MCLC: Jung Chang biography of Cixi

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: Jung Chang biography of Cixi
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Source: The Guardian (5/23/13):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/may/23/jung-chang-groundbreaking-new-b
iography

Jung Chang writes 'groundbreaking' new biography
Empress Dowager Cixi, which promises to overturn conventional
understanding of the Chinese ruler, is Jung's first book in eight years
By Alison Flood

Wild Swans author Jung Chang <http://www.jungchang.net/>'s first book in
eight years, the "extraordinary" story of the Empress Dowager Cixi, will
be released this autumn, her publisher has announced.

Chang has based her biography on "long and detailed" research in newly
opened Chinese and western archives, said publisher Jonathan Cape, and has
revealed "a totally different picture" of Cixi "to the one that has
prevailed for a hundred years". One of Emperor Xianfeng's 3,000
concubines, Cixi rose through the ranks by producing an heir, Tongzhi, and
when Xianfeng died in 1861 she ousted other contenders and installed
herself as sole regent for her son, ruling China for 47 years.

Chang's last book, Mao: The Unknown Story, was published in 2005. Her
"groundbreaking" new biography will "comprehensively overturn Š the
conventional view of Cixi as a deeply conservative and cruel despot", said
Jonathan Cape, and show how she abolished foot-binding, developed foreign
trade and diplomacy, and revolutionised China's education system.

"Jung Chang looks in detail at her conduct of domestic and foreign
affairs, but also takes us into Cixi's splendid Summer Palace, where she
lived surrounded by eunuchs. The world Jung Chang describes here, in
fascinating detail, seems almost incredible, a unique mixture of the very
old and the very new," said the publisher. "This biography will
revolutionise historical thinking about a crucial period in China's ­ and
the world's ­ history."

Chang is best known for the bestselling Wild Swans, which looks at the
history of China through the lives of her grandmother, her mother and
herself, and has sold 10m copies worldwide. Empress Dowager Cixi will be
published on 3 October.