Volume 35, Number 2 · February 18, 1988
Born Too Late
By John K. Fairbank
BOOKS ON PU YI DISCUSSED IN THIS ESSAY
The Last Emperor
a film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci
Twilight in the Forbidden City (1973), out of print
by Reginald F. Johnston. with a preface by the Emperor
London: Victor Gollancz (1934); reprinted by Scholarly Resources
From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi
translated by W.J.F. Jenner
Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 2 vols, 496 pp.
From Emperor to Citizen: The Autobiography of Aisin-Gioro Pu Yi
reprinted with new general and chapter introductions by W.J.F. Jenner, afterword by Simon Winchester
Oxford University Press, 502 pp., $10.95 (paper)
The Last Emperor
by Edward Behr
Bantam, 336 pp., $9.95 (paper)
The Last Manchu: The Autobiography of Henry Pu Yi, Last Emperor of China
translated by Kuo Ying Paul Tsai, edited, with a revised preface and epilogue, by Paul Kramer
Pocket Books, 310 pp., $4.95 (paper)
A Dream of Tartary: The Origins and Misfortunes of Henry Pu Yi
by Henry McAleavy
London: Allen and Unwin, out of print
Pu Yi: J'étais empereur de Chine: L'autobiographie du dernier empereur de Chine (1906–1967)
Paris: Flammarion (1975); reprinted by Editions J'ai lu, (1987), 600 pp., fr30
The Last Emperor is a spectacular film photographed in brilliant color. It is also a moral drama with controversial political overtones of great ambiguity. It spans sixty years of history, between the Manchu dynasty's final decrepitude and the disaster of the Cultural Revolution in the People's Republic. It leaves us with a question: Did Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Ch'ing dynasty (1644–1912) and the only emperor of Japan's puppet state of Manchukuo (1931–1945), really find a new life in Mao's China? Or was it simply a variation on his life's theme of puppetry? Was he not in fact the world's champion puppet—first under the Ch'ing court, then under the Japanese militarists, finally under the Chinese Communists? The answer is by no means as self-evident as we may tend to think.
Review, 2843 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |