Jung Chang is the best-selling author of Wild Swans, which The Asian Wall Street Journal called the most widely read book about China, and Mao: The Unknown Story (with Jon Halliday), which was described by Time as “an atom bomb of a book.” Her books have been translated into more than forty languages and sold more than fifteen million copies outside mainland China, where they are both banned. She was born in China in 1952 and moved to Britain in 1978. She lives in London.
“Cixi’s extraordinary story has all the elements of a good fairy
tale: bizarre, sinister, triumphant and terrible.” —The
Economist
“A truly authoritative account of Cixi’s rule. Her story is both
important and evocative.” —Orville Schell, The New York Times
Book Review
“A fantastic Machiavellian tale. . . . Dives into a genuinely
fascinating figure: a fierce imperial consort who ruled behind the
thrones of two successive Chinese emperors and helped ease China
into the twentieth century.” —New York magazine
“Certain to become the standard by which all future biographies of
the Dowager Empress are measured.” —The Daily Beast
“Jung Chang has written a pathbreaking and generally persuasive
book.” —The New York Review of Books
“If there is one woman who mattered in the history of modern China,
it is the empress dowager Cixi. . . . [Her] conventional image is
queried in this detailed and beautifully narrated biography, which
at long last restores the empress dowager to her rightful place.”
—The Sunday Times (London)
“Sets out to rehabilitate the reputation of a woman who, [Chang]
argues, helped modernize China. . . . While Chang acknowledges
Cixi’s missteps—such as allowing the Boxers to fight against a
Western invasion, which led to widespread slaughter—she sees her as
a woman whose energy, farsightedness, and ruthless pragmatism
transformed a country.” —The New Yorker
“[An] authoritative and epic biography.” —The Toronto Star
“Well-researched and provocative. . . . Cixi deserves to be
remembered and this book is to be welcomed for giving an important
figure in Chinese history the prominence she deserves. . . . This
spirited biography reminds us that a greater female presence might
be a trigger for much-needed political change.” —New Statesman
“Fascinating. . . . Wonderfully illuminating. . . . Jung Chang’s
new book gives the infamous concubine Cixi her due.” —The
Spectator
“This is a rich, dramatic story of rebellions, battles, plotting,
rivalry, foreign invasion, punishment and forbidden love. . . .
[Chang] uses new evidence and meticulous research to cast a
spotlight on the amazing woman she regards as the mother of modern
China.” —Daily Mail
“Corrects a longstanding misconception about a woman whose impact
on China can’t be overstated. It’s a fascinating look at power,
politics and the gender divide.” —BookPage
“A rich and fascinating book that never relaxes its hold on the
reader despite the marshalling of a mass of complex historical
details seen through the prism of Cixi.” —The New York Journal of
Books
Ask a Question About this Product More... |