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Collaboration of the Week
Museum of Imperial Palace of Manchu State, also known as the Puppet Emperor's Palace, was the official residence of China's last emperor, Puyi, from 1932 to 1945. The palace was created by the Imperial Japanese Army for Puyi to live in as the nominal head of the newly established state of Manchukuo. The Japanese used Puyi to legitimize their claim to the territory of Northeast China, and then the rest of the country.
The palace is located in the northeastern corner of Changchun, and was not only an open prison for the young Puyi, but also the site of the "central government" of the Manchukuo state. Like the life of the last emperor, the remains of the palace today are of decaying sadness. The gardens and courtyards are all fairly badly maintained. Today the palace serves as a museum, wax works and testament to the evils perpetrated by the Japanese in their long reign in north China.
The structure is a miniature of the emperor's exiled home, the traditional imperial palace known as the Forbidden City in Beijing. It is a complex composed of several buildings in a variety of styles, including the architectures of Chinese, Japanese, and European. The palace was divided into front court and back court: the front palace was used for administrative purposes and the rear palace as the royal residence. The largest and most impressive of the buildings, the Tonde Palace has the most luxurious interior decoration, but was not lived in by the emperor since he believed it to be bugged. The Qianming Building once served as Puyi's office building, but now houses the throne, a variety of gimmicky wax models of Puyi, one of his wives and others, and documents of his life, from stately childhood to the Japanese pawn. (more Puppet Emperor's Palace...)
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