1852年春天，一位十六歲的女孩在為皇上挑選后妃的全國「選秀」中被選上，入宮不到十年，她發動宮廷政變，一躍成為中國的實際統治者，掌握全世界近三分之一人口的命運達數十年，直到生命的最後。她，就是慈禧皇太后。

史家說慈禧干預朝政、禍國殃民，卻不知道在中國男人專政的舞台上，慈禧獨有過去帝王沒有的智慧與能力──她意識到，那是個全球化初始的年代，不想落於人後，唯一之道就是奮發圖強，躋身現代文明的世界，由此，慈禧揭開了現代中國的序幕。

她開闢國家需要的財源，歲收是乾隆鼎盛時期的兩倍；大膽任用外籍人士，設置現代化海關；首設培育翻譯人才的「同文館」，更增加理工科學的學習項目，最終廢除科舉制度。慈禧不僅開了派留學生、派駐外使節的先河，還系統地派政府官員出國考察，為此制定了《出洋遊歷章程》，後世學者稱為「晚清中國人走向世界的一次盛舉」。至今仍為中國國民經濟大動脈的京漢鐵路，是慈禧的決策；她並以獨到的見解面對俄國、日本、法國的侵略。在光緒皇帝主持簽訂馬關條約時，只有慈禧一人主張拒絕日本的條件。

站在保護傳統與改革浪潮的交會點，決策格外需要過人的勇氣與判斷力，而身為一個女子，慈禧更必須展現高人一等的政治手腕，以得眾信服。本書深度刻畫世人未知的慈禧一生，包括她的失誤與過錯，愛情與日常生活。本書不僅還給她一個公道，也為中國變法求強的歷史時刻，留下無可取代的珍貴紀錄。

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.
At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.
In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern state: industries, railways, electricity, the 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 introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.
Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national crises: the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan—and an invasion by eight allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager’s conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs—one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new.
Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s—and the world’s—history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a woman: as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.

A New York Times Notable Book

Empress Dowager Cixi (1835–1908) is the most important woman in Chinese history. She ruled China for decades and brought a medieval empire into the modern age.
At the age of sixteen, in a nationwide selection for royal consorts, Cixi was chosen as one of the emperor’s numerous concubines. When he died in 1861, their five-year-old son succeeded to the throne. Cixi at once launched a palace coup against the regents appointed by her husband and made herself the real ruler of China—behind the throne, literally, with a silk screen separating her from her officials who were all male.

In this groundbreaking biography, Jung Chang vividly describes how Cixi fought against monumental obstacles to change China. Under her the ancient country attained virtually all the attributes of a modern industries, railways, electricity, the 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 introduce parliamentary elections to China. Chang comprehensively overturns the conventional view of Cixi as a diehard conservative and cruel despot.

Cixi reigned during extraordinary times and had to deal with a host of major national the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, wars with France and Japan—and an invasion by eight allied powers including Britain, Germany, Russia and the United States. Jung Chang not only records the Empress Dowager’s conduct of domestic and foreign affairs, but also takes the reader into the depths of her splendid Summer Palace and the harem of Beijing’s Forbidden City, where she lived surrounded by eunuchs—one of whom she fell in love, with tragic consequences. The world Chang describes here, in fascinating detail, seems almost unbelievable in its extraordinary mixture of the very old and the very new.

Based on newly available, mostly Chinese, historical documents such as court records, official and private correspondence, diaries and eyewitness accounts, this biography will revolutionize historical thinking about a crucial period in China’s—and the world’s—history. Packed with drama, fast paced and gripping, it is both a panoramic depiction of the birth of modern China and an intimate portrait of a as the concubine to a monarch, as the absolute ruler of a third of the world’s population, and as a unique stateswoman.

Nosso desconhecimento da China é tão vasto quanto vastas são as dimensões daquele país, onde vive nada menos que um quarto da humanidade. Neste livro, Jung Chang resgata a saga de sua família, que reflete as turbulências da história chinesa recente. O relato retrocede ao início do século XX, quando a avó de Chang é oferecida como concubina a um poderoso militar. Depois acompanha a história da mãe da autora, que viveu a ocupação japonesa na Manchúria, o governo do Kuomintang, a queda de Chang Kaichek, a guerra civil e a vitória de Mao — os pais de Chang foram devotos do comunismo, trabalharam na alta administração do Estado e viram a revolução deteriorar no totalitarismo da Revolução Cultural. Verdadeiro épico, Cisnes Selvagens comoveu milhões de leitores no mundo todo.

Mao: a história desconhecida é a mais sólida biografia de Mao Tse-Tung já escrita, fruto de uma década de pesquisa em arquivos do mundo todo e centenas de entrevistas com amigos, colaboradores e conhecidos de Mao — boa parte dos quais nunca havia se pronunciado.

O resultado do árduo trabalho de Jung Chang e de seu marido Jon Halliday é a demolição de diversos mitos. O livro ataca o heroísmo da Longa Marcha, discorre sobre a ajuda financeira e militar da União Soviética de Stálin para a criação e o fortalecimento do Partido Comunista chinês e desqualifica os relatos de que os rebeldes comunistas teriam enfrentado os japoneses na Segunda Guerra Mundial.

Os autores mostram como Mao concentrou-se em expandir seu domínio durante quase três décadas, ainda que isso resultasse no sofrimento e na morte de dezenas de milhões de cidadãos. Para se perpetuar no poder, instituiu um clima de denúncias, perseguições e terror. Na intimidade, ele é descrito como um pai omisso, marido infiel e amigo pouco confiável.

Mao foi um dos lançamentos mais esperados no mundo todo e causou grande impacto quando foi publicado, no Reino Unido, em 2005.