Writer Shen on her great-great-great-grandfather Duanfang, a Qing official, and the novel “Foreigners”

The American writer Shen has written an essay about her great-great-great-grandfather Duanfang, a prominent Manchu dignitary of the Qing dynasty who founded a university, travelled to America, spoke out against foot-binding and collected ancient Chinese bronzes; his collection was considered one of the finest in China.

Duanfang had already retired, but returned to service. During the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which overthrew the Manchu Qing dynasty, his own Han soldiers mutinied. According to the teacher from whom Shen studied Chinese history, Duanfang begged for mercy and insisted that by blood he was a Han, but the soldiers did not believe him and beheaded him. They handed Duanfang's head over to his family, which subsequently fell into poverty. Later his descendants sold the collection, moved to Taiwan, and then to America.

Shen took this family story as the basis of her novel "Foreigners", whose heroine, Yi, emigrates from Taiwan to America in 1965 and changes her name to Audrey, while her granddaughter Dawn investigates her grandmother's hidden past. While working on the book, Shen spoke with Professor Ela Zhang of the University of Rochester. According to Zhang, Duanfang created the first kindergarten in China and described his work and travels in detail in his diaries.