![](/site/southernsky/images/items/9781108029650.jpg)
|
Twilight in the Forbidden City
Paperback / softback
Main Details
Title |
Twilight in the Forbidden City
|
Authors and Contributors |
By (author) Reginald F. Johnston
|
Series | Cambridge Library Collection - East and South-East Asian History |
Physical Properties |
Format:Paperback / softback | Pages:572 | Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 140 |
|
Category/Genre | Asian and Middle Eastern history |
ISBN/Barcode |
9781108029650
|
Classifications | Dewey:951.156 |
---|
Audience | Professional & Vocational | |
Illustrations |
36 Plates, black and white; 2 Maps
|
|
Publishing Details |
Publisher |
Cambridge University Press
|
Imprint |
Cambridge University Press
|
Publication Date |
30 June 2011 |
Publication Country |
United Kingdom
|
Description
British academic and diplomat Reginald Fleming Johnston (1874-1938) published Twilight in the Forbidden City in 1934. The work is a memoir of Johnston's time in Beijing between 1919 and 1924, at the court of the Qing Dynasty, where he served as tutor to Aisin-Gioro Puyi (1906-1967), last emperor of China. Johnston was one of only two foreigners who were permitted to enter the imperial palace, and so his account provides a unique Western perspective on the epochal events of the period. The work has a preface by the emperor Puyi and includes detailed descriptions of palace rituals, including Puyi's wedding ceremony; translations of key documents; Johnston's perspective on the revolution of 1911 and the 1917 restoration; his observations on Chinese society as a whole; and eye-witness accounts of the political intrigues of the palace. The memoir was dramatised in Bernardo Bertolucci's cinematic masterpiece, The Last Emperor.
|