An Unlikely Heroine - The Story of Sai Jinhua

Saijinhua (1872-1936)

When the eight allied nations occupied Beijing in the year 1900 not many of the Chinese residents spoke a foreign tongue. A courtesan named Sai Jinhua spoke some German and this would elevate her into the very unlikely position of a heroine. According to legend she would help her countrymen out of trouble and was able to mediate between the foreign powers and the Chinese people. How much of this is true is difficult to verify. Sai Jinhua was in fact a secondary wife of the Chinese ambassador to Germany Hong Jun, which was the reason that she spoke at least a little bit of German. Many stories of Sai Jinhua were pure imagination. A whole genre of tales about the merciful prostitute blossomed around her, and Sai Jinhua herself also willingly played along. In the 1930s Sai Jinhua had not been heard from for around ten years - when she was rediscovered, it was a sensation. Journalists flocked to her house, because writing a story about Sai Jinhua was a subtle way of opposing the Japanese that were more and more aggressively threatening China at this point.

“After living in seclusion for over ten years in Peking, Sai Jin Hua was suddenly found by the Beijing Evening newspaper. All the journalists in Peking were so eager to meet her that the threshold of her house was almost broken. I visited Sai Jin Hua yesterday together with some other journalists. She told us her story, which has already been written by others. But nobody has written anything about her current life, which is why I am writing this article.

Peiyang Pictorial News 1932

Sai Jin Hua has rented a courtyard at Jurenli in Xiangchang area and lived there for over ten years. In the beginning the renting price was eighteen silver dollars and forty cents. After the capital was moved to Nanking, the price went down to fourteen silver dollars and forty cents. But she hasn’t paid the rent for over a year now. There are three rooms in the north, another three in the south. Sai Jin Hua lives in the northern rooms while her maid and the maid’s brother live in the southern rooms. Sai Jin Hua said she asked the maid to leave a long time ago, but she does not want to, so they are still living this hard life together. In the rooms where Sai Jin Hua lives, sundries were put everywhere, it was not clean and tidy. Some of the baggage still had the paper seal with “Wei” written on it - “Wei” was her last husband’s family name. For over ten years, Sai Jin Hua survived by impawning her belongings but it is hard to sustain this now. She can only afford to dress in very simple clothes, and people who don’t know her can’t believe she is Sai Jin Hua. She said she is good at growing grapes and can make grapes that have a rose, osmanthus or lilac flavor. Last year, she got thirty-six bunches of grapes from the grape trellis she planted in her courtyard. This autumn when the grapes are ready she will invite journalists to come and taste them.

When Sai Jin Hua talked with us, she called us “lao ye”, still in the tone used thirty years ago. She told us that in the past in Peking to have a young actor who plays a female role for a whole night cost five taels of silver while to have a prostitute only needed two taels. She also told us that when her first husband Hong Jun paid one thousand taels of silver to buy back her freedom, he not only got her, but also the nice horse that she normally rode. In 1900 when the Boxer Rebellion started in Tianjin, Sai Jin Hua fled to Peking. But she was robbed at Langfang and lost a lot of jewelry. When she finally arrived at Yongdingmen Gate, she fainted because of exhaustion and worry. She also explained that Dowager Empress Cixi once received her after the imperial family came back to Peking and awarded her a lot of things for what she did to protect the people. Cixi even wanted to hire her to receive foreign guests in the palace, but she refused. She was afraid of that she might lose her freedom if she worked in the palace. At that time, she could not have expected that she would have such a hard life when she got older. “

- Peiyang Pictorial News, April 1, 1932