Empress Dowager Cixi

The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

By: Jung Chang

Narrated by: Pik-sen Lim

Length: 19 hrs and 3 mins

Publisher's summary

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Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries, and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a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 Ltd

Critic reviews

"A fascinating and instructive biography for anyone interested in how today’s China began." ( Library Journal)

"Cixi’s extraordinary story has all the elements of a good fairy tale: bizarre, sinister, triumphant, and terrible." ( The Economist)

"When an author as thorough, gifted, and immersed in Chinese culture as Chang writes, both scholars and general readers take notice." ( Booklist)

Unputdownable; liked narrator

A more sympathetic angle towards the Dragon Empress. I feel the author is being fair with her.

Feel so fortunate to know about her

As a woman myself; what a wonderful person have I found to look up to... and in almost everyway, if this account is as well researched as I believe it is.

Interesting story about a controversial woman

I chose to listen to this audiobook in preparation for a trip to China, and finished it while there. Quite a different take on the Empress Dowager than the tale told by the tour guides and what I assume is official party line, but it was really interesting to visit the Forbidden Palace and other sites with this point of view in mind. Really enjoyed it.

A thought provoking biography of one the people who responsible for the transition to modern China.

Excellently researched and gives a good foundation on the background for the birth of modern China. Beautifully read and articulated with care.

rather hard work

I was looking forward to this, but took a long time to get through it. Finally managed it.
The text inevitably consists of a lot of dates and lists of names etc.
Some interesting and enlightening perspectives on events such as the Boxer Rebellion. Part of Chang's aim was to rehabilitate the image of CiXi, which this succeeds in some respects.
I thought it was strange to choose a narrator who is obviously not a native mandarin speaker and who has problems with pronouncing names, places and events using the pinyin. This became confusing at times.

A Long Panegyric for a Tryant

This has to be the one of the least convincing eulogies for a rather brutal autocrat and usurper I have come across. But let’s leave that aside the literary experience is not based on the judgment of the character herself. This Is a very long but, one get the feeling, superficial journey though the life of one of history’s more controversial characters. Rather than an analysis of her character and political machinations we are treated to an endless recitation of her opulence and finery and apparent good taste. Her alleged successes are lauded and her many faults and defeats are brushed under the carpet. Furthermore and very eccentrically, we are treated to long series anecdotes about the luxurious surroundings in which this all took place. And being offered the Dowager Empress’s own propaganda and polemics as proof of justified actions is not convincing.

Even the most gentle and forgiving tone in which the story is related can’t cover up the fact that one is dealing and irascible, pompous and impetuous personality. Happy to usurp murder and steal on a whim. That are not fatal flaws in a despot but it does make the narrative unconvincing

I imagine there are other more informative assessments of her reign available,