Jun. 4th, 2003 09:43 am
Dust of dynasties
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muckefuckI promise--no health bitching today. You're all sick of it, I'm sick of it, everyone's sick of it. Instead, I indulge my atavistic royalist romanticism!
Reading a bit of Li Kibaek's New history of Korea got me wondering again, Whatever became of the Korean royal family? The last emperor was deposed by the Japanese in 1910. (I'm sure it was a heartbreaking story, but no fat Italian film directors could be persuaded to make multimillion-dollar cinematic epics about it.) He (or his relatives) must've left descendents and at least one of them must be campaigning for a return of the monarchy.
Googling turned up this intriguing portrait. I'd love to read a longer interview with this guy. Sounds like his other American relatives are most likely in LA, which is a pity, since I get a charge from the idea of brushing shoulders with scions of the Chosŏn dynasty in Arirang.
Further searches brought up some genealogical sites with interesting data. I came across mention of Princess Pangja, who was born Nashimoto Masako (from a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial clan) but returned to Korea after the war and became an important philanthropist. She's got an (out-of-print) autobiography that might be worth tracking down someday (though I'm generally not a biography-reader). I was stunned to find that the name of her mother-in-law was listed as Emily Brown! Here's another intriguing story I never suspected (and that I can't find a damn thing on).
Of course, the imperial Asian has-been story I'm most intrigued by is that of Wen Xiu, the "secondary consort" who divorced Puyi (the Last Emperor of Bertolucci's film). Perhaps an account exist in Chinese, but all I can find in English are brief mentions. She apparently returned to her family, who weren't pleased, and went on to live a long life. But what kind of life was it? I can't imagine that a woman who had the courage to divorce the fucking emperor of China back when divorce was nearly unheard of in this country could've led an ordinary life.
Reading a bit of Li Kibaek's New history of Korea got me wondering again, Whatever became of the Korean royal family? The last emperor was deposed by the Japanese in 1910. (I'm sure it was a heartbreaking story, but no fat Italian film directors could be persuaded to make multimillion-dollar cinematic epics about it.) He (or his relatives) must've left descendents and at least one of them must be campaigning for a return of the monarchy.
Googling turned up this intriguing portrait. I'd love to read a longer interview with this guy. Sounds like his other American relatives are most likely in LA, which is a pity, since I get a charge from the idea of brushing shoulders with scions of the Chosŏn dynasty in Arirang.
Further searches brought up some genealogical sites with interesting data. I came across mention of Princess Pangja, who was born Nashimoto Masako (from a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial clan) but returned to Korea after the war and became an important philanthropist. She's got an (out-of-print) autobiography that might be worth tracking down someday (though I'm generally not a biography-reader). I was stunned to find that the name of her mother-in-law was listed as Emily Brown! Here's another intriguing story I never suspected (and that I can't find a damn thing on).
Of course, the imperial Asian has-been story I'm most intrigued by is that of Wen Xiu, the "secondary consort" who divorced Puyi (the Last Emperor of Bertolucci's film). Perhaps an account exist in Chinese, but all I can find in English are brief mentions. She apparently returned to her family, who weren't pleased, and went on to live a long life. But what kind of life was it? I can't imagine that a woman who had the courage to divorce the fucking emperor of China back when divorce was nearly unheard of in this country could've led an ordinary life.