The story of a woman who rose in rank from concubine to empress is as incredible as any fiction – yet Jung Chang’s book on Empress Cixi is a biography whose basis is in fact. Still, one can’t help but be sceptical about the veracity of a history told more than a century after the fact – and although Chang’s telling of Cixi’s life is admiring in tone, heralding the former concubine as the force who shaped modern China, other biographers have been less forthcoming in their praise. Chang’s skill lies not just in her ability to hold Cixi up as a bastion of reform, intelligence and good judgment but also in her skill at storytelling. Chinese political history can be a tough nut to crack, but Chang weaves in and out of Cixi’s biography with an ease that is almost as astounding as the events themselves.
