Review: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/historybookreviews/10372293/Empress-Dowager-Cixi-by-Jung-Chang-review.html
Extract: Http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10324161/An-extract-from-Wild-Swans-author-Jung-Changs-new-book-Empress-Dowager-Cixi.html
Although I support the restoration or retention of all monarchies around the world, the two that have special significance to me are the British Monarchy, which is first and foremost in my mind as I place loyalty to my Sovereign above everything, and the sadly abolished monarchy of Imperial China. Since the Great Qing dynasty was deposed by a gaggle of republican warlords, traitorous generals and silver-tongued revolutionaries both the communist and nationalist regimes have done all they can to tarnish the last dynasty's reputation. A major part of this has been the vilification of the remarkable woman who ruled the Chinese Empire until three years before its destruction, the Empress Dowager Cixi.
Now the writer Jung Chang, author of the critically acclaimed book "Wild Swans" chronicling the lives of three generations of her family in 20th century China, has written a new biography of the Divine Mother Empress Dowager untainted by communist or Kuomintang propaganda. Although I would be the last to claim Empress Dowager Cixi was a saint by any standards, I do think she has been treated unfairly by history; for instance, I don't believe she murdered her reforming nephew the Guangxu Emperor on her deathbed. I think General Yuan Shikai, a shameless opportunist who betrayed the Emperor when the Empress Dowager and her allies staged a reactionary coup following the Hundred Days' reform and later betrayed the dynasty itself to join the republican Xinhai Revolution in 1911, only to betray the republicans and declare himself Emperor in 1915 (it didn't work out), to be a much more likely culprit, considering that despite her reputation as a steadfast reactionary Cixi herself began implementing much more sweeping reforms than Guangxu in the last years of her reign and Yuan Shikai no doubt feared the Emperor's wrath for betraying him before.
I certainly hope to read this book at some point, and here's hoping it will help present a more neutral and nuanced view of an important monarchical and historical figure who has long been condemned for factors beyond her control. Ten thousand years to the Emperor!
Forum: Asia and Africa