BRIEF Review
dowager empress cixi by jung chang
And it begins... With one of China's most well-known but controversial writers: Jung Chang, author of Wild Swans and Mao: A Biography. Though she is undeniably a beautiful writer and an incredibly interesting woman in her own right, Chang's work as a historian falls well short of objective. While historical embellishment works perfectly well in her own memoir/debut novel, Wild Swans, it is perhaps less effective in her revisionist biography of Dowager Empress Cixi (1835 - 1908). Historical revisionism that aims to speak from the inevitably muted perspective of women is important, however Chang's skills as a historian do not quite match up to her excellent storytelling, and that let's her down in both this and her biography of Mao Tse-dong.
Revising the Erasure of China's Women
September 14, 2017
Cixi was not at the coronation. The majestic main part of the Forbidden City was out of bounds to her -- because she was a woman. She still could not set foot in it, even though she was now the de facto ruler... Virtually all decrees were issued in the name of her son, as Cixi had no mandate to rule. It was with this crippling handicap that she proceeded to change China.
Jung Chang, Dowager Empress Cixi (London, 2013) 63