Natalia S. Y. Fang

Empress Dowager Cixi: Images, Ideas and Reality Natalia S. Y. Fang

This book focuses on the image-making for China¿s Empress Dowager Cixi (1834¿1908) and on Western views of her. Although many articles and biographies written by Westerners have tried to understand her, Cixi, who had worked her way up from being selected as a concubine of Emperor Xianfeng in 1851, remains a mystery. While some have found her impressive, civilized, kind and loyal, others have claimed her to be reactionary, devious, tyrannical, superstitious, drug-addicted, sex-mad and even murderous. (Understandably, the Republic of China, which took over in 1911, was little concerned to burnish her image.) What this book aims to achieve is this: as the subtitle ¿ Images, Ideas and Reality - implies, studies of Cixi¿s public appearance, her images and various opinions about her (ideas) are thought to get as close as possible to the real Cixi. Arguably, the best approach to her is to understand her iconic portraits. This book points to what is the likely reality behind the images and ideas. Here, art history is used to unravel serious confusions of the past affecting the image of a long-reigning Empress and indeed the very image of Imperial China.