Sai Jinhua

Sai Jinhua (; October 9, 1872 — December 4, 1936 ) was a Chinese prostitute who became an acquaintance of Alfred von Waldersee, a German field marshal. Her real family name was Cao or Zhao. During her career, she used the names Fu Caiyun , Sai Jinhua, and Cao Menglan . Her art name (hao) was Weizhao Lingfei . Some people referred to her as Sai Erye . In another, Wan Xianchu wrote: "Regardless of whether Sai Jinhua's role in China's foreign relations may have been exaggerated and despite the controversies surrounding her conduct and affairs, she lived a tough and spectacular life that has assured her a place in the modern history of China."

Early life

Sai Jinhua was allegedly born with the name Zhao Lingfei on October 9, 1872. Sai Jinhua was from Yixian, Huizhou, Anhui, she and her father moved to Suzhou as a child. In addition to Waldersee, she met Emperor William II, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, and German Empress Victoria in Berlin. She also visited St. Petersburg, Vienna, The Hague, Paris, and London. This brothel became known in Beijing and Tianjin. Wang further explained: "It is believed, however, that Sai Jinhua might have had contacts with some lower-ranking German officers at the time, thanks to her ability to speak a little German."

Later life

In 1903, along Shaanxi Lane, Sai Jinhua created a Nanban, or a southern prostitute troupe. She capitalized on the rumors of her romance with Waldersee and became very popular. Afterwards she lived with a Mr. Cao. In works she is portrayed as a heroine of the Chinese nation who saved the country single-handedly during a time of crisis or as a yaonie , a woman with abnormal powers or a female demon. Ying Hu, author of Tales of Translation: Composing the New Woman in China, 1899-1918, wrote that Sai Jinhua "is often portrayed in extreme colors" in fiction. Ying Hu wrote that Sai Jinhua's portrayal in that work was "resolutely ambiguous". In the serialized novel The Nine-tailed Turtle by Zhang Chunfan, the main character Zhang Qiugu has sexual intercourse with Sai Jinhua. Unlike other portrayals of Sai Jinhua in fiction, in The Nine-tailed Turtle she is portrayed as past her prime.

Beginning in the 1930s several works portrayed Sai Jinhua in a positive manner. In 1933 Liu Bannong, a professor of Chinese literature at Peking University, conducted an interview with Sai Jinhua. He wrote The Wife of Zhuangyuan: Sai Jinhua, which he called her true story. The writing on the play's title page, "The country is everyone's country; to save the country is everyone's duty", is in Sai Jinhua's own handwriting.

The play The Beauty is about Sai Jinhua. In 2012, Chinese actress Liu Xiaoqing played Sai Jinhua in a performance of The Beauty. Chang Dai-chien, a painter, made a stone engraving portrait of Sai Jinhua.