Subscribe or Log In to Anytime
Access audio & film from your favourite writers and thinkers
Give the gift of Anytime
Treat someone to a Hay Festival Anytime subscription
Please subscribe to Hay Festival Anytime for access to this content (more details)
Subscribe for £20.00 or log in if you already have a subscription
 

Jung Chang talks to Razia Iqbal

Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China

Hay Festival 2014, 

The story of the most important woman in Chinese history. Under the Empress’s rule, the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, telegraph, and an army and navy with up-to-date weaponry. It was she who abolished gruesome punishments like ‘death by a thousand cuts’ and put an end to foot-binding. She inaugurated women’s liberation, and embarked on the path to introducing parliamentary elections to China.

Jung Chang talks to Razia Iqbal