Empress Orchid, on the other hand, was a delectable book. It took me quite a while before I got on with the plot. Empress Orchid is a (let me clarify my use of the article a, a because this isn't THE story of Ci Xi but a sort of half-fiction, half-biography thing) story of Ci Xi, the last Empress of China. It's about a concubine who later became a regent, about a mother who had to save not only herself but her son, a girl who had to play the game in order to survive. I like the fact that Tzu Hsi (Ci Xi's name in the book) isn't a submissive heroine. She's a fighter from the start, an intelligent one at that. Although the book started out and finished strong, it was a challenge to read because of all the East Asian jargon. I had to Google most of them except for palanquin, which I bet you'll look up right about now (or not since my vocabulary is weaker than most, admittedly). The book gets better later on and I love, love, love the cunning, tension (both political and sexual), customs and restraint in this book. I love the elaborate tradition, excessive wealth and esoteric nature practiced in the Forbidden City. I also love the intense power struggle, the superstition and the devotion of every character in this book (whether to their masters, to religion, to power, to their child etc etc). Those who love Asian Studies and Anthropology, in general, will like this book. I wish I could say more about its authenticity but my knowledge during Ci Xi and Pu Yin's time is very limited, I cannot comment on how much of it is fact or fiction. One day, I might be able to but for now, I'll stick to liking this book and its author.
I've always liked Anchee Min. One of her novels, Becoming Madame Mao, is a recurring figure in my nightstand (assuming that I have one, which I don't) despite it being about a woman touted as The White Boned Demon in China. There's something so magnetic about her prose that it just draws me in. I used to think my attachment to Min's writings was because of my predilection for Asian women and literature but I can't be certain. What I do know is that Anchee Min has taken a fancy for giving antagonized Asian women voices of their own, as in Becoming Madame Mao (which is, obviously, a book about Madame Mao, the leader of the cultural revolution in China) and in Empress Orchid (a book about Ci Xi, who is also heavily antagonized during and after her reign in real life), and she did it pretty well.
