Auguste François (1857-1935)
Français
Summary
Auguste François
today and in the future
Sometimes extraordinary
individuals bear witness to key moments of History. These individuals may not
always be well known to the wider public but they nonetheless provide us with
an exceptional historical legacy. Auguste FRANÇOIS
(1857-1935) is undoubtedly one such man.
In China, he is known as 方苏雅 (Fang Su Ya).
Born in the French Lorraine region, he started his
career as a civil servant, in Arras, before being appointed in Nancy, and then
in Paris. After an initial period working within the administration, he was then transferred to the Foreign Office, and thus, rather by
chance, he embarked upon a diplomatic career that was to lead him to the Far
East.
With
the exception of a short period during which he was Consul in Paraguay, Auguste François’s career unfolded in the Far East where he was on
mission firstly in Vietnam (French Tonkin, at the time), and then in China,
where his special official status granted him exceptional autonomy.
As
France's Consul and Government Delegate in Yunnan, he had to face the rivalries
and conflicting interests between the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
the Ministry of Colonies, and was also put under pressure by industrial
lobbies, whilst dealing in parallel with the religious aspirations of the Paris
Foreign Missions Society (a Roman Catholic Missionary organisation). In such a
hostile environment, Auguste François showed a rare ability to form his own
opinion and rely on his own fortitude to guide his policy.
He
was extremely lucid about the fact that any confrontation with China would
inevitably lead to a stalemate, and he therefore sought to avoid diplomatic
complications, whilst refusing to be a martyr. Despite this pragmatism, he also
showed great courage. During the xenophobic Boxer uprising of 1900, he kept his
cool when his consulate was besieged and ransacked by Chinese rioters and saved
the lives of all the French residents whom he had gathered there in a gesture
that earned him a moment of fame. His name is also connected with the Yunnan
railway, for which he negotiated a concession.
Insatiably
curious, independent minded and an amused and indefatigable observer, Auguste
François was inspired by a need to narrate and share his experiences with his
Parisian friends, and he showed great talent as a writer. He was also a
passionate photographer and took thousands of pictures, offering us a vision of China
before large-scale Western influences had their impact upon the country.
Moreover,
from as early as 1901, only six years after the invention of cinema, Auguste
François shot films showing everyday life in Yunnan.
His
writings, photographs and films thus offer an invaluable historical testimony
to China at the turn of the twentieth century.
Auguste
François Association was created in Paris in 1990. Its aim
is to make Auguste François known, through the preservation and publication of
his works by books, photograph
exhibitions, films or lectures.
Postal address: 14 bis, avenue Bosquet - 75007 Paris
(France)
Phone / fax: 00 33 – (0) 9 52 97 75 85
E-mail: auguste.francois@libertysurf.fr
Website: http://augfrancois.chez-alice.fr
Books: « L’ICONOCLASTE » – L’histoire véritable d’Auguste François,
consul, photographe, explorateur, misanthrope, incorruptible et ennemi des
intrigants, by Boris Martin, Published in 2014 by Editions du Pacifique.
« LE
MANDARIN BLANC » - Souvenirs d’un Consul en Extrême-Orient
(1886-1904) (The White Mandarin
– Memoirs of a Consul in the Far East (1886-1904), by Auguste
François (only available in French). Published in 2006 by the Editions L'Harmattan.
« LE CONSUL QUI EN
SAVAIT TROP » - Les ambitions
secrètes de la France en Chine, by Désirée Lenoir, Published in 2011 by
Nouveau Monde Editions.
See French
bibliography, English bibliography
and Chinese bibliography.
Public auctions: In
2006 and 2008, three substantial auctions of old photos and documents took
place at the Hotel Drouot auction house in Paris, including some of Auguste
François’s photographs.
Museums:
Paris Quai Branly Museum holds more than 500 pieces of Auguste François’s
ethnographic collection on its data base www.quaibranly.fr.
Also in Paris, Guimet -
Musée national des arts asiatiques holds thousands of Auguste François’s
photographs. See Collections in
Museums.
Television: « Le petit train du Yunnan » (French
version of the German documentary Der
letzte Zug - Die Yunnan-Bahn [The
Last Train – The Yunnan Railway] by Ingmar Trost (FlorianFilm, Köln - 2008),
for ZDF/ARTE.
« L’oeil du Consul » [Through
the Consul’s eye], French documentary by Jorge Amat for France 3 (1999).
Publication projects: Several texts written by Auguste
François have yet to be published. Childhood memories from Lunéville during the
1870 Franco-German war / life in Paris working for the French Foreign Office /
serving in Paraguay as French Consul in 1894-1895 / 1909 travel notes from
Palestine... Each text also includes unpublished photographs.
Inventory
and research: We are still working to find out the
exact origin of each asset we have (photographs, papers, maps and objects).
Auguste François, as well as Jean-Joseph Beauvais, his secretary, consistently
sent material to their friends in France, and to various institutions
(Geographical Society, Anthropological Society, Paris Foreign Missions Society, National Institute of Oriental Languages
and Civilizations).
An initial visit to the Yunnan Kunming Archives has also enabled us to find
documents directly related to Auguste François.
Cultural exchanges
between France and China: In
1997, contact was made with the Centre for International Exchange in Yunnan
(CYICEC) and one of their representatives came to Paris to discover Auguste
François’s photographs. An initial exhibition was held in 1997 at the Yunnan
Provincial Museum in Kunming and was followed by many others in subsequent
years in Peking, Chongqing, Chengdu, Xian and Zhengzhou, etc.
A Chinese adaptation of the album L’oeil du Consul (Through the Consul’s Eye) appeared,
followed by the translation of Auguste François’s memoirs published in France
under the title LE MANDARIN BLANC (The White Mandarin).
Cultural exchanges
between France and Paraguay: In 2010, an archival collection (comprising texts, photos and documents)
concerning Auguste François’s stay in Paraguay (1894-1895) was deposited at the
El Cabildo cultural centre in
Asunción. In 2011, photo exhibitions were presented in Asunción and in Curitiba
in Brazil.
A whole range of publications now exist about Auguste
François, his photographs and his writings. See French bibliography, Chinese bibliography or English bibliography.
Several films and videos are also available.
-
Auguste François in
Wikipedia
Some other websites include information that
complements our own. You might enjoy visiting them, but don’t forget to come
back to us ! (For links to other websites, see « Liens vers
d’autres sites »)
Updated : May 24th 2017