'With the Empress Dowager of China' Summary

Although Katharine Carl did not plan to publicise her experiences, With the Empress Dowager of China was written as a response to articles appearing in the American and British press containing statements never made by her and other misrepresentations. Words were being put into her mouth, she was being put into a very difficult position, and corrections needed to be made. By writing an account of life in the Imperial Court she risked “offending the sensibilities of her Chinese friends” since any comments on the personalities of the Emperor or Empress Dowager were considered to breaches of etiquette. Nevertheless, she did publish “a simple and truthful narrative of my experiences” in 1906.

For most of the time from 1861 until her death in 1908, Cixi, the Empress Dowager of China, was co-regent or regent, and was in control of the Chinese government, due to the youth and inexperience of the Emperors during those years as well as to her capabilities. Her legacy is controversial, and she is viewed variously as a despot, a reformer, and a capable and gracious ruler and administrator.

Katharine Carl’s St Louis Exposition portrait of the Empress Dowager of China resides in the collection of the Arthur M Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.