Bridge Builders: Belt and Road

Robert van Gulik and Marie-Anne Souloumiac: The three-generation legacy of the 'Dutch Mandarin'

By Chen Pan, Gary Parkinson

He wanted to bring the wisdom, the knowledge and the beauty of Chinese culture to the West.
Marie-Anne Souloumiac

Robert van Gulik's memory lives long. The Dutch diplomat, writer and sinologist – known in China as Gao Luopei – may not exactly be a household name, but Judge Dee, the character he created, definitely is. And the stories about his legendary life continue to inspire.

'We call him the Dutch Mandarin'

Robert van Gulik in his study. /Robert van Gulik Estate

Robert van Gulik practicing calligraphy. /Robert van Gulik Estate

Robert van Gulik playing Guqin, an ancient Chinese musical instrument. /Robert van Gulik Estate

Robert van Gulik was born in 1910 in Zutphen, to the family of a medical officer in the Dutch army. From the age of three until 12 he lived in Jakarta, Indonesia where he was tutored in Mandarin and other languages – and became obsessed with Ancient China and Chinese culture.

Becoming a diplomat, Van Gulik was stationed in Chongqing, China between 1943 and 1946. With China under Japanese occupation during World War II, Chongqing was the country's temporary capital.

As a result, the city became the home of intellectuals, poets, writers and artists – meaning Van Gulik could fully immerse himself in Chinese culture. He learned the Guqin, a traditional stringed musical instrument, and became an accomplished calligrapher.

"We liked to call him the Dutch Mandarin, as he lived a life like a Mandarin," his granddaughter Marie-Anne Souloumiac tells CGTN. "My mother, when she would go to bed, she could hear the Guqin and she could hear him type all night behind his typewriter to work on his books."

The Dutch author's Chinese detective character

Van Gulik is best known for writing the Judge Dee novels, detective tales set in the Tang Dynasty (618 to 907 CE). But the story is a little more complicated than that.

The Judge Dee stories already existed, as Robert van Gulik discovered when he read a novel from the 1700s, late in the Qing Dynasty. By translating it, he brought Judge Dee back into life for a new generation.

"After the translation, he said, 'This is such a rich tradition, and we should awaken it and bring it back to life and continue it,'" his granddaughter recalls.

He certainly did that. Over the course of his life, Van Gulik wrote 17 detective stories which have now been translated into 29 languages and published in almost 40 countries.

His work was a necessary corrective. At the time he was writing, in the West, the Fu Manchu books were characterizing the Chinese as evil and dangerous – and Van Gulik wanted to counteract the misinformation.

"He wanted to bring the wisdom, the knowledge and the beauty of Chinese culture to the West," says Souloumiac. "That was one of the main reasons why he wrote Judge Dee."

He certainly brought the character to life – in person. "Once he had a little wine, he said 'Judge Dee is me,'" says Souloumiac. "So he made Judge Dee a little bit taller, creating a character which was warm and just but sometimes would also be in a bad mood."

Judge Dee remains a household name in modern China, but a lot of people don't know that it was revived by a Dutch author – as his granddaughter ruefully reveals.

"When you tell them, they start laughing because they're thinking, 'How can a Dutch man write Chinese stories?' It's as if you would say Sherlock Holmes was written by a Chinese writer."

It's a conversation that happened all the time as Souloumiac started her own journey in China.

A Chinese princess and a 'foreign devil'

Marie-Anne Souloumiac grew up in a multinational background – Dutch, French, and partly Chinese. She became close to China through her grandmother, Shui Shifang – Robert van Gulik's wife and the granddaughter of late Qing Dynasty general Zhang Zhidong, who was known for leading a movement to revive the nation.

Souloumiac spent a lot of time with her grandmother, and became aware of the weight of her history: "As she grew older, I felt she was disappearing, and she was taking an entire story with her." As a result, she decided to record that fascinating tale.

Shui met Van Gulik in Chongqing. In the marriage, Van Gulik became more Chinese, while Shui Shifang became more Western. It was a very risky and daring move at that time to choose to marry a "foreign devil" – and it was even more adventurous to travel with this "foreign devil" to the West.

"At the end, she lived on the south coast of Spain, learned the guitar and practiced oil paintings and was very happy – living her own life where she wasn't a Chinese princess, but just herself."

Shui Shifang (L) and granddaughter Marie-Anne Souloumiac (R). /Marie-Anne Souloumiac

Wedding of Robert van Gulik and Shui Shifang. /Robert van Gulik Estate

Van Gulik family photo. /Robert van Gulik Estate

On the track of Robert van Gulik

As Souloumiac researched her grandmother's background, she started to learn more about Robert van Gulik, the grandfather she had never met – he died in 1967 – but who very much fascinated her.

In 2009, she went to China to work on the documentary On the Track of Robert Van Gulik. As is the family tradition, she immersed herself – spending five years in five Chinese cities, living in Chongqing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing, and becoming known by her Chinese name Gao Ruolan.

Her timing was fortuitous – films and TV series based on Judge Dee were hitting screens. So together with other descendants of van Gulik, she helped to found the Dee Project, which included book reading activities for Chinese youth, and workshops for children.

The message of the project – "Be curious about your own culture and see how you can be creative around it and create new stories" – is one that would surely please Robert van Gulik and Shui Shifang.

Port of Naples, Italy. /CGTN Europe

Building a two-way bridge

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, world's first publicly accessible art storage facility. /CGTN Europe

After five years in China, Souloumiac returned to the Netherlands and founded a platform called China Europe Design, advising Chinese and Dutch creatives on how to collaborate and help them to start projects together.

"I can still feel a lack of understanding and knowledge of what is happening in China," Souloumiac says. "There is a great need for the West and for Europeans to understand that China is changing so fast and is actually ahead of us in many ways, which we can also learn and benefit from."

Souloumiac has been dedicated to facilitating and promoting cooperative projects between Chinese and Dutch exhibitors. She believes bridges should be built in both directions – not just bringing the West to China, but also bringing China to Europe.

She has worked with a variety of creatives, including the Dutch architecture company MVRDV, designer of Rotterdam's Depot Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam.

Located in the city-center Museumpark, the Depot is the world's first open art archive. Usually, museums are only able to showcase only 7 to 8 percent of the total collections, but the Depot allows visitors to access all of the city's collections.

Inside the Depot is an exhibition showcasing Rotterdam's history as an early destination for Chinese migrants – it's where the first Chinese restaurant opened in the Netherlands.

Chinese and Dutch artists at China Europe Design conference. / Marie-Anne Souloumiac

Marie-Anne and Fin Zhao, Co-Founder of CHAXART. / CGTN Europe

Marie-Anne and Chinese artist Fenmei Hu. / CGTN Europe

First Chinese restaurant in the Netherlands. /Fenmei Hu

The cultural exchange continues in the third generation of Bridge Builders

China and Europe were once linked by the Ancient Silk Road, with one of its greatest values lying in cultural exchanges. It's a legacy continued by the Belt and Road Initiative – and one that Souloumiac is keen to accentuate.

"I believe if we use it to exchange ways from not only China and the Netherlands, and not going from one direction, but in all directions with all countries, it is an initiative which is key and urgent and will continue to enrich our cultures and understanding of each other," she says.

Robert van Gulik brought the best out of two worlds. He created a new genre by bringing the best of China and the West, and he made it accessible to all cultures. That is true innovation. His legacy will continue to inspire the generations to come – to be ambitious and to dare to take risks to innovate that will make a better world.