Imperial Masquerade: The Legend of Princess Der Ling

20 Cat’s eyes and big feet

20 Cat’s eyes and big feet Clothes were still very much on Cixi’s mind when she presided over the first garden party of the year at the Summer Palace, and the clothes that most obsessed her were, as usual, those of the foreign women who made up the majority of the guests. The list of those attending the dowager’s spring fête gleamed with the cream of both Chinese and foreign Beijing society. Besides such court grandees as Prince Qing and other members of the imperial government, Cixi had invited all the foreign ministers’ wives, including her favorite among them, the sympathetic Sarah Conger, and one who was only sympathetic when in her presence, Lady Susan Townley, wife of the British Legation’s First Secretary. Lady Townley was flighty but was an amusing writer with as keen an eye for the absurd as Der Ling. Lady Townley also made what she may not have realized at the time was a certain contribution to the Times’ reportage on China, by frequently sharing her catty observations while at court functions with George Morrison, the fabled Times correspondent who never learned a word of Chinese. In her 1922 memoir, The Indiscretions of Lady Susan, the author echoed some scuttlebutt she told Morrison, that Guangxu had “glazed eyes and a fixed expression” due to 188 Imperial Masquerade presumed opium addiction encouraged by Cixi herself. She also described Cixi as “a funny old lady,” with the face of “a kindly Italian peasant” (Lady MacDonald, wife of the British minister, described her the same way — perhaps the ladies spoke on the matter in the garden), who gave the impression of being a woman of younger years, despite a disfiguring goiter. By this time, Der Ling had received the hair dye from Paris and had showed Cixi how to use it, with much more natural-looking results than the painted-on variety she had used for years. Lady Townley had the tactlessness to ask the dowager for one of her own dinner plates as a souvenir, though knowing that these things were forbidden to anyone but the imperial user (and that a few years before, soldiers had made off with such items in their knapsacks). On the other hand, Lady Townley also claims to have given many foreign items to Cixi who, she claims, in an impression of Cixi not given by anyone else, would become obsessed with some item belonging to someone else and admire it until the only thing to do was give it to her. Lady Townley certainly did not approve of the quality of what she believed were gifts from foreign rulers: “I don’t know why it is,” sniffed this daughter of an English earl, “that European potentates always show such a preference for blue Sèvres when selecting presents for an Eastern ruler.”1 Conspicuous for her absence from the guest list was Madame von Rosthorn, wife of the Austro-Hungarian minister and proud daughter of a Viennese dentist, who refused to participate in Cixi’s garden parties because she felt them “common.” But everyone else of consequence was there, including Der Ling’s friends from Tokyo, Madame and Mademoiselle de Carcer, wife and daughter of the Spanish Minister.2 Madame von Rosthorn missed seeing one of the more spectacular gowns in Cixi’s collection, described by Der Ling as “a most beautiful gown of peacock blue, embroidered all over with phoenix. The embroidery was raised and each phoenix had a string of pearls two inches long sewed into its mouth. Whenever Her Majesty stirred, these strings of tiny pearls moved backwards and forwards and it made a very pretty effect.” Louisa outfitted herself and her daughters in foreign-style gowns, in which the East of Chinese silk was united to the West of Irish lace trim. Cixi had decided to try a foreign concept for her party, that of having stalls set up in the garden, after the fashion of a charity bazaar, in which were 189 Cat’s eyes and big feet displayed embroideries and curios which later were given to the guests as gifts. As was often done in the warmer months, mats were stretched over the courtyards to make a cool and shady outdoor living space, where ladies could sit with their tea without being cooked by the hot Chinese sun.3 Along with her dazzling gown, Cixi...