A review by dakota12
Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang

5.0

I'm ashamed to say that I barely knew her name before reading this book given now she has to be one of my favourite historical figures. The book focuses on her life story but in doing so also gives a great view of China and colonial affairs in the 19th/early 20th centuries. Chang also isn't shy about challenging the conventional stories around Cixi and often calls those misconceptions out. Uniquely, Chang uses primarily Chinese sources which seems like it should be the obvious thing to do but actually makes this book truly unique in western literature.

Some of the reviews here seem to get lost in whether Cixi was good or bad, at the end of the day she was human and this book shows that. Plus good or bad or anything in-between she is certainly one of the great figures of modern history.