Adorning the Empress

May Holdsworth

Bejewelled women, embroidered robes, hairpins inlaid with kingfisher feathers and delicately painted fans conjure up a lost world of the rich elite of imperial China. This was a world of spacious mansions and gardens, of high-ranking officals ans ealthy landlords, of their virtuous and accomplished wives and daughters, and of a domestic life conducted with decorum and taste. Adorning The Empress tells another story, for the women of the elite, no less than for those in peasant homes, bound feet and a strict social code kept them confined within their imprisoning courtyards. Theirs was a world as much of cruelty and sorrow as of grandeur and luxury.

Price: US$19.95