:0) knew about that reference
eugene is also referenced in the soogn dynasty and in time magazines of that time
he was a 'naughty' man in the right place at the right time, and he had his easily understood principals
eugene was all-chinese w/ perhaps a dash of mongolian flavoring
the negro reference is an error of tuchman and many of that time; eugene married first wife agatha alphonse ganteaume (ganteaum) who was of mixed parentage, of afro kitchen maid and by french plantation owner
agatha was educated in the school opposite where eugene was educated - the french, unlike the british, treated blood as blood as a rule as opposed to an exception, probably because of their tradition of always on the lookout outside, as opposed to the english, tending to storied hunting w/i :0)
after the passing of agatha, eugene married again, a lady much younger, the daughter of one of the five founders of the kuomingtang, an artist who went on to found the singapore art academy and such and whose paintings populate the museum there and occasionally pop up at christies and sotherby
eugene did not hate foreigners, for much of his friends were non-chinese
eugene had no time for selfish, hypocritical, small-minded, ignorant, ... sorts, whatever their ethnic origin or nationality
eugene is thought okay to this day on the mainland, in taiwan, and on hong kong, and got a favorable mention when the current ruling party boss recently met his equals in trinidad on state visit
whenever the older generation folks i run across query me on the trinidad angle and on account of my more or less permanent tan hinting at filipino heritage, i explain, and they would at some point say, "there was a famous chinese from trinidad ..."
eugene is here ... yuantsungchen.com buried in ba bao shan / "mountain of eight treasures" by the communists after taking power ... am guessing that not many kmt members are buried so by the party that whooped them
when zhou en lai, new china's first prime minister who later welcomed nixon, was being hunted by the kmt in chongqing for assassination, eugene instructed my uncle and my father to hide zhou in the bell tower of a church, and then to sneak him away from the city (how two afro chinese kids managed so through a large chinese city i cannot imagine, but would guess somewhat dangerous)
years later zhou helped my parents and i leave china in the midst of the cultural revolution
one good turn for another, more than 30 years later
in between times uncle and father helped borodin to make way to russia (only to be executed by stalin), both married russians, and uncle joined the soviet army whereas aunt engaged w/ the bolshoi ballet, and dad went on to his subsequent adventures
yuantsungchen.com
i giggle about my family history because should a stranger recount such a story of various episodes i would think, 'what a load of nonsense'.
when i first dated my wife she asked me why my written chinese was essentially non-functional even as i spoke okay but like a foreigner (by sentence structure and from then even more limited vocabulary). i told her all the guys in my family could not function in chinese language other than asking for ice cream. trying to impress the girl whom i figured shall be my wife, i pulled the afro frenco grandma who presumably enabled by robustness, and tabled the eugene card, with exactly, "oh, and my grandfather was the first foreign minister of the republic but did not speak chinese, but he is recognized to this day as one of ten best diplomats of china in 6000 years" - why quibble? do not bother w/ waffling. if one is going to pour it on, one might as well flood the floor :0)
upon returning home, my date and later wife, of indonesian chinese parentage, educated in julliard and trained in france, asked her history buff father about some nonsense she was fed at dinner.
meet the parents was tee-ed up the following week :0) |
