Author: Anchee Min
First Published: 2003
Publisher: Mariner Books (Houghton Mifflin)
Series: Empress Orchid #1
368 pages (paperback)
It took me way longer than it should have to finish this book — not because I found it uninteresting (quite the contrary actually) but because I have been distracted by computer games. Ahhh. Anyway, if you keep up with my reviews, you probably noticed I’ve become quite enamoured by historical fiction. Mostly European, but I’m trying to read some about China/Asia too.
This book, Empress Orchid, takes place in the 1800’s in China, when it is under a Manchu dynasty. It is about the last empress of China, Orchid (or Cixi/Tzu Hsi), and how she went from a lowly country girl to becoming an empress of China: her life story. Orchid starts out as the daughter of a low ranking official who had been fired from his job and died. Struggling to survive, Orchid, her mother and siblings are in the care of an uncle, but the uncle wants to marry Orchid to his mentally challenged son. To put off the marriage, Orchid decides to try out for the “auditions” to become a concubine of the Emperor. Anybody trying out for the “audition” cannot marry during that time period.
Unlike European royalty who marry other royalty from other countries, in China, the emperor would marry a wife (or rather, wives) of some rank who is also of the same background. The Emperor at the time was Manchu Chinese and so was Orchid. Though Orchid’s father had fallen on hard time and eventually died, she still had some ranking to her. The auditions are mentally fatiguing and Orchid is scrutinized in every possible way. But somehow, she makes it past the rounds and becomes a concubine of the emperor. However, to survive in the royal court, Orchid knows she needs to win the Emperor’s favor. But some wives and concubines can be married to the Emperor forever and never even meet their husband. There are 3000 of them, after all.
I thought this book was great! I don’t really know anything about Orchid and though I have some very basic understanding of Chinese history, the 1800s was a mystery to me. Orchid is traditionally presented as a power hungry, “evil” concubine who brought the fall of the entire dynasty, but this book portrays her as a smart woman who cared for her husband and her son, who wanted the best for China and was unfortunately surrounded by other schemers. I can definitely see how she can be portrayed “evilly” too, but I do quite like this portrayal of her: she isn’t perfect, not some saint like the other empress, Nuharoo, and I can see how the other characters would have seen her as a meddling woman. At the same time, she is strong of will and has strong family values. She was a woman trying to speak her voice in a culture dominated by men, and these men viewed her as a threat.
Though I enjoyed the entire book thoroughly, I thought the beginning half of the novel was a lot more interesting than the latter half. The first half was about her as a young teenager, living in near poverty with her family, and then working to become a concubine of the Emperor. The latter half was about her as an Empress and trying to fight against the manipulative Chief Eunach who wants power for himself and firmly believes that women should just stick to domestic issues and leave the politics to the men. I’ve never been a person who was that interested in political-ish stuff so I was a little less interested, relatively speaking. With that said, that Chief Eunach really annoyed me — what a wonderfully written villain, haha.
This book isn’t a part of a series, per se. There is a sequel, The Last Empress, which I imagine is about Orchid’s reign as an empress (I believe she eventually becomes the sole ruler). I’ve heard it isn’t as good as this first one, but I do still want to give it a try! I really enjoyed this book and I feel like I learned lots, not just historically but also culturally. Definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in reading historicals or books about different cultures.
My Rating: 4/5
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