Today I am doing to try a different channel to look for a documentary to review. This time I am going to review a documentary on the Forbidden City. The run time for this documentary is 52:50 and is called China’s Forbidden City. The first episode of this series is called The Reign of the Concubine. Just a warning, this series may be done out of order because this episode was about a woman who rose to power.
At the beginning of the 15th Century, Prince Zhu Di took power in China. With his new power, he established the Forbidden City and declared Bejing the capital of China. The Forbidden City was a palace complex and was a symbol of the new Emperor. The Forbidden City was a place where the emperor lived with his empress and concubines. It was kept off-limits to the ordinary man. It is now China’s greatest tourist attraction and is revealing its secrets from the past. The year is 1850 and the previous emperor died. The question on everyone’s mind is who will the emperor marry? Yehe Nara was a young Chinese woman who was brought to the Forbidden City to marry the emperor. She participated in the selection of wives to the Xianfeng Emperor. The emperor’s mother will choose the emperor’s wife. She was selected to stay and was placed in the lowest level of concubines and granted the title of Noble Lady Lan. She had come from an impoverished noble family. The sights that awaited Yehe Nara would have been spectacular. She would have been left in awe. The curator of the Forbidden City Museum talks about the layout of the city. The Emperor had made a mountain behind the Forbidden City to protect it from its cold wind. The emperor even built a river to help complement the city. Periodically this documentary will have the curator speak about the Forbidden City and its traditions. In one section he talks about the principles of Ying and Yang and how the Emperor and Empress were a reflection of these principles. The Forbidden City was a place where rituals were observed and strict protocols were in place. The documentary goes back to telling the story of Yehe Nara. The women would have been carefully examined before they were selected to either be a concubine or the Empress. Yehe Nara is selected to be a concubine and another girl is selected to become Empress. According to tradition, she was to be the one to bear the emperor a son. The two would become rivals. Yehe Nara and the remaining concubines are assigned to a variety of palaces in the Forbidden City complex. Here she would meet other, older concubines who had never been sent for by the Emperor. It would take two years before the Emperor would call for Yehe Nara. Life in the forbidden city would have been monotonous for the women who lived there. They lived in a comfortable gilded prison. Then there is a discussion on the history of how the Ming Dynasty fell. Yehe Nara’s family would have witnessed these events. The new rulers would have adopted Chinese ways and become more Chinese than the Chinese. However, what the rulers did not see was that the world was changing around them. The West wanted access to China. Additionally, there was corruption int eh system that needed to be addressed and the rulers failed to address it. Yehe Nara was educated in the Chinese language and would have been spared the tradition of foot binding. She was nicknamed orchid. It was two years before a much took sympathy for Yehe Nara and offered to help her, thus helping her find favor in the court. The eunuchs were the only men who had access to the inner sanctums of the Forbidden City. They were the most influential members of the court. Yehe Nara is given an audience with the chief eunuch who promises to mention her beauty to the Emperor. He will be one of her most valuable allies. So does Yehe Nara spend time with the Emperor? Tune into the rest of this episode to find out more. This was a very well-done documentary and the narration was good. The museum curator added some excellent context as well. The drama parts were well done too. This would be something I would consider showing to a history class.
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The purpose of this blog is to share information on what can be used in a classroom, private school, or home school setting as well as serve as a portfolio of my personal and professional work. The reviews are my opinions and should be treated as such. I just want to provide a tool for teachers to select documentaries for their classrooms. |