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A carregar... Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern Chinapor Jung Chang
   Ainda não há conversas na Discussão sobre este livro.   Abcdarian | May 18, 2024 |   ) siok | Feb 12, 2024 | No indoor plumbing. No indoor heat. Floods. Famine. Competing empires. Little of anything we’d call an education. It is no wonder contemporary Chinese look back on their history with not a little distain and resentment for how the West treated them during the period of denial when the “Western devils” encroached on their idyllic Confucian society. It was a brutal existence. Bound feet for the women. Patriarchal society. Domination of the Han Chinese by the Manchu. Filthy streets. Corruption rampant. The British injected a steady stream of poisonous opium into this society and then objected when the Chinese dumped their precious commodity into the bay of Canton. Sound familiar, you Americans out there? When the Qing Emperor died and left his young son in command, the boy’s mother —- the concubine Empress — and the legit empress established a regency with her in control. She reigned on and off for 47 years. Jung Chang contends that Cixi opened the trade door wide and tried to Westernize and modernize China going so far as to plant the seeds for a constitutional monarchy. She brought in trains, modern schools, new military technology, and a modern appreciation for science. Along with Western trade came Christian missionaries and a new religious dogma. It brought turmoil, unruly mobs, and catastrophic social unrest including the Taipeng Rebellion and later the Boxer Rebellion. Foreign governments took over large territories in China. Foreign troops ruined national monuments. China has lifted herself up after a century after Cixi’s regency. Hundreds of millions have moved to cities and modern conveniences. Illiteracy has declined dramatically. And there is a huge middle class. While its streets are no longer cesspools of filth, though, today Beijing’s air is foul and toxic. The country’s biggest rivers are polluted, and mining tailings pollute large swaths of the countryside. Its population has quadrupled, and its goverment is a Leninist clique. Modernization has come at a steep price. And not just China’s modernization. ( ) MylesKesten | Jan 23, 2024 | Il mio fiuto di lettrice mi suggerisce che il tono apologetico è giustificato dal fatto che Chang ha scritto questo libro anche per riabilitare una figura storica che, in quanto donna di potere, ha subito giudizi poco lusinghieri: anche quando racconta degli errori di Cixi, l’autrice cerca di addolcire il biasimo con una serie di giustificazioni che non sono campate per aria (l’apparato di fonti consultate è notevole), ma finiscono probabilmente per restituirci un’immagine più positiva del necessario. Detto questo, L’imperatrice Cixi mi è piaciuto tanto, me lo sono letto a colpi di cento pagine al giorno e mi ha fatto venire una gran voglia di leggere gli altri lavori di Chang. Cixi è stata una politica abile e capace, a differenza del marito e dei figli, che avrebbero dovuto ereditare il regno, ma che non avevano le capacità di guidare la Cina in quel particolare momento storico, vuoi per disinteresse (è dura fare l’imperatore quando le tue inclinazioni sono lontane dalla politica), vuoi per una mentalità che aveva ormai fatto il suo corso. La vita di Cixi – e i suoi diversi periodi di regno – hanno coinciso con grandi cambiamenti per la Cina – inclusa la cessione dell’isola di Hong Kong alla Gran Bretagna – e quindi è un momento storico interessante del quale sapere di più, visto che ha messo in moto eventi cruciali per arrivare alla Cina di oggi. ( ) lasiepedimore | Jan 17, 2024 | Natt90 | Jul 6, 2022 |
 Chinese biography tends to render even its most colorful subjects in monochrome. Once the Communist Party has determined whether an individual worth writing about is hero or villain the biographer's task is to burnish or darken an image until its true outline is lost. Information that contradicts the chosen narrative is casually dismissed or simply omitted. There's no nuance, no debate, no shades of gray. So there's particular excitement whenever fresh material on a key figure escapes China and obtains uncensored publication overseas, such as is promised by Chinese émigré Jung Chang's new biography "Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China." New access is claimed to "court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eye-witness accounts." But despite 35 years in England, Ms. Chang has not thrown off the habits of the regime from which she fled. There's a courtroom-style approach to her biographies; once she chooses a position every possible fact or argument, however spurious, is marshalled in support of that side. ... During her lengthy unofficial reign, Cixi stands accused of usurping power, suppressing development and executing reformers who would have strengthened the empire against foreign encroachments. She is also supposed to have spent vital naval funds on the refurbishment of the Summer Palace and connived with the Boxer rebels to kill or drive out every foreigner in China. Ms. Chang's Cixi is largely a mirror image of this figure: a campaigner for women's rights, an ardent supporter of modernization, a friend to foreigners and a victim of unfounded accusations. But her account is thin on references to reliable primary sources. It frequently quotes clueless foreigners (notably the British attaché Algernon Freeman-Mitford ) when their remarks happen to suit, as well as works by Chinese historians prevented by politics from publishing frank and accurate accounts. Rumors that appeal are passed on uncritically, while those that do not are dismissed as "just a story." Professional historians are unlikely to take the book seriously, not least because we are frequently told what Cixi was thinking or feeling. And despite ample material, Ms. Chang doesn't possess the narrative skills to turn her story into a ripping yarn. The only suspense comes as the reader waits to discover how each of Cixi's crimes will be explained away.  While Chang’s admiration can approach hagiography, her extensive use of new Chinese sources makes a strong case for a reappraisal. PrémiosDistinctions
Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age. At the age of 16, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor's numerous concubines and sexual partners. When he died in 1861, their 5-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China - behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male. In this ground-breaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, telegraph, and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like 'death by a thousand cuts' and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women's liberation, and embarked on the path to introduce parliamentary elections to China. Jung Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a die-hard conservative and cruel despot. Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national crises: the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, wars with France and Japan - and the invasion by 8 allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager's conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing's Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs - with one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Jung Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new. Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eye-witness accounts, this biography will revolutionise historical thinking about a crucial period in China's - and the world's - history. Packed with drama, fast-paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world's population, and as a unique stateswoman. Não foram encontradas descrições de bibliotecas. |
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 Google Books — A carregar...GénerosSistema Decimal de Melvil (DDC)951.035092History and Geography Asia China and region History 1644-1912 (Qing) 1864-1911Classificação da Biblioteca do Congresso dos EUA (LCC)AvaliaçãoMédia: (4.01)
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