Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ayang0321 's review for:
informative
medium-paced
This was an entertaining read, but it's hard for me to judge the historical accuracy of the book, which was the primary reason I picked it up in the first place. It's clear that Jung Chang wrote this book as an intervention in the historiography of Cixi—not a bad thing in of itself—and went through great lengths to counter rumors and hearsay with her thorough archival research. However, with such an explicit agenda, it's difficult to judge Chang's assessment of Cixi without also being familiar with the primary sources. One is at the mercy of the historian here in her framing of the narrative, and my own biases prevent me from readily sympathizing with a Qing empress or readily accepting that she was so much better of a modernizer and politician than Mao—the latter of whom the author has no lost love for. Still, Cixi's life is fascinating and she lived and ruled China during one of its most pivotal and interesting times in its modern history, so I don't think I lost too much reading this.