Jane Perlez, A Feminist Trailblazer? Or a Chinese Michael Corleone? A debatable place in history for a figure of a waning dynasty. New York Times, July 11, 2018.
Note:
(a) In 1852（咸丰二年) "She [1835-1908; 咸丰帝 (1831 – 1861)] entered the world of an ancient empire as a teenage concubine, chosen * * * for her good looks, immaculate comportment and, above all, her ability to sing.
comport (vt): "BEHAVE; especially : to behave in a manner conformable to what is right, proper, or expected <comported himself well in the crisis>" https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comportmen
(b) Cixi "rebuilt a fantastic wonderland, the Summer Palace 颐和园 [光绪十年至二十一年（1884年至1895) 重建乾隆的清漪园; 光绪二十六年（1900年）八国联军破坏，两年后修复: zh.wikipedia.porg]. * * * Communist Party-authorized school books that [say] Cixi was a harridan who stole the nation's wealth and was responsible for China's humiliating defeat by the Japanese in 1895. * * * There is no Hillary Clinton figure in contemporary China (the real Mrs Clinton is vilified by the [Chinese] government for talking about human rights in the country [China]."
Harridan (n; etymology) https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/harridan
(c) "A Chinese scholar, Zhang Hongjie, recently took up the cause of the empress in a sympathetic essay, 'Woman Cixi, featured in an anthology about Chinese women and men who have struggled against the odds."
张宏杰, 女人慈禧. 新法家网站, Jan 15, 2006.
(d) "Cixi had the Summer Palace rebuilt after an invading European army looted and burned the original, which, with its jewel-encrusted furniture and over-the-top silks, was said to be on par with Versailles. Her reconstruction was not quite as opulent [as the one existent in and before 1960]"