The Last Princess of Manchuria

This first English translation of work by Lee (pen name of bestselling Hong Kong novelist Li Pik-Wah) is of a superficial fictionalized portrait of the 14th daughter of the Manchu prince Su. Born in 1906 into a deposed dynasty, Hsien-tzu is sent to Japan at age seven to fulfill her father's imperial ambitions. Renamed Yoshiko Kawashima, she is manipulated and used even as she nourishes her dreams of power. The Japanese, who appoint her cousin emperor of the puppet state of Manchukuo during WW II, name Yoshiko commander of the ``Pacification'' Army: she thinks she has attained glory, but she is merely a pawn. Haughty, sexually daring, merciless, Yoshiko loses all with the Japanese defeat and in 1947 faces trial before a hostile Chinese court. However much it is based in history, this opus is lackluster romantic fiction due to its headlong pacing, superficial exposition and breathless prose (``So what if she was evil and would stop at nothing as she clawed her way to the top! There was no going back, now''). Readers of popular commercial novels may welcome a tale set in this exotic locale, however. (Aug.)