The Last Concubine

Thank you for stopping by.

This site is about The Last Concubine - a narrative nonfiction about my grandfather’s concubine, Nainai (1924 Suzhou -1986 Beijing), a sing-song girl from Shanghai who watched over me as a child and significantly shaped my life – Book One in my Family Tree Series.

Ever since I could remember I enjoyed reading and writing, even during the periods of cultural turmoil when such simple pleasures were considered dangerous and forbidden. My first recognition as a writer came in middle school when I was commissioned to craft the opening and closing speeches for school sport events.

Over the years, both my Chinese and English language articles have appeared in newspapers and magazines in the USA and China. I have previously published the travelogue, Bon Voyage, Germany, in Hong Kong (Dunhuang Publishing, 1986, in Chinese) — a series of essays recounting my experiences in Germany.

Since 2000, I began to devote serious time to genealogical research. I discovered that the New York Times had spent the entire summer of 1895 covering the anti-missionary riots in Sichuan, where one of my great, great grandfathers was the Viceroy. He was fingered as the instigator of the riots. To remove this so-called “hater of the west”, the British put forth an ultimatum: the Royal Navy would intervene unless he was punished. When a British fleet of four large gunboats stormed the waters of Yangtze River toward Wuchang, Emperor Guangxu caved in.

Termed by The Times [of London] as ‘progressive’, another great, great grandfather was the founder of the celebrated Kaiping Mines in Tianjin. His son employed a 25 year-old engineer named Herbert Hoover, a future president of the United States who managed to wrest away the mines during the chaos of the Boxer Uprising. The Emperor sued for justice and lost the case in a London court.

The Last Concubinehas been brewing for a long time and the first draft has just been finished. Hence, I am currently seeking an agent who’s most interested in nurturing an author’s career. Please contact me at Irene@IreneEng.com if you’re interested.

Please check back often, as this site is a work-in-progress.