The Empress Dowager, Cixi, led China for the best part of 50 years, from 1861 till her death in 1908, modernising the then medieval country. She did so at a time when women had no formal mandate to rule. While Cixi was capable of ruthlessness, writer, Jung Chang says the last hundred years have been most unfair to her. Jung Chang discusses Cixi, modern China and her relationship to her homeland.