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Comments (14)

Empress Dowager Cixi

the Concubine Who Launched Modern China
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1 to 14 of 14 items
Jan 26, 2024HollyGPence rated this title 2.5 out of 5 stars
This book spends too much time on salacious back-stairs gossip. From the subtitle, I would have hoped for a greater focus on Cixi's political activities.
Jan 10, 2024joyful2743 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
An exciting but challenging book to read. The Chinese names whose pronunciation I have no idea about as well as the Chinese language. Still learning of this woman and what she did to modernize China. Not an easy read but an informative one.
Mar 05, 2021EBirdy rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
What an amazing woman and she accomplished so much! Some of the reading was a bit dry but overall quite fascinating.
Nov 05, 2019matthewliu1981 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
I absolutely love this book. Growing up in Northeast of China ( where it used to be called Manchurian land), and having a 1/4 of Manchurian heritage, I am always interested in the history of Qing Dynasty. Interestingly, this book…
Oct 26, 2019shamas rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This is the story of an incredible and unique stateswoman, the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population in the last half of the 19th century and the first decade of the 20th. Jung Chang doesn’t pull any punches when writing…
Oct 13, 2017ArapahoeBridget rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
This book is fascinating. I feel like I actually got to know the empress intimately, as well as enjoying a sweeping look at Chinese history and its role in the geopolitical landscape. I found the ways she had to work within the dynastic…
Sep 29, 2015heinrij rated this title 3.5 out of 5 stars
An interesting woman and a good book. If she could have lived another 10 years, China would have been a different country today. Rating G
Jun 17, 2015mariho rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
This book is a page turner. There's a lot of info to digest and many plots and ideas to ponder. Luckily the chapters moves fast on each key events. The most obviously interesting part of the book is the photos. Once I thumb through the…
May 19, 2015Eil_1 rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
For those who are interested in the final dynasty of China, this book is a must. It is extremely detailed and historically relevant. Despite her errors, she was pivotal in establishing China as a World Power prior to the rule of Mao.
Mar 27, 2015nerowolfgal rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Many of the early biographies that were written about Cixi were written by Chinese enemies who could heap nothing but blame and scandal on a woman who dared to rule, or were outright lies made up by writers to make their story sensational…
Apr 13, 2014D060607210 rated this title 5 out of 5 stars
Author clearly has an agenda, and minimizes many of the Empress' mistakes and downright wicked behaviour, but overall it is a great book about a tremendous woman who was a victim of unbelievably greedy imperialism, all while trying to make…
Apr 13, 2014GLNovak rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
This biography was quite interesting. I learned more of the chronology of Chinese history than I ever had before, and learned that the Dowager Empress might not have been as evil and vicious as I had thought. She is portrayed here as…
Apr 05, 2014SeattleSaul rated this title 4.5 out of 5 stars
A well-written work by a China historian. Chang opens up the curtain on a subject that requires knowledge of China and the language and that is otherwise inaccessible to most Western readers. Chang is obviously a Cixi fan, and takes…
Mar 17, 2014
"Presents an epic portrait of the 19th-century empress that provides coverage of the coup that rendered her regent after her husband's death, her defiance of centuries of traditions and formalities and her role in introducing Western…