The Empress Dowager
Cixi began her career as an Imperial Concubine, and was elevated in power when she gave birth to a son and heir to the throne. She acted as regent during her son's minority, and was the effective ruler of China for forty years through until her death in 1908. The dynasty only survived her for another three years.
She was ambitious, xenophobic, anti-modern and superstitious. She lived in great luxury and ostentation. In what a wonderful symbol of her extravagance and refusal to recognise the changing times around her, she used budget allocated for a modernised navy to renovate the marble boat at the Summer Palace.
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