
Empress Dowager Cixi
The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
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Buy Now for $38.99
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Narrated by:
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Pik-sen Lim
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By:
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Jung Chang
About this listen
At the age of 16, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died, in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China - behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.
In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the telegraph, and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like “death by a thousand cuts” and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.
Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries, and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s - and the world’s - history. Packed with drama, fast paced, and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.
©2014 Jung Chang (P)2014 Bolinda Publishing Pty LtdCritic Reviews
Fascinating.
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Great reading bad Mandarin pronunciation
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excellent!
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Highly recommended
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Enthralling !
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The author offers a more nuanced portrayal, showing Cixi as a complex, intelligent, and reform-minded leader who navigated immense challenges in a deeply patriarchal society. While she certainly made controversial decisions, the book highlights her efforts to modernize China—supporting infrastructure projects, diplomatic relations, and educational reform. It was eye-opening to see how much of her legacy has been shaped by political bias and historical revisionism.
This book left me wanting to learn more about Qing history and the women who shaped it from behind the curtain.
Such a good good!
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