On Friday, March 6, Jung Chang will discuss her latest work, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. Brent Lewin / Bloomberg
On Friday, March 6, Jung Chang will discuss her latest work, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China. Brent Lewin / Bloomberg

Jung Chang to talk about her contentious book on the Empress Dowager Cixi



It is the questions rather than the subjects that drive Jung Chang.

The renowned Chinese author has spent nearly three decades chronicling some of her homeland’s most controversial figures, in addition to writing a best-selling family memoir.

Chang is certainly well-versed in the topics she writes about – she was born to parents who were Communist Party officials and she grew up during the disastrous Cultural Revolution.

While tackling Chinese history and political developments can be daunting even to the most seasoned writers, Chang, 64, says her books are born from questions that snowball into deep investigations.

“I just love the research,” she says. “That’s the thing with me. I love getting things right and going to the archive and digging out bits of material. Whenever I am working on a book, I often feel like a historical detective.”

History is the major theme of Chang’s work.

Her debut, the 1992 family memoir Wild Swans, sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. In it Chang surveyed China's rapid and often violent developments through the eyes of her grandmother, mother and herself.

The follow up, 2005's Mao: The Unknown Story, written with her Irish historian husband Jon Halliday, focused on the late Chinese dictator's brutality.

Chang returns to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature this week to discuss her latest work, Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern China.

Published in 2013, the biography of the 19th century leader sheds light on Cixi’s political cunning and intellect – aspects the writer thinks have been whitewashed by western and Eastern historians.

“She was the person who brought modernisation to China,” says Chang. “She outlawed foot-binding and banned medieval forms of punishment such as death by a thousand cuts, and brought women out of their houses and gave them education.

“During my research, I was astonished repeatedly by her achievement and how she was unjustly treated by history.”

Chang’s latest work has divided public opinion. While Chinese readers seem to value the fresh insights, western academics accused her of revisionism, suggesting that she had airbrushed many of Cixi’s ruthless and tyrannical tendencies.

Chang dismisses these, insisting such reviews reflect an old and less-nuanced view of Chinese history.

“In the western world, people know very little about Empress Dowager and the real experts are few,” she says.

“Some reviewers, I feel, are stuck to this old version that she was a diehard despot and that’s because they based their knowledge on general sources and they are not real specialists on her. They probably found my book difficult because they were not in a position to evaluate all the documents because they are all in Chinese.”

While history is often used to glean lessons for modern life, Chang says she consciously avoids that approach when working.

“I block my mind of any relevance for today because I think it doesn’t work,” she says. “I just treat history for what it is and I don’t stretch it.

“Once the book is published, then it is up to readers to find that relevance – but that is never my intention with a book.”

More important to Chang, however, is that people enjoy reading her works. Despite the heavy topics on offer, her books are always written in accessible prose and she shies away from jargon.

“Although I can be considered an academic because of my qualifications, I am just allergic to any form of bland dissertation or jargon,” she says.

“I myself am a general reader and I basically like to write books that I would read. When a book is full of convoluted writing, it generally shows the writer is not on top of the subject itself.”

• Jung Chang will appear on Friday, March 6, at 6.30pm at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City. Tickets, Dh70, are available at www.emirateslitfest.com

sasaeed@thenational.ae

THREE
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The Bio

Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity

COMPANY PROFILE

Founders: Sebastian Stefan, Sebastian Morar and Claudia Pacurar

Based: Dubai, UAE

Founded: 2014

Number of employees: 36

Sector: Logistics

Raised: $2.5 million

Investors: DP World, Prime Venture Partners and family offices in Saudi Arabia and the UAE

The specs
 
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013 

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

The%20specs%3A%202024%20Mercedes%20E200
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2.0-litre%20four-cyl%20turbo%20%2B%20mild%20hybrid%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E204hp%20at%205%2C800rpm%20%2B23hp%20hybrid%20boost%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E320Nm%20at%201%2C800rpm%20%2B205Nm%20hybrid%20boost%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E9-speed%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E7.3L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENovember%2FDecember%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh205%2C000%20(estimate)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Volvo ES90 Specs

Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)

Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp

Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm

On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region

Price: Exact regional pricing TBA

At a glance

Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.

 

Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year

 

Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month

 

Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30 

 

Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse

 

Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth

 

Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Director: Jared Hess

Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa

Rating: 3/5

Skewed figures

In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458. 

Company%20Profile
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