Background
At the time Hong June was in mourning due to his mother"s death.
洪 鈞, 洪 钧
At the time Hong June was in mourning due to his mother"s death.
From 1887 to 1890 he had served as a special emissary of the Qing dynasty government to Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria. In 1887 Hong June, then a major Chinese official, met Sai Jinhua ("Prettier Than Golden Flower") while he visited Suzhou. Hong June made Sai Jinhua his concubine one year after meeting her.
In April of that year, Sai Jinhua went to Beijing with Hong Junior
Empress Dowager Cixi appointed Hong June as the Chinese envoy to Europe, and so Hong June traveled to Russia, Austria, the Netherlands, and Germany as part of his diplomatic duties.
Sai Jinhua accompanied him because Hong June"s wife was not willing to travel with him. Sai Jinhua, with Hong June, lived in Europe for three years.
In Berlin Hong June mostly stayed in his residence when not attending his duties. When he did go outside, he went on walks on the Tiergarten.
In Berlin Hong June did not allow Sai Jinhua to attend most of his parties, including those that he held at his residence.
Hong June was opposed to European customs, especially those involving females and males associating with one another. He did begin wearing European socks after initial vehemence against doing so when he discovered their comfort. David Wang wrote that Hong June was dismissed from his position "for allegedly settling boundary disputes on the basis of twelve Russian maps of the Chinese border area that turned out to be faulty and thus made China lose land to Czarist Russia." Hong June"s term finished.
After the end of the diplomatic tour, the couple moved to Beijing.
There, Hong June was held a post in the Foreign Office (zongli yamen) and concurrently received an appointment to being the senior vice-minister of the Ministry of War. Hong June became sick and died in 1893, shortly after his return to China.
In 1894 Sai Jinhua became a prostitute again because Hong June"s relatives did not support her financially. Sai Jinhua and Deguan traveled to Suzhou with the coffin of Hong June as his body was moved there.
After receiving insults from White Europeans at a church, Hong June said that Jesus was a Jew.
He argued that like himself, Jesus had black hair and black eyes. Therefore, he accused them of insulting a fellow man of Jesus. The character Jin June (Jin Wenqing) in Niehai Hua is based on Hong Junior
