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Empress Dowager Cixi
The Concubine Who Launched Modern China
Book • 2013
Published in 2013, this biography comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Empress Dowager Cixi as a conservative and cruel ruler.
Jung Chang argues that Cixi, who unofficially controlled the Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861 to 1908, was instrumental in bringing medieval China into the modern age.
Under her reign, China developed industries, railways, electricity, telecommunications, and modern military forces, while she abolished foot-binding and gruesome punishments, and initiated women's liberation and parliamentary reforms.
Based on newly available Chinese historical documents including court records, correspondence, and diaries, the biography provides both a panoramic view of modern China's birth and an intimate portrait of Cixi navigating extraordinary challenges including rebellions, foreign wars, and invasion by eight allied powers.
Jung Chang argues that Cixi, who unofficially controlled the Qing dynasty for 47 years from 1861 to 1908, was instrumental in bringing medieval China into the modern age.
Under her reign, China developed industries, railways, electricity, telecommunications, and modern military forces, while she abolished foot-binding and gruesome punishments, and initiated women's liberation and parliamentary reforms.
Based on newly available Chinese historical documents including court records, correspondence, and diaries, the biography provides both a panoramic view of modern China's birth and an intimate portrait of Cixi navigating extraordinary challenges including rebellions, foreign wars, and invasion by eight allied powers.
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Mentioned in 1 episodes
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Yascha Mounk
Jung Chang
Jung Chang on A Personal History of China
