Indeed, Cixi is depicted as unusually wise for her time and age. In the early 20th century, she allowed women to appear in public, abolished foot-binding, lifted the ban on Han-Manchu intermarriage, and decreed that girls should be educated. The constitutional system Cixi initiated, Chang writes, included modern laws-commercial, civil, criminal, and judicial, and the establishment of law schools. Chang argues that Cixi, the most important woman in Chinese history, “brought a medieval empire into the modern age.” Under Cixi’s rule, China built the first railroads (the Beijing-Canton railroad remains a key artery in today’s economy), installed telegraphs, introduced electricity, steam boats, modern mining, newspapers, established the state bank and promoted freedom of religion.
R$ 26,80 (ebook, The Manchu Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is generally thought of as a conservative figure in Chinese history, incapable of defending China’s interests in the second half of the 19th century, when China lost its position as the world’s largest economy.Īgainst this broad consensus, Jung Chang has written a lively biography that depicts Cixi (pronounced “Tseshi”) as quite the opposite. London: Vintage Digital (2013), 528 pages. A photograph portrait Cixi sent to US President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, thanking him for his good wishes for her 70th birthday.īook review: Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China by Jung Chang.
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