathan Cape, PS20, ebook PS11.39) CHINESE-BORN British writer Jung Chang has a record for radical biographies having previously released the head-turning tome Mao: The Unknown Story in 2005.
Great hotel spas in cities around the world - Bejing Aman Spa at Aman at Summer Palace [ETH] Beijing, China As the former guesthouse of the notoriously extravagant
Empress Dowager Cixi, the atmospheric Qing Dynasty surrounds of the Aman at Summer Palace resort were originally built as a royal retreat, and today the onsite spa reflects that luxurious history.
These include an antique clock she says was a gift from the Japanese emperor to
Empress Dowager Cixi, who in turn gave it to her grandfather.
In response,
Empress Dowager Cixi had Zeng transfered to Jiangning and summoned Ma Xinyi to serve as the new governor.
Perhaps the "Lin Biao incident," like the Guangxu emperor's death just days before the
Empress Dowager Cixi's death in 1908 or the role of General Zhang Xueliang in the Xian Incident of late 1936, will remain one of the great unsolved mysteries of twentieth-century Chinese history.
It is an incredible book called
Empress Dowager Cixi, about whom many in the West will have known nothing until Jung Chang first put finger to keyboard.
Empress Dowager Cixi devoted tremendous energy to her wardrobe.
Eventually, the threat to the legations led to a foreign assault on the Dagu Forts protecting the approach to Beijing, a "declaration of war" against the attacking powers by the
Empress Dowager Cixi, and finally the legation siege and its relief, which is the focus of the book.
Next on the pile are
Empress Dowager Cixi by Jung Chang, A Sensible Life by Mary Wesley and How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny.
In the case of the
Empress Dowager Cixi it was not her birth but her son's, who was the first born heir of the Emperor Xianfeng.