Empress Min

Anchee Min, taken from her website

I'm very glad I finally got around to reading Empress Orchid, by Anchee Min. This was a very good book. I learned a lot about China and what it was like for the aristocracy in the mid-19th century, when China was forced to open their country to the world. The writer includes a great deal of history in her fictionalized autobiography of China's last empress, Tzu Hsi (nicknamed Orchid), of Manchu heritage. That was only one of the things I learned from this book: that Manchu was a particular type of Chinese ethnicity, different from what the author refers to as "Chinese."

But there was so much historical material in this book, it became a bit overwhelming at times and I must confess that I fast-forwarded through some of the more detailed sections. But the book wasn't just about China--it was also about the West and its fraught relationship with the East, in particular the British and their imperialistic designs, all of which seem to have to do (as ever) with money.

And perhaps the boldest thread that weaves through this book is the fate of women, not just in China, but in the world at the time. Empress Orchid--concubine, mother, leader--had a great deal of power at a time when women were not expected (or allowed) to wield power. In fact, most of the men in her life tried desperately to wrest it away from her. That they did not succeed is a testament to her strength and intelligence (some would say cunning).

The author is obviously intending to present a sympathetic portrait of this historical figure. Reading Wikipedia accounts I obtained a different, ostensibly more balanced picture. China has in the past century portrayed Tzu Hsi as evil--she is, after all, a figure from their imperial past that they were trying to vilify during the early years of Communism. Recently, however, she is enjoying a more positive reputation as a strong leader during a difficult time for China, when it was opened for the first time in centuries to the modern world. China learned the hard way that they were weak, decadent and insular--all qualities that left them vulnerable to exploitation and attack by Western countries.

This book was not only a good history lesson, however. It was also a good story, suspenseful and gripping. I found myself wanting to find out how Orchid was going to get her way--would she succeed in surviving? And I found myself caring about what happened to her and the people she cared about. I was sympathetic to her secret desire to return to her Manchurian roots, to ride with her husband into the countryside, to live the life of a nomad. Whether or not the real woman held such dreams is not clear, but reading about them made her more human and her plight--and that of her country--more sympathetic. Of course, making readers care about a protagonist is the mark of a good novelist--Anchee Min is definitely that. She has written other books--I may check them out.

An enjoyable book--I recommend it highly.

Next: an "M" book I somehow succeeded in avoiding when I was in high school: Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.