Thus begins “Empress Orchid,” a novel by Anchee Min narrated by the historical figure who becomes the final empress of China and gives birth to the last emperor. After a battery of exhaustive ...

she can now be assured that her canny heroine will meet a larger audience. “Empress Orchid” has been optioned for a movie by Oliver Stone. E-mail: cmcgee@edit.

Min's "Empress Orchid" (2004) introduced a naive but determined teenage girl from a poor province, selected to be one of three imperial concubines (not to be confused with the lowly 3,000 others ...

That’s a nice summary of Min’s larger undertaking, first with her novel “Becoming Madame Mao,” and then “Empress Orchid,” which tells the story of the naive girl who became the ...

Empress Orchid is the fascinating story of a young Chinese concubine who becomes China's last empress as the Ch'ing Dynasty slowly dies in the latter half of the 19th century. It should not be ...

The same goes for her new work of fiction, the historical novel "Empress Orchid." In China, schoolchildren are taught that Tzu Hsi -- Orchid -- the last empress of China, was "the enemy of the ...

The fact that Tzu Hsi remains a notorious enigma allows author Anchee Min to fill in the gaps through historical judgment and imagination in her latest novel, "Empress Orchid." Min takes full ...

Other books followed, including Becoming Madame Mao (2000), Wild Ginger (2002), and in 2004, Empress Orchid, Min’s fictionalized account of the resilient, shrewd ruler of China during the ...

Min's Empress Orchid tracked the concubine Orchid's path to becoming Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi; this revisionist look at her long years behind her son Tung Chih's throne (1863–1908) won't ...

Slavery, social-climbing, and seduction are just a few of the words that come to mind when describing the historical novel Empress Orchid. Anchee Min's latest offering has been selected as one of ...