SinoAmerican Books
An independent publisher of fiction and non-fiction in
English devoted to Chinese-related topics
Chapter 1—Young Paul
The Foundling and the Founder
Chapter 2—Rails, Sails, and Ruts
Pope Pius IX
Shipboard Chinese Lessons
First Glimpse of China
China’s Bustling Trade City
“Guardian Angel” and Guide
“Those Damned Carts”
Chinese Names
The Capital
Shipboard Chinese Lessons
First Glimpse of China
China’s Bustling Trade City
“Guardian Angel” and Guide
“Those Damned Carts”
Chinese Names
The Capital
Chapter 3—Seed in the Soil
Fr. Verbist’s Debut Party
Getting to Work
The Chinese Language
A Case for Champagne
Brother Franzenbach
Chapter 4—The Turning Point
Fr. Remi Verlinden
Departure from Xiwanzi
Chapter 5—Paul and Richthofen
The Geologist Finds his Dolmetscher
Li Hongzhang Grants Approval
China’s Lewis and Clark?
Kalgan Detour
Buddhist Travel Companion
Chapter 6—Trader in Mongolia
Jardine Matheson & Co.
The Mongolian wool trade
Paul Gets Married
Chapter 7—Customs Mandarin in Suzhou
American Cyclists Meet Mysterious “Ling Darin”
Vladimir Obroutchev Visit
Paul the Practitioner
Recognition and Promotion
Swedish Explorer Sven Hedin
Chapter 8—The Children’s Caravan
The Missing Ingredient
The Journey
Arrival at Shanghai
Four Religious Sisters
Chapter 9—China’s “Grand Central”
Li and Leopold
Flawed Diplomacy
Paul is Enlisted
Chevalier Paul
Chapter 10—Paul and the King’s Men
Leopold Sets Sights on Gansu
General Wittamer in “Paul’s town”
Who Were the “Boxers”?
Guangxu Attempts Reform
Learning About the Congo
A Low Point
“Flee Immediately”
Refuge at the Zhang Plantation
Gobi Ordeal
Boxers in Beijing
Chapter 11—Brigadier General Lin in Post-Boxer China
First Foreigner to see the Dunhuang Buddhist manuscripts
Still Assisting Scheuts
Chapter 12—Mission to Brussels
Chapter 13—Xian Farewell
Chapter 14—Paul’s Legacy
Development of Lanzhou
And What About the Bridge?
Epilogue—Paul’s Other Bridge
Appendix A
Appendix B—Map
Appendix C—Paul’s descendants
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Anne Splingaerd Megowan was born in Tianjin, China, when the city was still called Tientsin. Her father, Joseph Splingaerd, is the only surviving grandson of the subject of her book, Paul Splingaerd, “The Belgian Mandarin.”
After leaving Tientsin, she lived in Hong Kong, Yokohama, and Mexico City, before settling in Los Angeles, where she now resides. Since 1994, she has been querying relatives, searching libraries, antiquarian bookstores, and Google links for information about her great grandfather. Since the clever but unlettered Paul did not leave much of a personal paper trail, it was the works and words of others, historians, missionaries, explorers, military officers, and diplomats, who had encountered the white mandarin, that have helped Anne draw back the curtain on the heretofore hidden story of the “mysterious Lin Darin.”
Anne's quest took her in 1996 to Paul's birthplace, Brussels, and more recently to China where she traced Paul's footsteps from China's eastern seacoast, through Inner Mongolia, to Gansu province in the west. [Chapter 14 discusses Paul's involvement with the construction of the first iron bridge across the venerable Yellow River at Lanzhou.]
A remarkable result of the trip to China was being reunited with her grandmother's relatives in Lanzhou after having lost touch when the Splingaerd family left the country in the late 1940's.
The Belgian Mandarin: Paul Splingaerd is a fascinating non-fiction chronicle of the
extraordinary life of Paul Splingaerd, the Belgian orphan who traveled to China as
a young man in 1865, and became a top-ranking mandarin. Paul's adventures may sound
more like fiction than fact, but he really did exist. His four decades in China were
during the pivotal post-Opium Wars years when China's doors were being pried open
for trade with the West. Paul explored all regions of the “Middle Kingdom” with
renowned German geologist Ferdinand von Richthofen, and established a fur trading
business in Mongolia before being appointed customs inspector in China's far west
by powerful viceroy Li Hongzhang.
Find out what brought Splingaerd to China, and read about how he earned recognition
from his king, King Leopold II, who made him a “Chevalier de L'Ordre de la Couronne.”
Splingaerd's perspective on China's interaction with the West during the late nineteenth
century offers the reader many intriguing insights into the roots of China's dynamism
in the twenty-
Masterfully authored by Splingaerd's great-
