She was probably the most powerful woman, if not person in China during the last days of the Qing Dynasty. She is often characterized as ambitious, cruel, stubborn, selfish, and narrow-minded. I don't know if any or all of these descriptions truly apply to her--I do know that she is viewed as a villan both by people raised in a non-Communist system as well as the Communist system.
I have read a book about CiXi called Empress Orchid, by Anchee Min, which is historical fiction, but extremely well researched. I am still reading Anchee Min's second book about CiXi, called The Last Empress. Both books picture CiXi (who was known as Orchid as a girl) as a much more sympathetic character, who was a victim of her own circumstances, and forced to learn and participate in court politics and power struggles.
While walking through the streets of the Forbidden City, I was trying to imagine what life was like during the height of that period, and especially during the Qing Dynasty. We even had a chance to see the palace that Cixi lived in. I was trying to imagine her life there, as well as the lives of the other concubines, who lived in extreme luxury, but were prisoners inside those walls; beautiful birds in gilded cages with no other purpose in life than to catch the eye of the Emperor. The grandeur and the scale is something that can only be experienced to truly appreciate, as the Emperor's palace shows below:
Interestingly enough, even though the Qing Dynasty has been gone for 100 years, people still talk about Dowager Empress Cixi. When I was riding in a taxi in Beijing, the driver was listening to some kind of "talk radio." I couldn't make out everything that the radio personality was saying, but I could make out his very animated discussion involved CiXi Taihou (Empress Cixi). What could they possibly have to discuss about a long-dead Empress from a long-dead Dynasty that can have any bearing on a modern and growing industrial nation? She's obviously an important part of history, but I wouldn't have expected to hear a discussion about her on current-day radio. I suppose, though, that if I was wondering about what life must have been like back then, perhaps others do as well, hence the fascination with the Empress CiXi.
Coincidentally, this past Monday, I heard a report on the radio about the Dowager Empress on the radio right here in the USA on NPR (National Public Radio). In this case, it was reporting on a new exhibit of photographs recently discovered at the Freer Gallery in Washington DC. These were apparently photographs taken of CiXi and the Manchu court when she was an older woman. It shows her in full elaborate Manchu dress, often in the company of her attendants. It provides a window into what life was like back then...at the crossroads of history. Did she know that the way of life as she knew it was coming to an end? Did CiXi realize that the photographs would be all that remains of the powerful dynasty of her ancestors? No one knows for sure. However, if you have a chance to visit the Freer Gallery before the end of January, 2012, please take the time to go see this exhibit. It will be a fascinating look into a chapter of China's history.