36 Acknowledgements

I am indebted to the many historians and specialists in China who have given me generous and invaluable help in my research on Empress Dowager Cixi: Professor Wang Daocheng, Professor Wang Junyi, Professor Dai Yi, Professor Kong Xiangji, Professor Mao Haijian, Professor Jiang Tao, Ma Zhongwen, Professor Yang Tianshi, Xiang Si, Professor Huang Xingtao, Professor Zhu Chengru, Professor Wang Rufeng, Professor Li Zhiting, Professor Huang Aiping, Professor Xu Che, Professor Guan Jialu, Professor Yang Dongliang, Professor Pan Xiangming, Qiu Zhihong, Wang Lixiong and Yehenala Genzheng.

I wish to thank Her Majesty the Queen for permission to quote material from the Royal Archives at Windsor. In accessing this wealth of information, I had the advice of Sheila De Bellaigue and benefited from the professionalism of Pamela Clark, Senior Archivist, and her colleagues. Kate Heard and her colleagues at the Royal Library and the Print Room were most helpful and I am deeply appreciative. Indeed, I am thankful to all the archivists who assisted me; I am only sorry not to be able to name them all here, but would like to stress that they made my research not only fruitful, but also pleasurable. In particular, working with David Hogge, Head of Archives at the Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington DC, was a joy.

I thank Professor John R hl for answering my questions to do with Germany; Professor Guido Franzinetti for help with the Italian documentation; and Dr Ngo Minh Hoang for research in the French archives.

Prince Nicholas Romanov and James Reeve separately urged me to write this book. The following people kindly made suggestions, sent material, facilitated research and opened their collections of books for me: Professor John Adamson, Bao Pu, Professor Chen Peng Jen, Chen Pokong, Patrick Cockburn, the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire (née the Honourable Deborah Freeman-Mitford), Edmund Fawcett, Professor Roy Foster, David Halliday, Charles W. Hayford, Professor Michael Ignatieff, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jia Yinghua, Jin Zhong, Fang-Ling Jong, Sir Henry and Lady Keswick, Professor Gavan McCormack, Professor Roderick MacFarquhar, Derry and Alexandra Moore, Lady Ritblat, Lady Roberts, Lord and Lady (John) Sainsbury, Lady Selborne, Sir David Tang, Professor Q. Edward Wang, Lisa and Stanley Weiss, Lady Wellesley, Guorong Xu, Joe Zhang and Pu Zhang.

My agent, Gillon Aitken, read the manuscript and made perceptive comments – for which I am immensely grateful. My gratitude also goes to Dan Franklin, my editor at Cape; to Clare Bullock, the assistant editor; to Mandy Greenfield, my copy-editor; and to Suzanne Dean, who designed a most gorgeous cover. I owe a special thank-you to Will Sulkin, who did a superb job of editing the manuscript. My assistants, Alexandra Adamson and Kristyan Robinson, were indispensable to the writing of the book.

I am lucky to have Jon Halliday, my husband and co-author of Mao: The Unknown Story, by my side. His wise and constantly sought counsel has given my writing a real lift. I dedicate this book to him.

Picture Credits

Photograph nos. ill. 1, ill. 4, ill. 13, ill. 31, ill. 39, ill. 50, ill. 51, ill. 52, ill. 53, ill. 56, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: Photographer: Xunling; ill. 2, ill. 6, Courtesy of Wellcome Library, London: Photographer: John Thomson; ill. 3, The Siege at Peking by Peter Fleming, Birlinn Ltd., Edinburgh, 2001; ill. 5, From Qingshi tudian (A Pictorial History of the Qing Dynasty), ed. Zhu Chengru, vol. 11, Zijincheng chubanshe, Beijing, 2002; ill. 7, ill. 32, ill. 33, ill. 36, ill. 41, ill. 42, ill. 46, ill. 48, Every effort has been made to trace copyright holder; ill. 8, From Memoirs of Li Hung Chang, edited by William Francis Mannix, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1913; ill. 9, ill. 10, ill. 15, ill. 54, From Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland, Fleming H. Revell Company, New York, 1909; ill. 11, Courtesy of the Stephan Loewentheil collection of Chinese Photography; ill. 12, From Events in the Taeping Rebellion, by Charles Gordon, W. H. Allen, London, 1891; ill. 14, From Old China and Young America by Sarah Pike Conger, F. G. Browne & Company, Chicago, 1913; ill. 16, Courtesy, Richard Nathanson Fine Art, London; ill. 17, ill. 18, ill. 23, ill. 57, Provided by the Palace Museum: Photographer: Liu Zhigang; ill. 19, Courtesy of Blair House, The President's Guest House, United States Department of State; ill. 20, ill. 26, Provided by the Palace Museum: Photographer: Feng Hui; ill. 21, Royal Collection Trust/ Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2013; ill. 22, ill. 24, Provided by the Palace Museum: Photographer: Liu Mingjie; ill. 25, ill. 60, Jung Chang; ill. 27, Provided by the Palace Museum: Photographer: Hu Chui; ill. 28, The Trustees of the British Museum; ill. 29, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: Gift of the Imperial Chinese Government, S 011.16.1-2a-ap; ill. 30, From With the Empress Dowager by Katharine A. Carl, The Century Company, New York, 1905; ill. 34, Courtesy of George Eastman House, International Museum of Photography and Film; ill. 35, Courtesy of Howard and Jane Ricketts; ill. 37, Provided by the Palace Museum: Photographer unknown; ill. 38, Photographer unknown; ill. 40, From American Democrat: The Recollections of Perry Belmont, Columbia University Press, New York, 1941; ill. 43, Courtesy of the Embassy of Japan, London; ill. 44, Library of Congress/The Whiting View Company 1901 by The Whiting Bros; ill. 45, Library of Congress/Underwood & Underwood, 1901; ill. 47, Courtesy of Marcelo Loeb, Buenos Aires; ill. 49, Detail from page ill. 49, China Travel Album 1883, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts; ill. 55, From Letters from China by Sarah Pike Conger, A. C. McClurg & Company, Chicago, 1909; ill. 58, Topical Press Agency/Getty Images; ill. 59, Photographer unknown. Additional editing by Frances Nutt Design.