Chen Jitong(simplified Chinese:Trần quý đồng;traditional Chinese:Trần quý đồng;pinyin:Chén Jìtóng;1851–1907),courtesy nameJingru(Kính như), also known asTcheng Ki-tong,was a Chinese diplomat, general, scholar, and shipbuilder during the lateQing dynasty.Chen was born inHouguan,now in present-dayMinhou,Fuzhou.In 1869 he started to study theFrench languageat the school attached to the Fuzhou shipyard. In 1875Shen Baozhensent thirty Chinese students, from the training school attached to theFoochow Arsenalto study shipbuilding and navigation inEurope.In 1876, Chen Jitong was selected to go to Europe and he wrote a book on his impressions after his return to China the following year. He subsequently served on a number of important positions in the Qing foreign service. While serving as a diplomat in France, he wrote several famous works in French, becoming the firstFrancophoneChinese author.
Chen Jitong | |
|---|---|
Trần quý đồng | |
 | |
| Chinese Ambassador tothe UK | |
| In office ?–? | |
| Monarch | Guangxu |
| Chinese Ambassador toFrance | |
| In office ?–? | |
| Monarch | Guangxu |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1 January 1851 Houguan,Fujian,Qing Dynasty,China |
| Died | 1 January 1907(aged 56)?? Qing Dynasty, China |
| Relatives | Chen Shoupeng ( trần thọ bành ) |
| Education | Sciences Po |
| Occupation | Diplomat |
In 1891, he was dismissed from all official positions and settled inShanghai.Following China's defeat in theFirst Sino-Japanese War,he served as foreign minister of the short-livedRepublic of Formosa.
Writings
edit- -- Tcheng-ki-tong,Les Chinois peints par eux memesParis: Levy, 1884.Internet Archive
- --Journal d'un mandarin: lettres de Chine et documents diplomatiques inéditsParis: Plom, 1887.Internet Archive
- --The Chinese painted by themselves.Translated from the French by James Millington. London: Field & Tuer, [1885?]
- -- Tcheng-Ki-Tong,Chin-Chin or The Chinaman at Home.Tr. R. H. Sherard. London: A. P. Marsden, 1895.
- --Contes chinoisParis: Levy, 1889.
References
edit- Yeh, Catherine Vance. "The Life-Style of Four Wenren in Late Qing Shanghai."Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies57, no. 2 (1997): 419–70.
- Ke Ren, "Chen Jitong, Les Parisiens peints par un Chinois, and the Literary Self-Fashioning of a Chinese Boulevardier in Fin-de-siècle Paris",L'Esprit créateur,Volume 56, Number 3, Fall 2016, Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 90–103.
External links
edit- Speech by Chen(in French)
- YU, Wen (May 24, 2016)."Chen Jitong and Cosmopolitan Possibilities in the Late Qing World".Dissertation Reviews.