Tragic Facts About Wanrong, The Last Empress Of China
When Wanrong became the Empress of China, she was already ruling over a ghost land. In a matter of months, her country abolished the monarchy, turning all Wanrong’s decadent pleasures into dust.
Somehow, though, this was just the beginning of her tragic tale. By the end of her life, Wanrong would lose her crown, her child, and most infamously of all, her sanity.
Empress Wanrong Facts
1. Her Pedigree Was Perfect
On November 13, 1906, Wanrong was born to the Golubo clan in Beijing—and she had far from humble beginnings. Her father was a high-ranking minister in the Imperial Court, and her mother boasted a top-notch pedigree. All in all, her parents might have been overjoyed to spoil their little girl—except tragedy struck the moment she was born.
2. She Killed Her Mother
Sadly, Wanrong’s mother suffered through a difficult labor in giving birth to her daughter, and she ended up passing from childbed fever—another term for postpartum infection—soon after Wanrong was born.
Instead, a kindly stepmother raised the little girl like her own daughter. But that didn’t mean it was a normal childhood.
3. She Was A Sharp Girl
Wanrong’s father was extremely progressive for his time and insisted that she get just as good an education as her brothers.
Even more luckily, her dad was stinking rich, and he could afford to send her to a pricy, chi-chi American school in the city of Tianjin.
When Wanrong emerged from her tutelage, she was fluent in English, accomplished in piano…and ready to meet her destiny.
