Last Empress

I actually did not read this, but I bought it and it's predecessor "Empress Orchid" for my fiance and all I can say is I hear a lot about it afterward and she litterally could not put them down finishing both books in 3 days over Christmas weekend. From my understanding this a book for anyone interested in a good woman's perspective and intrigue set in China's Imperial Court. And if you are interested in a different, more provincial prospective, my fiance also loved "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan" by Lisa See. All three books of which are available through Amzon.com

I read this after reading "Imperial Woman" by Pearl Buck, so I now feel that I have a very good understanding of the last Empress of China and the politics of the time and the court. Both books dealt with the same character though with entirely different perspectives, national background of the author and generations. They were both fascinating in different ways.

A fitting sequel to Min Anchee's Empress Orchid. This book was able to present a less biased view of the Empress Dowager Cixi during the last years of the Qing Dynasty. It is sad that people would feel that the book was flawed. But I think it is because people have come to know Cixi as despotic dictator with an unsatisfiable thirst for power and riches. However if one were to read the scholarly work of Sterling Seagrave entitled Dragon Lady: The Life and Legend of the Last Empress of Chinaa, one would also see that Min Anchee's depiction is not something that one dreamt of overnight. In fact the "lies told by the Communists" is not the only thing that has demonized the Empress Dowager, this privilege belongs to the work of many Western governments and Japan who had a lot to gain from China during that time. Unfortunately according to Sterling Seagrave "In 1974, somewhat to Oxford's embarrassment and to the private dismay of China scholars everywhere, Backhouse was revealed to be a counterfeiter...The con man had been exposed, but his counterfeit material was still bedrock scholarship". And even though some fault may be blamed on the lies made by the Cantonese Kang Yu-Wei who with the help of the British was able to escape capture and given refuge in Japan (who had several years earlier assassinated Korea's Queen Min and burned her corpse) and who was blasted on the world stage as China's Saviour by the world press (with of course with the urging of their own governments). As a novel, I wasn't expecting a history book depiction of the last years of the Qing Dynasty, as such one cannot expect the 100% veracity of the accounts written in the book, one shouldn't loose sleep if the accounts in a novel were not exactly how one would read in history books. The reason why it is filed under fiction is because the publishers as well as the author are aware that there was some literary adjustment to the presentation of facts in this work.

I have spent years sourcing and working with factories in China. Each trip is filled with exciting food, gracious people and accelerated growth. The one thing it is never filled with is history. It is like time erased a 1,000 years from the face of this country. I continue to ask about the past and the young people I work with know very little. I travel from city to city in hopes of a glimpse of the past and yet there is so little still standing today. I felt empty not knowing who built this nation, what did they once dream this great land and country could be. So I turned to books to try to fill in the blanks. I know some of what I read is non-fiction yet at the same time I cannot help but begin to see the story unfold. The Last Empress better known as "Orchid" was moving and telling of the final days of the Ch'ing Dynasty. I have stood by the summer house she lived in and tried to imagine what it must have been like to live with such humiliation as a people and a country. To watch tradition slip through ones fingers. This is a moving story and one I highly recommend if you too are seeking to unfold a piece of China's history.

Fantastic! A new refreshing perspective which embraces the complexity of the times, sexuality, and female leadership.