Weekend Long Read: Why China’s Last Dynasty Failed in Its Efforts to Modernize

The late Qing dynasty (1644-1911) tried reform and westernization for more than 50 years before finally ditching it. It was not the revolutionaries but Qing rulers like Cixi who steered the reforms to a dead end.

Historian Shen Xubin published a new book called “Great Changes: Fifty Years of Reform in the Late Qing Dynasty.” It takes a hybrid form of chronology and thematic focus, selecting a significant event for each year between 1861 and 1911 to recreate the process of reform in the late Qing dynasty, China’s last imperial dynasty, from its beginnings and advances to its setbacks and failures.