With the Empress Dowager

On the 29th of July, 1903, Miss Carl, who was invited by Mrs. Conger, left Shanghai for Peking. She would have the first sitting with the Empress Dowager at the Summer Palace to paint the portrait of her. This portrait would exhibit in the Exposition at St. Louis, 1904, to display “a true likeness of” Empress Dowager (pp.xix). Finally, Miss Carl had been staying in Peking with Empress Dowager for around a year. After she finished her task in Peking, she wrote the book titled With the Empress Dowager which was published in the year of 1905. In this book, Miss Carl carefully described her experiences in Peking, which was unknown for the West.

There are, at least, two things in this book that interest me. On the one hand, Miss Carl in her book provided an image of Empress Dowager which was contrary to that of the West. In her eyes, Empress Dowager was a charming lady who not only had great knowledge of literacy, but also possessed the tenderness as a woman. Miss Carl talked about her loving of nature, of flowers, and of dogs. She especially emphasized the charming and attractive characteristics of Empress Dowager.

On the other hand, Miss Carl gave readers a sharp and accurate observation of the life in the Qing court. She depicted several festivals in Peiking, such as the Birthday of Empress Dowager, the Middle Autumn Festivals, the Chinese new year, and the ritual to Confucius. She also described different kinds of people in Qing court, such as the eunuch, the Qing official, the emperor, the court artists, and other princess and ladies in the court. Moreover, She carefully depicted some Chinese architectures and the scenes of Chinese garden or palace. She also talked about the culture of Manchus, such as the life of Manchuria female, their clothes, and their customs. In this sense, Miss Carl was not an artist but an anthropologist.

Some of these depictions are neural and objective, but some are different. Sometimes, when Miss Carl talked about Chinese culture in an amazing tone. For example, when she talked about how Chinese people played with their birds, she said, “The Chinese are so near to nature, so simple in every way, that their influence over animals and birds is extraordinary, and seems to us almost magical”(pp.138). This amazing tone shows her Orientalist perspective and stereotypes to Chinese people and culture. However, it is the Orientalism that interests me a lot. Miss Carl, on the one hand, has stereotypes to China, on the other, she loves Chinese culture from heart. She, on the one hand, seems know a lot about the life of Qing court and the customs of China, on the other, her knowledge is general and limited because of her experiences.

These paradoxes are the most interest part of this book. Moreover, I love her language as well. From her writing, I think Miss Carl must be a cute lady both in appearance and personality. This photo of her in Manchuria clothes provides a good example.