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Journal Entry 1 by Findabair from St. Hanshaugen bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Sunday, May 27, 2007
 One of those books I doubt I'll ever get around to reading... Going to give it to a friend I believe is interested.
From Amazon:
" Guardian
‘Empress Orchid is strong on both sexual chicanery and violent conspiracy ... fascinating’ --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
New York Times
‘A wild, passionate, fearless American writer’ --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Glasgow Herald
‘Engrossing ... enhanced by Min’s imaginative power ... Like all good novelists, she implies as much as she says’ --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Los Angeles Times
‘A stirring, exotic novel that is a treat for the senses and the intellect alike’ --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Synopsis
It is the final days of the Chinese Empire. Trade in opium with Europe is slowly corroding the power of the Ch'ing Dynasty. Orchid, a beautiful seventeen-year-old from an aristocratic but impoverished family, is pushed into the maelstrom when she finds herself unexpectedly chosen to become a lower-ranking concubine of the Emperor. The world inside the Forbidden City is erotically charged and highly ritualised, but beneath its immaculate face lie whispers of murders and ghosts. The thousands of concubines will go to any lengths to bear the Emperor a son and become his Empress. Determined not to be a victim of the jealousies and foul play, Orchid trains herself in the art of pleasuring a man, bribes her way into the royal bed and seduces the monarch. Little does she know that China will collapse around her, and she will be its last Empress.
From the Publisher
An enthralling, erotic story of Imperial China from the author of Red Azalea and Becoming Madame Mao --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
From the Author
A CONVERSATION WITH
ANCHEE MIN
You did extensive research for Becoming Madame Mao and lived through the Cultural Revolution in China, which added a special intensity to your description. Did you have similar experiences informing Empress Orchid?
Details are extremely important to me. The most challenging thing has been to get the facts and get them right. There are sometimes several contrasting versions of a single incident involving Empress Orchid, and many sources are false or inaccurate. I not only went through documents in the Forbidden City, but also medical, accounting, and police records. My reading on the lives of eunuchs, maids, palace tutors, Imperial warlords, and generals helped me gain crucial perspective. The Empress’s food and herb manuals and her opera manuals also revealed a lot about her character.
Remarkably, you and your father were able to smuggle documents out of government-guarded storerooms in Beijing. Would you describe how it happened?
Well, I had to get my hands on the facts, but no official in Beijing would risk his career to open the door for me. So I tried the "back door." I can’t say more than this, because I don’t want to get the person who helped in trouble. Anyway, I got in. The place where all the ancient documents are stored is treated with strong chemicals, so I was told not to stay inside for more than half an hour. But I didn’t want to leave. I read the Empress’s original decrees until I was choking on the fumes. But I was glad I stayed. The evidence was so compelling that she was a more fit ruler than anyone else of that time. There was a reason her regime lasted for forty-six years.
Your seamlessly real depiction of the Forbidden City transports the reader inside its palaces and gardens. How was Orchid’s life there defined—and confined— by its traditions?
What affected her most was that she knew she was a woman, a concubine. Any wrong move would cost her her life. The price of her survival was a lot of personal sacrifice and suffering. For example, she was a passionate woman, widowed at the age of twenty-six. She was forbidden from ever having a relationship with a man. She had to fight her need for intimacy, denying her own humanity. As with everything else in her life, such as her effort to revive China, she failed, but her struggle was heroic. She kept China in one piece until she died.
What are Chinese schoolchildren taught about Empress Orchid? And how do history books around the world remember her?
She was considered "the enemy of the human race." In China, children learn that the collapse of every dynasty was the fault of the concubine. The execution of the concubine justified whatever was wrong. That’s the tradition. The most recent example was Madame Mao. She was sentenced to death while her husband was seen as the George Washington of China. Children are taught that the Empress was responsible for destroying China’s two-thousand-year Imperial culture. Chinese and Western history books remember her negatively too, but the books provide very few facts.
Empress Orchid and Madame Mao are both powerful personalities with a great deal in common. What characteristics drew you to them, and do you share them yourself?
I do. I am female and Chinese, and at a very young age I learned that my culture disfavors females. Books hold up women as negative examples, such as Madame Mao and Empress Orchid. I was drawn to these figures because I like to find out the truth. It started with Red Azalea, my first book, about growing up during the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese government’s official version of the Cultural Revolution contrasted with the life I had lived. I could not let the lies be the only record. It scared me to think that my daughter would be studying false history, and I felt obligated to do something about it.
Some of your writing is critical of China—past and present. Has the Chinese government taken an "official position" on you? What has your experience been when visiting your family in China each year?
China’s policy toward me is "We don’t want to make an enemy of Anchee Min, but we don’t have to promote her either." My family in China has concerns. But as long as there are no Chinese versions of my books, they feel safe.
The conclusion of Empress Orchid is "the end of the beginning" and leaves your audience begging for a sequel. Can you give us an idea of what happens next?
After she was widowed, Tsu Hsi ruled for forty-six years. The material about this time is absolutely fascinating. She was forced to learn many things, including diplomacy. Keep in mind that China in the late 1800s had been closed to outsiders for more than two thousand years. Westerners were trying to force their way into the opium trade. Meanwhile, domestic rebels, the Boxers, wanted to overthrow the dynasty. The Empress performed a delicate balancing act, and as a result she single handedly held the dynasty together. My next book will reveal more of her private character; she was a great politician, a clever strategist, and a caring mother and lover. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
About the Author
Anchee Min was born in Shanghai in 1957. At seventeen she was sent to a labour collective, where a talent scout for Madame Mao’s Shanghai Film Studio recruited her to work as a movie actress. She moved to the United States in 1984.
Her memoir, Red Azalea, was an international bestseller with rights sold in twenty countries. Her novels, Becoming Madame Mao, Katherine and Wild Ginger were published to wonderful reviews and impressive foreign sales. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. "
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Journal Entry 5 by LeishaCamden from Alna bydel, Oslo fylke Norway on Wednesday, July 22, 2009
I've finished this book now, ten minutes ago or thereabouts as my turtles were eating their dinner. :-) It was a great read - Findabair, you should have read it, I think you would have liked it. It was well written (but with a few, very few, 'modernisms' here and there that rubbed me the wrong way a bit) with a good flow to the language, but the main strength of the book is IMO the very convincing setting and, not least, the fascinating characters. Orchid, the narrator and main character, is a wonderful character, so well-rounded and convincing. I'm not entirely sold on it as a true depiction of the historical Tzu Hsi ... but it's hardly a biography, it's definitely a literary work. A rather exotic and intriguing one. Definitely a book I'd recommend.
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Empress Orchid
