What Was It Like, Mr. Emperor?: Life in China’s Forbidden City

In this book you learn about the Emperor of China. He isn’t really very important because he doesn’t really do anything, but an emperor who taught his people the good things to do that they didn’t already know that were actually important would be an important emperor. China doesn’t have an emperor any more, but it is interesting to learn about what the emperors were like and what they did. One thing was that they were cruel. They lived in a place called the Forbidden City with lots of servants and wives and children. Life wasn’t very good for the wives or children or servants, and the emperor wasn’t very happy. One thing the emperor had to do was ten hours of school every day with only five vacation days in a year!

There is a lot of interesting information and cartoon pictures that help you see what life was like, and at the end you can read a little about each of the emperors of the last two dynasties. If you want to learn about ancient China, especially what life was like for the emperor, you should read “What Was It Like Mr. Emperor?” by Chiu Kwong-chiu.