Choices - Fiction
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
Empress Orchid by Anchee Min
In a novel based on years of research that included documents Min smuggled from the Forbidden City, Empress Orchid is the story of Tzu Hsi, China's longest-reigning female ruler and its last Empress. For decades Chinese schoolchildren have been taught that Empress Orchid was "a mastermind of pure evil and intrigue," but Min presents a strong-willed, utterly compelling woman who used her beauty to become a concubine of the Emperor and her brains to become his confidante and lover. A novel of power and alienation during one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history — its forced opening to the West.
The author, born in Shanghai in 1957, spent many years working on a Communist labour farm before moving to the United States in 1984.
“Richly detailed and completely gripping”
10 copies
