To put it in the fewest words possible, this book is about the rise of Orchid aka Tzu Hsi from girl down on her luck about to be married off to a guy named Ping, who is both her cousin (hey it was okay back in the day, don’t judge), and basically Special Ed from Crank Yankers with an Opium addiction. And how do you get out of a situation like that? By becoming one of seven wives for the Emperor Hsein Feng. Several application processes later (won’t give those away), she qualifies as a concubine. From there, with her trusty eunuch sidekick An-te-hai, he gains the attention of the Emperor after a good while of not having even talked to him or spent time with him. When she does the fa dance makes its reveal (gee I wonder what that means…). She then has a son, which make the other concubines super pissed off, especially the Empress Nuharoo, who is probably the most naive character I have ever read about in a book in a long time. China then goes into turmoil, with le Europeans bossing around the country for more opium, which at the time China didn’t want to spread around, since they knew that it was messing up their country. The royals leave their palace, the emperor then dies, and now the Empress and Orchid have to band together against the bad guy, known as Su Shun, who wants power for himself, in order to keep the Emperor’s son Tung Chih as the one to get power (he’s a small kid when dear old daddy dies so Orchid and Nuharoo have to watch out for him). After a lot of political drama, jealous women, and a kidnapping plot gone awry, Su Shun and his associates are taken down and either beheaded or hung. The story then goes to the rebuilding of the empire…

What did I think?!

I like this book. Do I love it? Almost. Its hard to get into it at first if you’re not familiar with Chinese history dating from the 1850s and 60s, or Chinese history in general. Since I do watch dramas that encapsulate the time period I do have some sort of idea of what went on and such. But for anyone who hasn’t been exposed to that before it can be hard to get into. It did get harder when nearing the end there was a lot of political drama going on. As a student who fell asleep half the time in my political science class this was a bit of a drag, but you get over it when there are schemes involved.

Then there is the issue of concubines and eunuchs. For those who don’t know, a concubine is a girl who lives in the royal palace as merely a sex object so that the ruler can try and get her pregnant to get a son, because God forbid anyone have a daughter. To service these women were the eunuchs: men sold to the royal family as a child. These men were often mutilated in the penile area (insert man cringing here) in order to make 100 percent sure that the child in that concubine or the Empress is truly that of the Emperor. Would I ever be a concubine? Never! I don’t want to have to try and catch the attention of a guy banging a bunch of other girls. Call me a traditionalist. And poor eunuchs I feel sorry for them.

The verdict? Great book, left me at a cliffhanger, especially since there is a sequel to this book. Its a great read overall. A bit hard to understand the political of it all but not bad. I expect to read it again someday(I do own it after all…).

Now to say goodbye, music from the time period! In the book they talk a lot about Opera. Not fat chicks screaming their lungs out in Italian Opera, but Peking Opera. Its becoming a renewed art in China, since during Mao Zedong’s rule it was pretty much almost eliminated. I have seen it before for a class I took and I find it amazing. I found a clip on YouTube, so I hope you enjoy, and I swear I won’t take long for my next review. BTW I have no idea what they’re saying, it just sounds really cool.