Rare art from China's 19th century woman ruler come to US

For more than a century she has been known as the woman behind the throne, the empress who through skill and circumstance rose from lowly imperial consort to iron-fisted ruler of China at a time and in a place when women were believed to have no power at all.

But it turns out Empress Dowager Cixi was much more than that. The 19th century ruler, who consolidated authority through political maneuvering that at times included incarceration and assassination, was also a serious arts patron and even an artist herself, with discerning tastes that helped set the style for traditional Asian art for more than a century.

CORRECTS NAME OF EXHIBITION FROM EXPRESS DOWAGER TO EMPRESS DOWAGER - Catherine Shiao looks at the exhibition "Empress Dowager, Cixi." at Orange County's Bowers Museum, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in Santa Ana, Calif. The exhibit focuses on Cixi, the mysterious woman who quietly ruled China with an iron fist from the mid-1800s until her death in 1908. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

That side of Cixi comes to the Western world for the first time with Sunday's unveiling of "Empress Dowager, Cixi: Selections From the Summer Palace" at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. The wide-ranging collection, never before seen outside China, will remain at the Southern California museum through March 11 before returning to Beijing.

Consisting of more than 100 pieces from the lavish Beijing palace Cixi called home during the final years of her life, "Empress Dowager" includes numerous examples of intricately designed Chinese furniture, porcelain vases and stone carvings, as well as several pieces of Western art, rare in China at the time, that she also collected. Among them are a large oil-on-canvas portrait of herself she commissioned the prominent Dutch artist Hubert Vos to create.

Other Western accoutrements include gifts from visiting dignitaries, among them British silver serving sets, German and Swiss clocks, a marble-topped table from Italy with inlaid stones in the shape of a chessboard and even an American-built luxury automobile. The latter, a 1901 Duryea touring car, is believed to be the first automobile imported into China and as such may have involved the empress in the country's first automobile accident when her driver is said to have hit a pedestrian.

CORRECTS NAME OF EXHIBITION FROM EXPRESS DOWAGER TO EMPRESS DOWAGER - The Reception Throne Set is shown in the exhibition "Empress Dowager, Cixi." at Orange County's Bowers Museum, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in Santa Ana, Calif. The exhibit focuses on Cixi, the mysterious woman who quietly ruled China with an iron fist from the mid-1800s until her death in 1908. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

"We already have a lot of scholarship on who she is and how she ruled China. But this show brings you a different angle," said exhibition curator Ying-Chen Peng, as she led a recent pre-opening tour of it through the museum that was kicked off by a raucous performance of Chinese lion dancers accompanied by musicians loudly banging gongs cymbals and drums.

"This exhibition seeks to introduce you to this woman as an arts patron, as an architect, as a designer," the American University art historian said.

That's an approach that may finally have gotten it to the Western world. Anne Shih, who chairs the museum's board of directors, noted recently that she spent 10 years trying to persuade the Chinese government to lend Cixi's art.

The Bowers has built an impressive international reputation over the years by hosting exhibitions of priceless, historical, often larger-than-life artworks from Tibet, the Silk Road, the tomb of China's first emperor and other historic sites.

CORRECTS NAME OF EXHIBITION FROM EXPRESS DOWAGER TO EMPRESS DOWAGER -Dragon Dancers perform before the unveiling of the exhibition "Empress Dowager, Cixi." at Orange County's Bowers Museum, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in Santa Ana, Calif. The exhibit focuses on Cixi, the mysterious woman who quietly ruled China with an iron fist from the mid-1800s until her death in 1908. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

However, Shih says the Chinese government initially turned her down repeatedly. Officials told her the empress, who outlived two much younger emperors, including one who died mysteriously of arsenic poisoning, was just too controversial. She's been portrayed in numerous films and books and not always positively.

Shih finally prevailed, however, when she emphasized this show would focus on art, not politics.

Although it does, it still becomes apparent to visitors what a formidable presence Cixi must have been as they enter a recreation of her throne room to be greeted by a larger-than-life portrait of her covered in jewels and razor-sharp fingernail protectors as she glares ominously at her audience.

Nearby, however, are objects that quickly make her passion for art clear. Prominent among them is a towering calligraphy work of black ink embossed on a sheet of paper that, stretching to about 6 feet (2 meters), is taller than the dowager was. She is said to have made it by wielding a large heavy brush while standing on a stool as some of the eunuchs who served her stretched out the paper.

CORRECTS NAME OF EXHIBITION FROM EXPRESS DOWAGER TO EMPRESS DOWAGER -Exhibition curator Ying-Chen Peng talks during the unveiling of "Empress Dowager, Cixi." at Orange County's Bowers Museum, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in Santa Ana, Calif. The exhibit focuses on Cixi, the mysterious woman who quietly ruled China with an iron fist from the mid-1800s until her death in 1908. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Not far away are ink-and-paper drawings of flowers the empress also created, although Peng notes with a laugh that when it came to painting, Cixi was a much better calligrapher.

Placed into the emperor's harem as a low-level teenage consort, she quickly elevated her status by giving birth to his only son in 1856. When the emperor died six years later she installed the boy as his successor and, as the woman behind the throne, ousted opponents, brought in loyalists and ran the country herself for the next 43 years. She died in 1908 at age 72.

Although she led her country through numerous wars launched by foreign invaders during those years, she also found time to visit with dignitaries from other countries and to pursue her own passion for art.

CORRECTS NAME OF EXHIBITION FROM EXPRESS DOWAGER TO EMPRESS DOWAGER -A 1901 Duryea Surrey is shown during the unveiling of the exhibition "Empress Dowager, Cixi." at Orange County's Bowers Museum, Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017, in Santa Ana, Calif. The exhibit focuses on Cixi, the mysterious woman who quietly ruled China with an iron fist from the mid-1800s until her death in 1908. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Her real artistic skill, however, lay not in making art but in envisioning works that would stand the critical test of time and then finding skilled artisans to create them.

"Her personal preference actually led to the further development of these very ornate designs," Peng said, observing some of the intricately carved, gold-inlaid furniture and hand-painted porcelain objects. "Nowadays when you go to antique shops, you can see quite a few pieces in this style. You can say she was a trendsetter."

WASHINGTON (AP) — TikTok is gearing up for a legal fight against a U.S. law that would force the social media platform to break ties with its China-based parent company, a move almost certainly backed by Chinese authorities as the bitter U.S.-China rivalry threatens the future of a wildly popular way for young people in America to connect online.

Beijing has signaled TikTok should fight what it has called a “robbers” act by U.S. lawmakers “to snatch from others all the good things that they have.” Should a legal challenge fail, observers say Chinese authorities are unlikely to allow a sale, a move that could be seen as surrendering to Washington.

Beijing may not want the U.S. action against the popular short-form video platform to set a “bad precedent,” said Alex Capri, senior lecturer at the National University of Singapore and research fellow at Hinrich Foundation. “If Beijing capitulates to the U.S., where does it end?”

The legislation that U.S. President Joe Biden signed this week could allow Washington to widen its scope to target other China-related apps, such as the popular e-commerce platform Temu, and embolden U.S. allies to follow suit, said Hu Xijin, a former editor-in-chief for the party-run newspaper Global Times.

With 170 million American users, TikTok should “have more guts to fight to the very end and refuse to surrender,” Hu, now a political commentator, said Wednesday on Chinese social media.

TikTok vowed to challenge the new U.S. law, which requires its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance, to divest its stakes within a year to avoid a ban. The company has characterized the law as an infringement on the free speech rights of its users, most of whom use the app for entertainment.

“We believe the facts and the law are clearly on our side, and we will ultimately prevail,” the company wrote on the social platform X.

The fight over TikTok has increased tensions between the U.S. and China, with both vowing to protect their economic and national security interests. U.S. lawmakers are concerned the Chinese ownership of the app could allow Beijing to exert unwanted influence in the U.S., especially on young minds. The law has followed a string of successes by Washington in curbing the influence of Chinese companies through bans, export controls and forced divestitures, drawing protests from Beijing that the U.S. is bent on suppressing China’s rise through economic coercion.

The U.S. has forced other Chinese companies to divest before, including in 2020, when Beijing Kunlun, a Chinese mobile video game company, agreed to sell the gay dating app Grindr after receiving a federal order. But TikTok, created by a Chinese company only for the overseas market and evidence of the nation's tech powers on the global stage, is a high-profile case that Beijing does not want to lose.

National dignity is at stake and could “take precedence over the financial interests of ByteDance investors,” including global investors who own 60% of the company, said Gabriel Wildau, managing director of the New York-headquartered consulting and advisory firm Teneo.

A legal challenge from the company is expected to lean on First Amendment concerns and could drag on for years. Beijing is betting on a legal win, analysts say.

What to do if TikTok doesn't prevail is likely still being debated with the Chinese leadership, said Dominic Chiu, an analyst with Eurasia Group. President Xi Jinping, who will have to sign off on whether to permit or prohibit the sale, probably has not made the final decision, Chiu said.

Luckily for Xi, there is no urgency for Beijing to decide, said Sun Yun, director of the China program at the Washington-based Stimson Center. “A lot of things could change," she said.

If lawmakers get their wish and a sale does occur, it’s likely to be a challenging and messy process for TikTok, which would have to disentangle its U.S. operations from everything else.

For one, the price tag for TikTok’s U.S. business — which is unknown — is expected to be high enough to severely limit the pool of investors and companies who’d be able to afford it. Some investors — including former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin — have already positioned themselves as potential buyers of a U.S. version of TikTok. ByteDance, which is privately held, is valued at $220 billion, according to market tracker Pitchbook.

And there’s uncertainty about what would happen with the TikTok algorithm, the secret sauce that feeds users short videos based on their interests and has contributed to the platform’s status as a cultural juggernaut.

ByteDance would be barred from controlling the algorithm of a U.S. spinoff of TikTok. Many experts believe Chinese authorities would block any sale of the technology that populates people's TikTok feeds under export regulations revised in 2020, when then-President Donald Trump unsuccessfully tried to ban TikTok through an executive order that was blocked in federal courts.

Some, including Mnuchin, have said TikTok would need to be rebuilt in the U.S. using new technology. But it's unclear what that might look like, or how well it can reproduce the type of video recommendations users have grown accustomed to seeing.

Robin Burke, a professor of information science at the University of Colorado Boulder, says some aspects of the algorithm might be replicated by industry insiders. But he also noted there are areas where TikTok appears ahead of its competitors and duplication might prove challenging.

“TikTok has all the experience, they have all the data,” Burke said. “I think it’s unlikely that a U.S. business — if they don’t inherit the technology from the parent company — would be able to build something equivalent. Certainly not right away.”

AP journalist Dake Kang contributed from Beijing.

FILE - A TikTok content creator, sits outside the U.S. Capitol, April 23, 2024, in Washington. TikTok is gearing up for a legal fight against a U.S. law that would force the social media platform to break ties with its China-based parent company or face a ban. A battle in the courts will almost certainly be backed by Chinese authorities as the bitter U.S.-China rivalry threatens the future of a wildly popular way for young Americans to connect online. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, file)

FILE - The TikTok logo is displayed on a mobile phone in front of a computer screen, Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston. TikTok is gearing up for a legal fight against a U.S. law that would force the social media platform to break ties with its China-based parent company or face a ban. A battle in the courts will almost certainly be backed by Chinese authorities as the bitter U.S.-China rivalry threatens the future of a wildly popular way for young Americans to connect online. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer, File)