Premium Essay

Empress Cixi Research Paper

Submitted By
Words 551
Pages 3
Now, Empress Dowager Cixi lived in the Summer Palace; located in Beijing, China. During her time, the palace was a lovely imperial garden and a temporary home for the Qing Dynasty. Though the garden went under a lot of expansion and remodeling, because of constant destruction. In the Second Opium War 1860, the Old Summer Palace was destroyed and Emperor Tongzhi announced its reconstruction on November 17, 1887 (Peng 57). By about the year 1888, the palace was complete but having cost a large sum of money that the Empress obtained from pillaging their navy. As you can see, this palace was very important to the Empress. Not only was it one of Empress Cixi’s favorite places, but where she eventually retired. Until then, the Summer Palace had a significant role in advocating artistic culture and in political events throughout Empress Cixi’s reign.
Shown within a number of rooms is an emphasized importance of the artistic culture. The Empress explored much with western styled fashion, photography, and decoration. In fact, Claire …show more content…
Before the destruction of the Old Summer Palace, the empress would attend the Hall for Listening Orioles to watch opera performances. Later, it was replaced with the Garden of Virtue and Harmony, which contained a stage called the Grand Theatre and a separate rest area for the Empress called the Hall of Nurtured Joy. Here, she commissioned new plays, updates on traditional dramas, and organized a personal troupe. To illustrate her love for theatre and literary works, there is a photo of the Empress outside the Hall of Dispelling Clouds, where she replicates a pose from an illustration of chapter fourteen in Record of the Spirt Returning to the Peony Pavilion (Peng 166). Her fondness for being entertained and performances made the imperial palace truly extravagant. Even the Hall of Dispelling gates was used for inviting guest, hosting grand ceremonies, and to join all in

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Languages

...Authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a form of social organization characterized by submission to authority. It is usually opposed to individualism and democracy. In politics, an authoritarian government is one in which political authority is concentrated in a small group of politician. Characteristics Authoritarianism is characterized by highly concentrated and centralized power maintained by political repression and the exclusion of potential challengers. It uses political parties and mass organizations to mobilize people around the goals of the regime. Authoritarianism emphasizes the rule of the few; it often includes election rigging, political decisions being made by a select group of officials behind closed doors, a bureaucracy that sometimes operates independently of rules, which does not properly supervise elected officials, and fails to serve the concerns of the constituencies they purportedly serve. Authoritarianism also tends to embrace the informal and unregulated exercise of political power, a leadership that is "self-appointed and even if elected cannot be displaced by citizens' free choice among competitors," the arbitrary deprivation of civil liberties, and little tolerance for meaningful opposition; A range of social controls also attempt to stifle civil society, while political stability is maintained by control over and support of the armed forces, a pervasive bureaucracy staffed by the regime, and creation of allegiance through various means of socialization and...

Words: 12304 - Pages: 50

Free Essay

Fdkgkjldfh

...Abstract: The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands have brought China and Japan into a bitter dispute for many decades. With regard to the real question of who owns sovereignty over the islands, the two claimants can not come to terms on several critical issues, such as whether the islands were terra nullius when Japan claimed sovereignty in 1895, whether Japan returned the islands to China after the Japanese defeat in WWII, and how their maritime boundary in the East China Sea should be demarcated according to international law. There is no ready solution to the longstanding stalemate, but the pending dispute could be shelved and managed from escalating into a military conflict. INTRODUCTION The Diaoyu Islands in Chinese or Senkaku in Japanese are a tiny group of islands, 6.3 km² in total, in the East China Sea. The islands consist of eight tiny insular formations, of which only two are over 1 km² (the Diaoyu/Uotsuri Island is the biggest one with 4.3 km²), five are completely barren, and none are currently inhabited or have had any kind of reported human economic activity. Notwithstanding these unfriendly natural features, the islands have brought China and Japan into a bitter dispute since 1960’s because of their strategic importance in terms of security and economy, as well as their significant political implications. The Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands are located approximately midway between the island of Taiwan and the Japanese Ryukyu Islands, around 120 nautical...

Words: 9005 - Pages: 37

Premium Essay

Chinese History

...www.GetPedia.com History of China: Table of Contents q q Historical Setting The Ancient Dynasties r r r Dawn of History Zhou Period Hundred Schools of Thought q The Imperial Era r r r r r r First Imperial Period Era of Disunity Restoration of Empire Mongolian Interlude Chinese Regain Power Rise of the Manchus q Emergence Of Modern China r r r r r r Western Powers Arrive First Modern Period Opium War, 1839-42 Era of Disunity Taiping Rebellion, 1851-64 Self-Strengthening Movement Hundred Days' Reform and Aftermath Republican Revolution of 1911 q Republican China r r r Nationalism and Communism s Opposing the Warlords s Consolidation under the Guomindang s Rise of the Communists Anti-Japanese War Return to Civil War q People's Republic Of China r r Transition to Socialism, 1953-57 Great Leap Forward, 1958-60 r r r r r Readjustment and Recovery, 1961-65 Cultural Revolution Decade, 1966-76 s Militant Phase, 1966-68 s Ninth National Party Congress to the Demise of Lin Biao, 1969-71 s End of the Era of Mao Zedong, 1972-76 Post-Mao Period, 1976-78 China and the Four Modernizations, 1979-82 Reforms, 1980-88 q References for History of China [ History of China ] [ Timeline ] Historical Setting The History Of China, as documented in ancient writings, dates back some 3,300 years. Modern archaeological studies provide evidence of still more ancient origins in a culture that flourished between 2500 and 2000 B.C....

Words: 41805 - Pages: 168

Free Essay

One Significant Change That Has Occurred in the World Between 1900 and 2005. Explain the Impact This Change Has Made on Our Lives and Why It Is an Important Change.

...E SSAYS ON TWENTIETH-C ENTURY H ISTORY In the series Critical Perspectives on the Past, edited by Susan Porter Benson, Stephen Brier, and Roy Rosenzweig Also in this series: Paula Hamilton and Linda Shopes, eds., Oral History and Public Memories Tiffany Ruby Patterson, Zora Neale Hurston and a History of Southern Life Lisa M. Fine, The Story of Reo Joe: Work, Kin, and Community in Autotown, U.S.A. Van Gosse and Richard Moser, eds., The World the Sixties Made: Politics and Culture in Recent America Joanne Meyerowitz, ed., History and September 11th John McMillian and Paul Buhle, eds., The New Left Revisited David M. Scobey, Empire City: The Making and Meaning of the New York City Landscape Gerda Lerner, Fireweed: A Political Autobiography Allida M. Black, ed., Modern American Queer History Eric Sandweiss, St. Louis: The Evolution of an American Urban Landscape Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past Sharon Hartman Strom, Political Woman: Florence Luscomb and the Legacy of Radical Reform Michael Adas, ed., Agricultural and Pastoral Societies in Ancient and Classical History Jack Metzgar, Striking Steel: Solidarity Remembered Janis Appier, Policing Women: The Sexual Politics of Law Enforcement and the LAPD Allen Hunter, ed., Rethinking the Cold War Eric Foner, ed., The New American History. Revised and Expanded Edition E SSAYS ON _ T WENTIETH- C ENTURY H ISTORY Edited by ...

Words: 163893 - Pages: 656