From Emperor to Citizen

From Emperor to Citien is the

autobiography of Pu Yi, the man who

was the last emperor of China. A

unique memoir of the first half of the

20th century as seen through the eyes

of one born to be an absolute

monarch, the book begins with the

author's vivid account of the last,

decadent days of the Ching Dynasty,

and closes with an introspective

self-portrait of the last Ching emperor

transformed into a retiring scholar

and citizen of the People's Republic

of China.

In detailing the events of the fifty

years between his ascension to the

throne and the final period of his life

as a quiet-living resident of Beijing,

Pu Yi reveals himself to be first and

foremost a survivor, caught up in the

torrent of global power struggles and

world conflict that played itself out

on the Asian continent through many

decades of violence and upheaval.

This firsthand description of the

dramatic events of Pu Yi's life was the

basis for the intemationally acclaimed

1987 Bemardo Bertolucci film The

Last Emperor which was named Best

Picture of the Year by the American

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and

Sciences. From Emperor to Citizen

readily lends itself to cinematic

adaptation as a personal narrative of

continuously significant and revea-

ling episodes.

Becoming emperor and then

forced to abdicate with the

establishment of the Republic of

China in 1911, all before he is seven

years old, Pu Yi continues to live in

the Forbidden City for another

decade, still treated as the Son of

Heaven by the moribund Ching court,

but in reality a virtual prisoner, with

little genuine human contact apart

from his beloved nurse Mrs. Wang,

his teacher Chen Pao-shen and his

English tutor Reginald Johnston.

When at the age of nineteen Pu Yi

is finally forced to vacate his isolated

existence within the Forbidden City,

he begins his long odyssey as the

dependent of the occupying imperial

Japanese regime, first in Tientsin, and

eventually installed as "emperor" of

the Japanese puppet state styled

Manchukuo in China's northeast

provinces. With the defeat of Japan

and the end of the Second World War,

Pu Yi faces a very uncertain future as

he is shunted off to Russia for five

years before retuming to a new China

transformed by revolution, where he

is confined in the Fushun War

Criminal Prison. Here he undergoes

several years of rehabilitation,

"learning how to become a human

being," as he calls it, before receiving

an official pardon and being allowed

to finally live as an ordinary citizen of

Beijing.

This autobiography is the culmi-

nation of a unique and remarkable

life, told simply, directly and frankly

by a man whose circumstances and

experiences were like no other.

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