Empress Dowager Cixi of China Part 1: Coup Th...

Before Anne Boleyn, there was Mary. And her scandalous affair with King Henry VIII offers a whole new perspec:ve on “divorced, beheaded, died”. We dig into the story of the hidden Boleyn sister, including how she got caught up in a messy slut-shaming rumour that would come to def ...  Show more

A look at the controversial legacy of Malintzin: an enslaved Mesoamerican woman who changed the course of history when she became a translator for Spanish colonisers. We dive into the records that have been le‘ behind about her life and analyse her so-called affair with famed con ...  Show more

April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. But in just five years time, the emperor will be dead and Cixi will be planning a ...  Show more

The story of a Chinese concubine who rose to power from behind a curtain of yellow silk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who, for almost fifty years, was the most powerful figure in the Chinese court. Cixi (1835-1908) started out at court as one of the Emperor's many concubines, yet was the only one who gave him a son to succeed him and who also possessed g ...  Show more

Ching Shih was the terror of the seas during the Qing Dynasty in China. Although she was the most powerful and successful pirate in history, most of her story is yet to be fully discovered. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices