© SinoAmerican Books 2010. All rights reserved.
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
A portrait of a russet-bearded Caucasian in Chinese mandarin garb is handed down through three generations and is hung over the Splingaerd mantle. He was known in the family as “Super Paul” and “The Belgian Marco Polo,” but no one knew exactly how Paul Splingaerd became a Chinese official or why King Leopold II of Belgium gave him a medal.
His great-granddaughter, Anne Splingaerd Megowan, was curious enough to begin a quest to know more about her ancestor. She reveals her discoveries in her fascinating book, The Belgian Mandarin: Paul Splingaerd.
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.
Over the course of his forty-one years in China, Paul assisted missionaries, explored the country with German geologist, Ferdinand von Richthofen, traded in furs in Mongolia, and became an official (mandarin) of the imperial Qing government. Paul received recognition in his native Belgium when his King, Leopold II, made him a “Chevalier de L’Ordre de la Couronne” for assistance in negotiating with Viceroy Li Hongzhang the rights to build the major Peking-Hankou railroad. Learning about the fascinating nineteenth century China Paul lived in provides an illuminating background for understanding what is happening in China’s dynamic present.
To read an excerpt, click here.