A review by mrucker
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

Did not finish book. Stopped at 8%.

I really wanted to like it but it has a dryness that was so difficult to get past. I wanted to learn about Cixi but over 25 pages in and she was background character while the history of China’s war with Britain and France took center stage. I understand how this is important to her story but she wasn’t even referenced in it and it was all focused on the King and Princes. There was also little to no info on her time as a concubine or in the palace before this and it felt like they were skipping through her story to get to the war bits and then marinating in them. I just couldn’t get it in my teeth enough to enjoy.