The Greatest Map of Beijing Ever Made
Frank Dorn’s Map of Peiping, 1936
It is rare that the very soul of a city is captured in a map, but the famous pictorial map of Beijing made by Frank Dorn in 1936 achieves exactly that. Looking at the dusty alleyways of old Beijing you can almost feel the dust between your teeth.
We have worked with the Dorn map for years but never really understood who this marvelous mapmaker was?
Frank Dorn in Beijing in 1930s
However, as contributors to a history project at the US Embassy we had a chance to travel to the Hoover Institute in San Francisco where the Frank Dorn papers are kept, to find out.
Placemats of Frank Dorn's Beijing
Before going we basically only knew that Frank Dorn stayed in Beijing from 1934 – 1939 as a military attaché, and that the author of “In Search For Old Peking” Lewis Charles Arlington helped Frank Dorn with the historical part when he created his map.
But at the Hoover Institute we realized that it is not only the map that connects the dots of Republican Beijing, Frank Dorn’s whole life reads like a modern history book of China.
Frank Dorn, Zhou Enlai and Agnes Smedley, 1938
We will share everything at length when we have worked us through the material we brought home. But here you have a taste:
In 1938 Frank Dorn became closely acquainted to the communist leader Zhou Enlai in Haikou as the U.S tried to find out what to make of the Sino Japanese conflict. Dorn was fascinated by the strong believe and intelligence he recognized in Zhou Enlai.
Frank Dorn’s residence in Dong Zong Bu Hutong, 1935 and today
Ironically Frank Dorn’s life of capitalist privilege in Beijing was exactly what his new friend wished to abolish. In a picture from 1935 we can see his massive car parked outside his house in Dongzongbu Hutong 66, with Dorn’s head servant standing in the door, not much is however left of his villa today, but a little tiny outhouse.
Anna May Wong and Frank Dorn, 1936
One of the most prominent guests to Frank Dorn’s lavish garden was Anna May Wong the first Hollywood star of Chinese origin, she recognized Frank Dorn’s creative spirit and wanted to hire him to create a script with herself starring as a warrior queen who attacked some islands east of China and founded Japan.
Frank Dorn never finished his script about the Chinese conquest, because in 1937 the Japanese came the other way, and From living as a flamboyant playboy Dorn ended up fighting the Japanese alongside the Chinese army. He became intimately acquainted with historical figures such as Joseph Stillwell, Claire Chennault the legendary founder of the Flying Tigers and the nationalist generalissimo himself, but those stories you will have to wait for…