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joshiejoshy's review against another edition
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, and Murder
cmccollum's review against another edition
3.0
Cixi was a fascinating stateswoman, and I didn't know her history before reading this book. The story of the dowager empress' ascent to power and deft maintenance of it was a treat to read. It's hard to fathom how much China changed between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and this book methodically explains those shifts. I appreciate Chang's extensive use of primary sources, although at times I found the lengthy quotations from these sources dragged the narrative out, making it a slog for me to get through parts. It's also clear Chang is writing with an agenda; she's fighting to rehabilitate Cixi's image and I wish that had been less heavy-handed in the narrative. Overall though, a solid read about a captivating and complex figure in history.
rebeccala's review against another edition
4.0
Took me a long time to get through (bedtime book, kept falling asleep...) but not because it was boring. I learned a lot from this - fascinating!
jouiselouise's review against another edition
3.0
tbh, most of the time this reads unfortunately like a very long student paper, but it's also engaging with preexisting arguments and biases I'm not familiar with, and there's a really admirable amount of information.
jclady's review against another edition
5.0
Engrossing book about the much-maligned Empress Dowager Cixi. Meticulously-researched and an interesting read.
bluekamille's review against another edition
2.0
For me, this book is just not enough. Not enough academic, not enough reliable. So, not interesting for me, as a future expert in Asia. But the saddest is that it can't be enough for non-expertise readers, too, because it is simply boring. Most of it is unnecessary, there is not enough bibliography and THE WORST of it all, is completely misleading every time it goes a single inch away from her main point, even having dramatic fails at talking about linguistics or Japan. A complete fail, though, if proved, it is a very interesting and new research... That needs to be validated.
ameyawarde's review against another edition
5.0
I don't even know what to say about Cixi. I'm blown away. She is definitely my new favorite historical woman/person. From a strong female friendship with her husband's empress, and their brilliant take over of power in their very early 20s and acting as joint empresses together for the rest of the proper Empress's life, to Cixi maintaining control for the rest of hers, but using that power for UNBELIEVABLE reforms. She literally took the VERY conservative, anti-change China from medieval times to the modern times with very little bloodshed, because she knew exactly how to get stuff done with the minimum of upsets, even from behind the curtain that had to always separate her and all the males of her court.
It really boggles my mind with just how radically she changed China during her reign. I don't know of any other world leader who ever achieved so much, especially so -relatively- peaceably. And yet, she was a woman in power, so she has been vilified in the extreme. So many things she accomplished have not been rightfully attributed to her, and instead went to the men around her-- which is so absurd it's rather enraging after reading this book, and how useless some of those people really were.
I just can't say enough good things about this book. It was super interesting, and I need a cat or a daughter or something to name after her because she was just a super amazing lady (despite the few murders that can be attributed to her-- for a world leader, I think her death count was still much less than most.)
It really boggles my mind with just how radically she changed China during her reign. I don't know of any other world leader who ever achieved so much, especially so -relatively- peaceably. And yet, she was a woman in power, so she has been vilified in the extreme. So many things she accomplished have not been rightfully attributed to her, and instead went to the men around her-- which is so absurd it's rather enraging after reading this book, and how useless some of those people really were.
I just can't say enough good things about this book. It was super interesting, and I need a cat or a daughter or something to name after her because she was just a super amazing lady (despite the few murders that can be attributed to her-- for a world leader, I think her death count was still much less than most.)
theravingcelt's review against another edition
5.0
I started this book, carrying with me all standard anecdotal baggage one hears about the cruel old crone who loomed behind the imperial throne in the final decades of Qing dynasty China. Very quickly, the author thoroughly dispelled each and every one of these clichéd images. Rather than acting as a bulwark against modernisation and progress, Cixi actually spent nearly every waking day in her role as Empress Dowager drawing the Chinese state into a new age whilst still maintaining its independence from European dominance. The fact that this truth has for so long been obscured from the general public is owed as much to the inherent sexism of her times as to the modern Chinese Communist Party’s eagerness to denigrate everything associated with the old empire in order to increase their own historical standing.
As I find myself reading more and more biographies as the years go by, I have begun to grow more capable of noticing when a writer is being too kind to their subject matter. Fawning over figures from the past serves about as much good as damning them for all eternity, in my opinion. That is why I was more than happy at Chang’s willingness to highlight Cixi’s flaws, both on a political and personal level, as it served to help me understand just why the Qing Empire struggled to adapt to an ever-changing world it was so woefully unprepared to face.
In addition to the titular star of the book, the author took time to showcase the many other figures who served under the “Old Buddha” (as the Dowager Empress was affectionately known in the provinces), working diligently to reform China’s administration. Many of these figures were not even native Chinese, as it turns out! One of the most prominent individuals Chang brought up was one Sir Robert Hart, born in County Armagh, Ireland, who served as Inspector General for the Imperial Customs Service for over five decades, helping to reform an antiquated and thoroughly-corrupt system of trade. I appreciated the time spent giving due credit to people such as these because it helped to enhance Cixi’s stature as a leader of talented individuals, rather than as some mythic heroine who saved a nation all by herself.
I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in Chinese history. The author’s style of writing is easily accessible to anyone who is curious as to how China entered the twentieth century, a century that it would later come to dominate when men and women followed from Cixi’s example of slow but inevitable progress concerned with the benefit of all.
As I find myself reading more and more biographies as the years go by, I have begun to grow more capable of noticing when a writer is being too kind to their subject matter. Fawning over figures from the past serves about as much good as damning them for all eternity, in my opinion. That is why I was more than happy at Chang’s willingness to highlight Cixi’s flaws, both on a political and personal level, as it served to help me understand just why the Qing Empire struggled to adapt to an ever-changing world it was so woefully unprepared to face.
In addition to the titular star of the book, the author took time to showcase the many other figures who served under the “Old Buddha” (as the Dowager Empress was affectionately known in the provinces), working diligently to reform China’s administration. Many of these figures were not even native Chinese, as it turns out! One of the most prominent individuals Chang brought up was one Sir Robert Hart, born in County Armagh, Ireland, who served as Inspector General for the Imperial Customs Service for over five decades, helping to reform an antiquated and thoroughly-corrupt system of trade. I appreciated the time spent giving due credit to people such as these because it helped to enhance Cixi’s stature as a leader of talented individuals, rather than as some mythic heroine who saved a nation all by herself.
I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone with even a passing interest in Chinese history. The author’s style of writing is easily accessible to anyone who is curious as to how China entered the twentieth century, a century that it would later come to dominate when men and women followed from Cixi’s example of slow but inevitable progress concerned with the benefit of all.
serenarose's review against another edition
4.0
3.8 seemed like there was a lot of spin and the author thought cixi was the best ruler/ person ever but very informative