In her forward for Imperial Woman, Buck says “Western writers, with few exceptions, describe unfavorably and even vindictively.” I find it amazing that Buck realized that at the time. While the novel itself was interesting enough, from a historical perspective, I found the novel sorely wanting. I was interested to see if her version of Cixi would be different than writers today. Buck even says in her forward that she visited remote villages where people thought Cixi was still alive and reigning decades after her death. While Buck was not a contemporary of Cixi, she lived in China while some of Cixi’s contemporaries still lived, and her legacy was still fresh in the minds of the people. Buck had a novel about Cixi, I just had to read her version of this fascinating woman. (You can read my take on Anchee Min’s books here and here and Jung Chang’s here.) Why, yes, this is my fourth review of a book about Cixi.
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