Orchid qualifies for the role because of her ethnicity (Manchu) and her father’s social rank, and so she applies. Some years later, Emperor Hsien Feng sends out an announcement that he is looking for a mate of suitable social class the emperor has no heir. Life is very hard for Orchid and her family, but they survive. Once in that city, they move in with an uncle they have had barely any contact with his son, Ping, is mentally disabled and addicted to opium. They place his body in a coffin and begin the long trip back to his place of birth, Peking, in order to bury him. When her father dies, her family is plunged into extreme poverty. She was born the daughter of a former provincial governor, was predicted by an astrologer to be extremely stubborn, and to suffer for this quality, which prompts her parents to name her Orchid, hoping the name would inspire her to bend. She is amused by people who believe she schemed to rule China since childhood, noting that her life has been shaped by forces beyond her control, and even in her position as regent she must play-act a certain way in order to mollify the chauvinistic fears of her councilors, who are alarmed at the prospect of a woman in power. The book begins with Tsu Hsi ruminating on the decayed status of the Ch’ing Dynasty, and her suffocating role as the regent to her son, Emperor Tung Chih. Min relies on deep research to recreate the final years of the Ch’ing Dynasty in China, exploring one of the more complex and under-studied personalities in world history in the process. Empress Orchid is a historical novel by Anchee Min, published in 2004.

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min