The Last Emperor: behind the scenes of the classic 1987 movie in photos
- Basil Pao was allowed unfettered access during the filming of The Last Emperor. Here is a selection of photos from his new book about the making of the epic
Aisin-Gioro Puyi was one of the most extraordinary anti-heroes of modern times, whose life encapsulated the most tumultuous century of change in contemporary Chinese history.
His story can either be described as the metamorphosis of an individual from a dragon to a man, from an emperor to a citizen, or as a journey from darkness to light.
Kidnapped on a gust of wind by history at the age of three, Puyi was set on the Dragon Throne in 1908 as the 11th Qing emperor – “The Son of Heaven” and “The Lord of Ten Thousand Years” – to rule over almost a third of the world’s population as the supreme monarch of China.
Three years later he was forced to abdicate, when revolution swept away 2,000 years of imperial rule and ushered in China’s first republic under Sun Yat-sen.
And while Sun struggled to control the tournament of warlords in the chaotic years that followed, the former Qing emperor was allowed to retain his title and the imperial court remained inside the northern half of the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace.
