Customer Reviews

Empress Orchid

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Anchee Min's latest book demonstrates once again her comfort level with historical novels and shows, as well, her increasing command of English as an acquired language. Ms. Min's writing shows more complexity in her sentence structures, more subtlety in her imagery, richer characterization, and more power of expression than her previous novel, Wild Ginger. As a result, Empress Orchid is a highly engaging and satisfying read, rich in plot and characterization. Her novelization of the Dowager Empress Tzu Hsi may or may not be historically accurate, but I personally do not think precision is required here. The subject matter gives the author a wide field in which to display her story-telling skills while weaving in fascinating elements of Chinese history and culture. Having visited the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace three times myself, and the Summer Resort in Chengde once, I felt that Ms. Min captured their essence perfectly. As I read her descriptions, I felt transported back to those places as I had seen them, but 100 years ealier. Read this book for its atmosphere, its depiction of life in Imperial China, and its fascinating "insider" snippets of Chinese culture. If I had one criticism to offer, it is that I wish more of the "secondary" characters were more fully and thoroughly drawn and more of their interior thoughts, motivations, and reactions were revealed. The author creates fascinating characters in the eunuch An-te-hai, Prince Kung, and Yung Lu -- I would love to know more about them. That said, I will wait anxiously for the next installment in Anchee Min's story of Tzu Hsi. I firmly believe Ms. Min will replace Pearl Buck (and everyone else) as THE English language novelist of Chinese history. I recommend this book highly to anyone who wants to learn more about Chinese history and culture and life as it must have been lived in the Forbidden City in the late 19th Century.

Anchee Min takes the story of Yehonala, the concubine of Manchu Emperor Hsien Feng and gives it an erotic, feminine twist, creating a memoir-like portrait of this legendary woman. This novel is not perfect, yet it is exciting and takes a great deal of risks in style and substance.

If you aren't familiar with much Chinese history of the Ching Dynasty (ending with "The Last Emperor" Pu Yi) it helps to know a few things beforehand. Orchid, or Yehonala (her family name) became "Tzu Hsi" --Empress of the Western Palace, and was known as The Dowager Empress to the Europeans. She ruled as regent for her infant son Tung Chih after the death of Hsien Feng. She survived a coup attempt, the Opium Wars, the Tai Ping rebellion in Nanking, and the Boxer Rebellion and she died in 1908, on the same day as her nephew, the emperor successor to Tung Chih, who died of smallpox not long after coming of age.

A biography of the Empress by an English adventurer named Backhouse was considered gospel truth by the British, who despised this stubborn woman who kept China from modernizing and prevented the Europeans from establishing as much of a colonial beachhead in China as they had done in India and Indonesia. Backhouse's work was only discredited in 1974, which I find amazing, as I read his book in 1971 and thought it was pure bunkum with stories that surely were colonial propaganda and sensationalism (his tales of sexual escapades and sado-masochism were pure Victorian English erotic fantasy.)

Anchee Min plays some interesting turns on well-known history events (the selection of concubines after the death of the first Empress, the flight of the Imperial Household to Jehol during one European invasion, the death of Hsien Feng amid the struggle of his Viceroy Su Shun to become Regent, and Yehonala's rise to power.) The real story is vastly different -- actual events are sketched in altered form or as they were reported to happen, depending on Min's novelistic requirements.

What author Min is apparently attempting is an internal history, the development of the China's most powerful rulers rising from poverty-stricken and uneducated girl. It echoes the rise of Madam Mao during the Cultural Revolution, a subject of another of Min's novels ("Becoming Madam Mao.") As a work, the novel is flawed; characters are developed importantly, then dropped except for trifling reappearances (Yehonala's siblings, the Dowager foster-mother of Hsien Feng.) There is a lot of improbability and derivative plot device (the education in a whorehouse to learn erotic technique and the poisonous plotting of the other wives of Hsien Feng seems to owe more than a little something to novels such as Barbara Chase-Riboud's "Valide", the story of a concubine who rises to power in Ottoman Turkey.)

But despite the literary vagaries, this is an exciting read, not quite as good as I'd hoped, and not nearly as good as Pearl Buck's version "Imperial Woman" which is just as inaccurate historically. Anchee Min takes risks, and though this may not be her finest work, I think she will continue to delight and amaze her readers with her style.

I really wanted to love this book. I loved the author's autobiography (RED AZELEA) and her novel (KATHERINE)about a foreign English teacher in China, so I expected EMPRESS ORCHID to bring together her amazing talent for prose narrative in English, enhanced with her first-hand research of Chinese sources, to bring to life the mis-judged history of Empress Dowager Tz'u Hsi.

I anticipated some embellishments, but the total re-creation of Tzu Hsi as "Orchid", into a kind of modern woman-warrior, was too much for me. To ask the reader to believe that an uneducated female was able to "pick up" enough formal literary Chinese to be able to read court documents is stretching history way too far. Wouldn't it have made a more fascinating story to construe how Orchid was able to hold onto power so long in spite of being illiterate?

The first third of the book is a masterful depiction of the sights, smells, sounds, social structure, of late 19th Century China, and would have gained 5 stars, but the rest devolved into conjecture after conjecture which mix like sour notes in an otherwise brilliant composition. It's a novel, but it's not a historical novel. Moreover, I $en$ed that the whole $tory was being pitched to the $maller mind$ of Hollywood in hope of a movie deal. I felt like the author let down her loyal fans while trying to ride her own popularity to chase the $$.

The best part of Empress Orchid is the list of 5 tone-setting quotations from other sources in the facing page prior to the map (unnumbered pages). One of these quotes is from Sterling Seagrave from his book DRAGON LADY: THE LIFE AND LEGEND OF THE LAST EMPRESS OF CHINA, which refers to the fact that in 1974 most of the previously trusted scholarship on Tzu Hsi had been revealed as counterfeit. This led me to buy Seagrave's book, which explores the falsehoods of these earlier works, and turns into a fluid and fascinating narrative that is truly Biographical History.

In short, you can choose to spend your precious time on 336 pages of a fictional romance novel (Empress Orchid), or 463 pages of intelligent, delicious historical biography (followed by 135 pages of fascinating notes and complete index). As a student of Chinese language, literature, and history, I recommend reading Seagrave's book first.

I must say, this is a pretty interesting and enjoyable novel I've ever read about the Empress of China the well known Cixi or also known as Yulan "Orchid" when she was still a concubine.

Though this is imaginative writing. Anchee Min has tried to get as real as possible which I find that its great. The novel is full of realistic points of views of a life of a girl who comes from a background set in those times that would be so hard to eek out a living. There are some points in the novel which I found with a sense of humour etc... overall the novel conveys how she made her way up from a lowly official's daughter through to concubine and then empress dowager.

Through the gates of Peking (modern Bejing) her future was uncertain and through the help of a former palace maid. How life was like in the Forbidden city and how she encounters other Manchurian girls who were chosen to be the Emperor Xiangfeng's wives or concubines. Through selection she manages to rise through the ranks.

Anchee Min conveys thoughts and feelings of what would be going through Orchid's mind in regards to having never seen the palace and going through the large gates only to realise that once she was in she wasn't able to leave at all. Through intrigue, gossip, the palace had ears and eyes that could see and hear what was going on between concubines and eunuchs like An-Te-Hai became a faithful servant who served Orchid with loyalty and through compassion they managed to survive many things that China was going through... having to leave the imperial city and spend time in Chengde or Jehol while the foreign troops raided the imperial city.

This is a wonderful book to read and each page I turned... I found it more inviting to know what lays beyond it each... its like a surprise full of interesting incidents and many personal feelings are expressed in regards to new consorts or jealously amongst the concubines, anxiety grows as mere humans who are hailed high of high above the subjects to become consorts, wives and concubines, relating issues of household matters and love, chosen to be the next in favour... it goes on and I guess this what must have been going on through the minds of those who are confined within the palace grounds unable to do anything else.

There are sections that shows plain reality and how Anchee Min also relates how boring it would have been like to be in the palace and not even venture out into the outside, she does express mundane things that we as human beings are able to contemplate in regards to having no movement and restrictions, and other times there would be great celebrations and social events that concubines and wives would take part in.

Very wonderful book... to find out what goes on... you will need to find out... its all a surprised...

I would highly recommend this book to anyone even if you think you're not into Chinese history. I read it because I loved Red Azalea (Min's highly acclaimed autobiography). Min has an amazing way of bringing history to life. I really felt like I knew the characters - Emperor Hsien Feng, Orchid, An-te-hai, etc. From the moment I began reading, I couldn't put it down. Even though the setting is 1800's China, it's themes are relevant to today.

I have to start off by saying that I really enjoyed reading Empress Orchid, the writing is vivid, exciting and detailed immersing you in a world far away and long ago. Anchee Min has a knack for visual detail and keeping the reader hooked page after page, I couldn't put it down.

However, historically this book is highly flawed. The history of China is probably one of the most blurred of all the history in the world. Hitler's evil is a fact, Stalin is clear enough. However, mystery has always surrounded Chinese history, there always seems to be a screen preventing us from making a final judgement - were Mao's actions right? Was the Empress Dowager really evil? This 'screen' therefore allows what little fact there remains to be twisted sometimes, elaborated and embroidered by whoever chooses to write or comment on the matter, and the result is that things get mixed up even more.

The fact is that for the most part, Empress Orchid is fictionalized, but not as you might think. Anchee Min does not invent anything, she does not make up anything that didn't really happen. However, since Min uses the voice of Tz'u-hsi as the narrator, the book is highly sympathetic towards the empress and various situations are made to seem as if they were out of Tz'u-hsi's control and not her fault. One such example is the beating of a young maid on her orders. It upset her so much because she didn't think the maid would be beaten so hard as to die. In reality, no one would have been beaten to death without an order of death as a result; the eunuchs carrying out the order would have been terrified of accidentally killing on orders by a royal. Nobody dies "accidentally" in the Imperial Palace.

There are also many incidences where Tz'u-hsi is seen to be more wiser and forward-thinking than those around her in the Forbidden City - the author contrasts Yehonala with another concubine, Neharoo, who is old-fashioned and somewhat superficial. Tz'u-hsi on the other hand is made to seem very modern, she dislikes the mass pomp and ceremony that comes with life in the Forbidden City, and is more practical than superstitious.

In reality, although Tz'u-hsi was an intelligent and quick woman, she was as backward-thinking as those around her, and prevented China from modernizing as she believed this was a bad influence from the Western invaders. The book makes Tz'u-hsi seems as if she is critical of the idea that one person is pre-destined to rule China, but in reality, Tz'u-hsi believed just that, and once she became Empress, believed that she was the one (Princess Der Ling writes that the Empress declared, "I have often thought that I am the most clever woman that ever lived... I have 400 million people dependent on my judgement"). Whilst her country was crumbling, Tz'u-hsi squandered imperial money for her own leisure, most famously the Summer Palace. She also killed ruthlessly, which was justified in many cases, but in just as many cases, the deaths were ordered as a result of jealousy of other concubines or an official disagreeing with her opinion.

Whilst the Empress Dowager may have been innocent and compassionate upon first entering the palace as a young girl, it is highly unlikely that she got where she did by being fair and moral. It is often said that the lives of concubines, especially imperial concubines, were the hardest in China, and so it was inevitable that many of them either committed suicide or became immoral conspirators in order to simply survive. But for Anchee Min to give the impression that Empress Tz'u-hsi played fair, as well as mainly being the victim of others, is a far stretch from the truth, and I could go as far as to say it was the other way round. The only reason I can think of Anchee Min portraying Tz'u-hsi in such a light is that she wants to give an alternative to the public opinion of the empress. But she seems to have gone too far in the opposite direction!

But nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, and I guess it depends on what you are looking for in a book, an accurate historical fiction or a highly dramatised, heart-racing read. But for those who do read this book, do not take everything it says for fact, despite what the author bizarrely put at the end of the novel!

This novel is good from a literary perspective. We follow the life of Yehenara/Yehonala/Orchid/the future dowager empress Cixi as she is taken as a concubine into the Forbidden City until shortly after her husband's death.

Keep in mind that this is a novel, and while general historical facts are correct, the details of Orchid's life are speculative, and Anchee Min does a good job writing a story. Here we see the 'romance' between her and Hsien Feng - again speculative because no one knows how things REALLY were between the two of them. So please, pick up this book if you want a good read, but not as a historical text.

I really enjoyed this book. It gives a wonderful perspective on what it was like to be a woman in China in the mid-1800s. Of course, the woman who was portrayed in this historical novel was quite the unusual woman herself, coming into power through being a concubine of the emperor, but one who came to be highly favored because of her wonderful intellectual capabilities.

The book itself was wonderfully written. The author is particularly skilled at describing the things that motivates each of the main characters in the book. I would definitely recommend the book to those who are intrigued about China and its history.

A woman who rises to become the de facto ruler of China for over 40 years is no ordinary person. The Chinese Imperial court, with all of its ceremonial functions and symbolism, is fascinating. The transformations the country had to go through at the turn of the 19th century were astonishing. All of these elements must combine to create an outstading story - right?

Not in the case of Empress Orchid, where three main flaws bring the book down.

The first is the author's inability to juggle all the storylines going. For example, when Orchid leaves her mother's house, she promises to find a husband in court for her sister. No more mention of this is made until around seventy pages on, when suddenly Orchid says that she will conspire to marry her sister to an important prince. Then, another 70 or so pages on, Orchid needs a favour and asks her sister, mysteriously married. How did the marriage come about? How where the difficulties overcome?

This flaw also appears in the "flash fowards". In the beginning of the book, the narrator mentions that she had the habit of walking in her garden at night, specially during her most difficult periods, when she contemplated suicide. The reader immediately wonders what could drive this strong woman to think of suicide and what her thoughts were during those walks. The reader will keep wondering, since these walks are never mentioned again.

The second flaw is a tendency to "tell, not show", instead of the usual advice of "show, not tell". Eunuchs are described as vicious and cruel, manipulating the intrigues behind the scene in the Imperial scene. However, other than the head eunuch, this is barely touched upon during the rest of the novel. If they were so powerful, surely their influence must have been felt much more often than just the one bribery scene. Orchid's two eunuch servants are shown as resourceful and loyal, with none of the cruelty so aptly described in the beginning. The relationship between the concubines, the intrigues in court and many other important themes receive the same treatment.

Finally, the book is peppered with glaring inconsistencies. It is difficult to say if these are the results of misunderstanding Chinese culture (in which case, I would have expected the author, who writes to a western audience, to explain these) or of bad writing. For example, Orchid is raised to the same rank as the Empress and granted the same privileges. Half a page down, she is arrested for speaking without the Empress's permision - but didn't she just receive the privilege? Very confusing.

These flaws all work together in the book. We are told how the Grand Empress wouldn't tolerate "favourites" and the grisly fate alotted to a previous favourite. However, when Orchid monopolizes the Emperor's attention for months, there is no reaction from the Grand Empress or from any of the other concubines, who would have been scheming for the Emperor's bed.

Finally, the ending is very disappointing. The book suddenly ends, leaving too many open threads and with no satisfying conclusion. It is almost as if the author got tired of the characters and stopped writing.

Despite the glamourous setting and exotic descriptions, I felt let down by this book and do not feel compelled to read other books by Ms. Anchee Min.

This book was difficult to put down, as was "Becoming Madame Mao". As a result I ordered two more Anchee Min books, "Red Azalea" and "Wild Ginger". The customs, costume and palace details in Empress Ochid" were fascinating as was the character development and, of course, the story itself. I found the life-long restrictive environment for both the concubines and eunuchs appalling. However I wondered how much was fact or fiction. The answer came when I reread a 1965 biography by Charlotte Haldane entitled,"The Last Great Empress of China" (The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc.)It appears from that the events in both books are real, but it's the "who done it and why" that seems up for grabs. No court documentation exists. The opinions and rumors contained in letters written at the time leaves some room for interpretation by the writer. Example, in Empress Orchid, the Empress feels sorry for her unrequited lover and provides him with two town girls. In Haldane's biography, she discovered her lover brought two girls into the palace one night, promptly demotes him and sends him into exile. (He is brought back later.) Haldane also implies she probably caused the murder of many high ranking people, even in her own family. I can hardly wait to see what happens in the sequel to Empress Orchid! I'll be first in line to buy it, truth or fiction.