China Pearl

The sidecar picture
The sidecar picture

Finding about China Pearl was purely random but the story behind it is definitely worth a post. Looking for pictures about Old Shanghai on the internet, I found the picture left of Shanghai Wai Bai Du Qao (or Garden Bridge) with an old motorbike crossing it.  I have long been convinced that sidecars were used in Old Shanghai, long before the Chang Jiang motorbikes appeared thus discovering this picture seemed to be the missing link. Unfortunately, the picture turned out to be a fake after examination. Traffic in Old Shanghai was driving on the left side of the road and this sidecar is definitely designed for the right-side driving of today’s Shanghai. Still, the artwork was interesting enough for me to search more information about this picture. This is how I ran into Paul Draken story.

Paul Draken dancing in the Cercle Sportif Francais
Paul Draken dancing in the Cercle Sportif Francais

Paul Draken was a mixed child, half British and half Chinese born in Beijing in 1907. His father was Sir James Draken who led the British troop coming into Beijing to free the foreign diplomats after the 55 days of siege in the legations during the Boxer war. Growing up in early 20th century China, he managed to cross the path of Empress Dowager CiXi, then encountering revolutionary leader and first president of China Sun Zhong Shan. He even met with Russian Imperial family before the Russian Revolution. Paul Draken was living in Beijing, just at the time of the Mukden incident, while becoming an airplane pilot. Later on, he started an airline in Shanghai, flying one of the China clippers, those enormous hydroplanes of the time, called the China Pearl. His time in Shanghai was also marked by love affair with White Russian countess Anastasia as well as pursuit with Japanese spies. As he managed to flee the Japanese invasion just in time, he took part of the Flying Tigers fighting China enemy in the air. Escaping the Concession invasions in December 1941, he managed to rally North Africa to joined allied forces fighting general Rommel in the North African desert war. Paul Draken was also a hero of D-Day landing in Normandy. Paul Draken’s incredible story was behind most historical events in the first half of the 20th century.

Flying over the Bund
Flying over the Bund

As you probably already realized, Paul Draken never actually existed. He is the central character of e-novel China Pearl by Taiwanese author Crayon Yao. China Pearl is available at: http://www.yaox.com/draken/cover.html. Unfortunately it is only available in Chinese, so most reader will have difficulties with it. The author used lots of research, good narrative and a number of photoshoped pictures like the ones above. The pictures really make the story believable and can be viewed at: http://www.yaox.com/draken/photos1.html. China Pearl is  like an Asian Indiana Jones novel with a touch of Forest Gump, taking place mostly in China. It must have attracted quite a hype as numerous blog articles have been written about it, like yblog.org/archive/index.php/5742 . I was surely not the only one to be confused by the e-novel and the pictures, as many readers in Taiwan got fiction and reality mixed up as shown in this article: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2011/02/28/292761/Fictional-novel.htm. Clearly an inspiration for my own Old China novel that has been brewing for years.

One thought on “China Pearl”

  1. Awesome post (as always)!

    Too bad there is not translation yet. The traditional characters does not make it easier either…

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