Empress Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

China is a country that I know embarrassingly little about. Considering I can name all of Henry VIII’s wives and their demises (Catherine – divorced, Anne – beheaded, Jane – childbirth, Anne – annulled, Catherine 2 – beheaded, Catherine 3 – widowed) it’s pretty pathetic how little I know about a major world power.

Enter Jung Chang, author of Empress Cixi. She wrote this lengthy, in-depth look at a woman who was never legally empress in her own right yet affected major change over almost five decades. According to the book and some internet research, Empress Cixi has been maligned by history and Chang sought to change the story. Though at times ruthless and imperfect, Cixi changed the face of China, becoming more open to trading with Western countries and dismantling age-old hierarchies.

I learned so much about China and so much about what I need to learn. I had no idea that China was ruled by the Manchu minority and the ethnic majority were Huns. I didn’t know about the conflicts with Japan, or Japan’s conflicts with Korea. I had heard of the Boxer rebellion but knew little about it. Reading this gave some structure to what types of topics I want to read about next.

This book was really fascinating but also flawed. One glaring flaw was the way that Chang continually made comments conflating western ways with modernity. The tone implied that it was not possible to be modern and also maintain Chinese culture, and that Empress Cixi was on the right path by trying to westernize the country in its cultural traditions. The book was also very long and dragged in places, though that is to be expected of biographies of world leaders.

Using this book as my guide, I have a much better idea of where to go next in my quest to learn about China. Right now, the graphic novels Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang  are on my TBR, in addition to The Opium War by Julia Lovell, Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom  by Stephen Platt and People’s Republic of Amnesia by Louisa Lim.

Let me know if there are any books you recommend – I’m eager to learn more!

 

Winter Reads

We’ve officially reached that point here in Michigan where spring is closer than every, yet winter has never felt worse. It was -16 this morning. The arctic circle is literally warmer than this. It’s getting to me.

This point in the winter is when you really need to strategize your reading. So far this winter (as I’ve written about here and here) I’ve been reading a lot of comics and more actiony fare. That isn’t really working anymore. I know some people really enjoy reading about warm locations when winter gets like this, but I kind of like to turn into the skid, embrace the drear.

Anything by Charles Dickens

I don’t actually like Dickens all the much, but his depressing, moralistic stories would be great for this time of year if he’s your cup of tea. There’s even the added bonus of freezing orphans!

Hunger Games (or insert your favorite Dystopian here)

What is more depressing than the Hunger Games? Poverty, children killing children, war, it’s got everything! What better thing to read when the snow is three feet deep, the temperature is so low it’s laughable, and (much like overthrowing a dystopian regime) winter seems insurmountable.

Anything by a Russian

There’s a reason why Russian classics are such a bummer. They live like this for longer than we do, and sometimes more cold. What better way to turn into the skid than embracing the horrible cold and depressing life stories?

Comics Roundup

This year has started off being all about comics. In the last six weeks, I’ve read as many comics as I read last year. I’ve been having a hard time this winter. Michigan is very cold and very gray, last week we got 17 inches of snow in twelve hours. A lot of people love to read in the winter, but I find it difficult to focus or even care about books that much. Happily, comics seem to be an exception this year.

My first read of the year was the first volume of Ms. Marvel and oh my do I love this series. It has everything: angsty teenagers, puberty, and superpowers. I also love seeing a girl of color as not only the protagonist of a story but a hero. Kamala is a superhero fan in her own right, adding a fun dynamic to the story as she nerds out about meeting her idols. This is my first foray into more traditional superhero comics and I’m absolutely loving it.

Next, I read the fourth volume of Saga. Saga is special because it is the comic book that got me really hooked on comics. I heard about it through the lovely booktuber Susie of ReadSusieRead. I’ve been dying to get my hands on volume 4 and read it in one sitting, then read it again. One of my favorite aspects of this series is their inventive approach to aliens. The Robot family is so interesting and totally different from anything I’ve seen before. I also love that it’s a space drama but so grounded in the realities like breastfeeding. I decided when I finished it that I was just going to go ahead and catch up, instead of continuing to wait until volumes come out, only to find that it was on hiatus. Luckily, it came back last week so from now on I’m going to be reading them as they come out!

Deadly Class was also on my list this month. I’d be eyeing it up at the comic book store for months and decided it was time to just buy it. The book follows a teenager in the late 80s who is accepted into a Hogwarts-style school, except for bloodthirsty assassins. His classmates have parents who work for Stalin and the CIA, their homework assignments include murder, and the teachers are scary as hell. It’s dark and twisted and so good. This is also another comic that features a really diverse cast of characters, working with my goal of reading more diversely this year.

In a complete 180 from Deadly Class, I read the first two issues of Lumberjanes on Comixology. Holy crap do I love this comic. I imagine if Leslie Knope had a twin with gauged ears, the Lumberjanes would be her Pawnee Goddesses.

The girls are smart and spunky and there is so much girl love. There’s a girl who wears head to toe pink being great friends with a girl who has an undercut and gauges, a camp director who looks like Rosie the Riveter, and a host of supernatural characters. It’s just so much fun, and the art style really plays into that. It’s slightly childlike, with cartoon margins instead of straight black lines, and there’s a lot of art that spills outside the lines, but it’s mature enough to underscore that these girls aren’t little and neither are their adventures.

I hope I can get back into more novels soon and work on vanquishing my TBR. But for now, I’m more than happy to keep plowing through amazing comics in one sitting.

January Wrap-up

Yet again, I was reminded why I don’t do TBRs. Mine was a bit of a fail.  I did make some progress in the books I chose, but only finished one of them.

I finished Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, making it the only book from my TBR that was finished. I am almost done with Empress Dowager Cixi and Best Nonrequired Reading, but I’m only a fraction of the way through One Hundred Years. I didn’t even start Not That Kind of Girl. Off my TBR, I also finished Ms. Marvel vol 1, Saga vol 4, The Hound of Baskervilles, Death Note vol 1, High Fidelity, Twelfth Night, Lying, and Deadly Class. 

I’m glad that I did it, even though most of what I read wasn’t on my TBR. I keep getting distracted by newer, shinier books and not reading the books I already own. I know a lot of people have no problem with physical TBRs piling up, but it drives me crazy. Having my TBR meant that I put a good-faith effort into working my way through books I already own, instead of piling up more books around my apartment.

This month, I don’t think I’ll do another TBR, other than the pile of books sitting on my coffee table. I think I’m just going to focus on trying to work through the books I own, without putting a bunch of pressure on finishing the list.