“It is necessary,” wrote Niccolò Machiavelli in his famous treatise on the craft of ruling, “to be a fox to discover the snares and a lion to terrify the wolves.” Shrewd statesmen from antiquity ...

"Too much mystery surrounds the Forbidden City for us to write of its inmates with assured authority. Even when the facts are known, there are two or three versions, each giving a different rendering ...

The film, which is scheduled to shoot next year, will be a China-U.S. co-production. By Tatiana Siegel Gong Li Cannes Film Festival - P 2012 Gong Li, one of China’s biggest stars, will star in the ...

EMPRESS DOWAGER CIXI:THE CONCUBINE WHO LAUNCHED MODERN CHINA By Jung Chang Alfred A. Knopf, $30, 464 pages The Empress Dowager Cixi ruled China, mostly directly, from the death of her husband, Emperor ...

She’s often known as wicked Empress Dowager Cixi; the iron-fisted ruler of China from the late 19th century. Most Thais are familiar with her from the historical novel Susi Thai Hao penned by MR ...

This piece originally appeared on asiasociety.org. Jung Chang’s new biography Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China (Alfred A. Knopf, 2013) recounts the remarkable life of ...

BEIJING — She entered the world of an ancient empire as a teenage concubine, chosen by the emperor to share his bed for her good looks, immaculate comportment and, above all, her ability to sing. The ...

'Although I have heard much about Queen Victoria,” her Chinese contemporary, the Empress Cixi, once remarked, “I do not think her life is half as interesting and eventful as mine.” It is a judgment ...

Simply sign up to the Life & Arts myFT Digest -- delivered directly to your inbox. Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China, by Jung Chang, Cape, RRP£20 / Knopf, RRP£30, 464 pages ...

'Although I have heard much about Queen Victoria,” her Chinese contemporary, the Empress Cixi, once remarked, “I do not think her life is half as interesting and eventful as mine.” It is a judgment ...