In 1918, Beanga was born into a noble family in La Spezia, Italy.
Her mother was a hereditary lady of the Medici family, and her father was a high-ranking officer in the navy. Behanga, who was born a lovely man since childhood, was predicted by his mother's friend: "This child will grow up to annoy any man." ”
Beanga
Princess Beanga, who gradually grew up, turned out to be very beautiful, and at that time people were speculating who could marry this little princess from a famous family.
Some people thought that Beanga would marry into the royal family, and some people thought that she would find a son-in-law herself, but no one expected that this little princess would choose to marry a Chinese.
The name of this Chinese is Tan Zhanchao, born in 1910 in a merchant family in Xinhui, Guangdong, after graduating from high school, Tan Zhanchao cherished the dream of being a soldier, despite the dissuasion of his parents, insisted on going to the Garibaldi Army Cavalry Academy in Italy to study.
Under the intentional or unintentional exclusion of white classmates, Tan Zhanchao studied hard, trained hard, and won many college awards.
Because of his outstanding results, Tan Zhanchao was respected by his teachers and classmates, and thus got the opportunity to enter the banquet hall where the Italian elite held a ball.
Tan Zhanchao
At a ball in 1933, 23-year-old Tan Zhanchao met 15-year-old Princess Beanga.
At the ball, a personable Asian man attracts all of Beanga's heart.
This man is Tan Zhanchao, who is too different from the Asian man in Beanga's imagination: tall, elegant, and proficient in Chinese words, he immediately fascinated Beanga.
The two fell in love at first sight and quickly fell in love. A week later, Tan Zhanchao came to visit with a bouquet of roses in his hand, and before leaving, Tan Zhanchao paid tribute to Beanga's mother and asked the other party to promise to marry his daughter to him.
However, Beanga's parents, while lamenting the boldness and confidence of this Chinese boy, tried their best to hinder the union of the two.
After all, his daughter was too young and came from a prestigious Italian family, and Beanga's mother was the niece of the Italian king. And Tan Zhanchao is just a hairy young man from a foreign country, and the two have very different identities. And Beanga's mother learned that there was a tradition in China in the past, where men often had three wives and four concubines, and would not be satisfied with having only one wife. Beanca's mother told her, "Chinese men are very troublesome, if you have a wife and a concubine, if you have a concubine, you will definitely be abandoned." ”
But no matter how many reasons they said, Beanga's answer was only one sentence: "I love Tan, and if I can't marry him, I won't survive." ”
In the midst of the argument, two months passed quickly, and Beanga was very sure of her relationship with Tan Zhanchao, and in order to marry Tan Zhanchao, she did not hesitate to threaten to break off relations with her parents.
The beloved parents finally chose to compromise, and on October 7, 1936, Beanga and Tan Zhanchao were married in St. Paul's Cathedral in Rome. There were few guests, and my father's friends did not attend, maybe they did not agree with this affair, but this did not affect Beanga's pure happiness, in order to show her respect for China, she also put on a Chinese-style wedding dress and married the man who fell in love at first sight - Tan Zhanchao.
Wedding photo of Tan Zhanchao and Beanga
After marriage, they began a sweet life, during the day Tan Zhanchao went to the Army Academy for classes, and Beanga learned to cook at home and prepared dinner for him. Beanga also hired a tutor to study hard Chinese and try to understand her husband's hometown. Soon they gave birth to a daughter, Linglongge, and soon gave birth to a son, Jonathan, but this happy and peaceful life was soon shattered because the flames of World War II were ignited!
In February 1939, Tan Zhanchao graduated from this army academy in Italy with the first place and was awarded the rank of major. In this year, in China, Japan has invaded China in full-scale, occupied several large coastal cities, and is preparing to attack inland cities, and the situation is precarious. Tan Zhanchao, as a Chinese, is of course indignant, Tan Zhanchao believes that China does not lack soldiers, but lacks officers with modern military training, he has learned abroad, now it is time to use the military skills he has learned to serve the country, he is ready to return to China to participate in the anti-Japanese resistance!
Love also makes Beanga fearless, and Tan Zhanchao is all she has. Beanga was ready to give up the rich life in Italy, take a son and a daughter, and follow her husband back to the poor China in the war.
In 1940, Beanga was at Duyun Stadium in Guizhou
After returning to China, Tan Zhanchao joined the troops commanded by Sun Liren, a famous general of the Nationalist army, and was sent to Duyun, Guizhou. Beanga also followed her husband to this remote mountain village, where they built a makeshift wooden house, and although the living conditions were not satisfactory, the family could stay together, and here Beanga gave birth to a daughter, named Yura.
Although the days are a little hard, this is quite a romantic mood of war and love for Beanga, who is full of curiosity and adventurous spirit.
However, a look broke it all.
When being reviewed by the Supreme Commander, Tan Zhanchao enthusiastically looked at a young female nurse in the resident hospital, and from the look in his eyes, Beanga immediately felt that there was an unusual relationship between the two of them.
The female nurse's name is He Yixian, she was originally the head nurse of St. Maryknoll Hospital in Hong Kong, who gave up her job in Hong Kong in order to serve the country in order to resist the war and come to Duyun, Guizhou, and had a relationship with Tan Zhanchao.
Tan Zhanchao and He Yixian
Beanga gave up everything for her husband and came to war-torn China, but at this time she met her husband's extramarital affair, and her heart was full of mixed feelings, like knocking over a five-flavor bottle. At this time, her mother's words that warned her back then came to mind: "Chinese men are very troublesome, if you have a wife and a concubine, if you have a concubine, you will definitely be abandoned in the end!" ”
In fact, Beanga was pregnant again at that time, but she was stubborn, in order to take revenge for Tan Zhanchao's negative intentions, took the child and maid, took a truck to Guilin, Guangxi, and then flew to Hong Kong by civil airplane, and finally arrived in Shanghai. Although Tan Zhanchao also struggled to keep it, Beanga was indifferent.
Soon after arriving in Shanghai, Beanga gave birth to another daughter, Eloma, at the Shanghai Jesuit Hospital.
At this time, Beanga already had three daughters and a son, the oldest was a five-year-old daughter, plus a maid brought from Guizhou, and an aunt hired in Shanghai, the price in Shanghai was much higher than in Guizhou, and the money brought was quickly spent, making Beanga feel the pressure of survival.
Beanga, who was only in her early 20s at this time, a foreign woman, and in the war years, how to face all this? How do you survive? First of all, she did not tell her parents in Italy, in fact, her parents did not even know where her daughter was at this time; Secondly, according to the later recollections of Beanga's daughter, Beanga probably wrote a letter to Tan Zhanchao asking him for money, but Tan Zhanchao had already followed the Chinese Expeditionary Force to fight in Burma at this time and did not receive her letter; Finally, in order to survive, Beanga took the initiative to find Mr. Yang, Tan Zhanchao's friend in Shanghai and the bank manager.
Beanga had a relationship with Manager Yang and got financial help. Not long after, Manager Yang introduced her to a job as a part-time model in a clothing store owned by a French couple in Shanghai.
While working at the fashion house, she met Nancy, the wife of a diplomat, and under Nancy's inducement, Beanga became active in various social situations. For Beanga, who came from an aristocratic background and was active in the upper social circles of Italy since childhood, she quickly became a famous courtesan in Shanghai.
Next, in order to earn a living, so that he and his four children could survive, Beanga began to fall. In this circle she came into contact with arms dealers, tycoons, politicians and, of course, the Japanese. Beanga roams among such special people, soliciting connections, buying and selling intelligence, doing business, smuggling and speculating.
Beanga and four children
In 1945, with the defeat of Japan, Beanga was arrested at the airport returning to Shanghai from Guangzhou and imprisoned at the Shamian War Criminals Detention Center on the outskirts of Guangzhou. Beanga became insane and was admitted to the hospital.
Coincidentally, at this time, Tan Zhanchao was stationed in Guangzhou with the army, and after learning the news, Tan Zhanchao did everything he could to save her.
Although Tan Zhanchao had married the female nurse He Yixian he knew in Guizhou at this time, he had not forgotten the past, and he still loved her deeply. While Beanga was hospitalized on bail due to illness, an old relationship rekindled, resulting in Behanga becoming pregnant with a child, and the two gave birth to their youngest son, named Johnny.
Tan Zhanchao
In addition to Tan Zhanchao, after her parents in Italy learned of her situation, they also used various connections to help Beanga. Her mother was a niece of Pope Pius XII and begged the Pope to try to rescue her.
Now that Behanga was found to be pregnant, the Pope contacted the Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Guangzhou and asked him to give Be'an the necessary care and assistance, and with the consent of the Guangzhou High Court, he transferred him to a church hospital for recuperation. It was precisely because of pregnancy that the trial was delayed, coupled with the drastic changes in the international environment after the war, that the US Strategic Intelligence Agency was abolished, and the Italian Pope continued to send letters to the rescue, and under the influence of many parties, before he was about to be executed, he received Chiang Kai-shek's amnesty order: "The defendant is pardoned by this court, and he is allowed to leave China within 60 days and be released." ”
Beanga, who had regained his freedom, also received news that Tan Zhanchao, who had rushed to the northeast because of the civil war, had been killed, which was later confirmed to be a misinformation. But Beanga believed that since she came to China because of Tan Zhanchao, and now that Tan Zhanchao has died, their fate has ended, so, in the ashes of all thoughts, she left China, which made her love and hate, with a few children, and returned home in Italy. At that time, she was not yet thirty years old, but she had been through the dust and changed for a long time.
Beanga and four children
Returning to her hometown in Italy, Beanga did not dwell on the sadness of the past for too long, she regained her spirits, raised her head and started a new life.
She first sent her children to a boarding school in Switzerland and then went to post-war Paris herself to find work.
In 1947, at the age of 29, because of her work experience in a French-owned clothing store in Shanghai, she was successfully hired as a model for Parisian tailor Christine Dior, and later Christine found that Beanga was very talented and had excellent talent for fashion design, and hired her as her assistant. Together, the two founded the luxury brand "Dior".
Kristen Dior
With the rise of the name "Dior", Beanga also became the famous queen of luxury at that time.
A few years later, Beanga decided to leave Dior and start her own clothing store, where she ran her little life to the fullest.
After leaving China, the luxury queen Beanga married five men, but no matter who she married, she always maintained the name of Beanga Tan, and the children also carried the surname Tan, which was the lifelong bond with her first love and first husband Tan Zhanchao.
When Behanga was 67 years old, Behanga wrote a book based on her own experience, "Opium Tea", which recorded her time with Tan Zhanchao and everything she experienced in China. Perhaps this book is in memory of Tan Zhanchao, or maybe it is a sustenance of love.
Later, the book was read by a Chinese woman.
Remember the nurse He Yixian that Tan Zhanchao met in Guizhou after returning to China? As we said above, after knowing that her husband was cheating, the decisive Beanga went away to Shanghai, but Tan Zhanchao married He Yixian and gave birth to two sons and two daughters, one of whom was named Tan Aimei.
Tan Zhanchao, He Yixian and their children
In 1991, 44-year-old Aimei Tan received a call from her husband, who worked at the United Nations Secretariat, at home in New York. The husband asked if she knew that her father, Tan Zhanchao, had another wife named Beanga.
It turned out that Tan Aimei's husband found the wedding photos of his father-in-law (Tan Zhanchao) and the author Beanga in a book called "Opium Tea". Surprised, he quickly called his wife for verification.
After hearing the name Beanga, Tan Aimei opened the valve of memory, and a childhood past haunted her heart.
When she was a child, Tan Aimei liked to go to her father's room to play, and she found that there was a desk in her father's room, and the drawer in the middle was always locked, and no one knew what was inside. When she was in elementary school, one day Tan Aimei tried to squat under the desk, reached behind the drawer and groped, and found several yellowed photos, as well as a local Guangdong newspaper reporting on her father's Italian wife; Later, Tan Aimei also faintly heard her mention her father's Italian wife from the mouth of the nurse who took care of her, so he heard about it a little. However, few people mentioned it later, and this matter has long been a dusty past in her young heart.
"Opium Tea"
Until her husband called, Aimei Tan's memory was awakened, and it turned out that her father did have an Italian ex-wife and was still alive. So Tan Aimei had the idea of meeting her.
With her husband's encouragement, Tan wrote a letter and sent it to the publishing house that published the English version of Opium Tea, asking them to forward it to Beanga, the author of the book.
In the letter, Tan Aimei briefly described her recent situation, and mentioned that after Byanga returned to Italy, Tan Zhanchao did not die on the battlefield, and his later life, and finally Tan Aimei attached her home address and contact number in New York, expressing her desire to see Beanga.
The letter was sent out for a year, but it was never heard from until one day in early 1993, when Tan Aimei finally received a call back, which was opened by Beanga and said that he wanted to meet her in New York.
Beanga and Aimee Tan
It turned out that Beanga had already received the letter from the publishing house, but she was covering the Gulf War on the front lines of Kuwait as a special correspondent for a weekly newsweek at the time, and could not reply in time.
At the time of his war correspondent, Beanga was nearly 80 years old and had suffered from cirrhosis for 40 years, and his courage and boldness could not help but be admired.
After another half a year, Beanga took the initiative to invite Tan Aimei to her home in San Diego, hoping that Tan Aimei could take her to see Chinese medicine in order to treat her cirrhosis.
When she came to Beanga's home, Tan Aimei found that Beanga actually reserved a room for each husband, which contained items belonging to each husband.
The one facing the center of the living room belongs to Tan Zhanchao, which houses the Chinese-style wood-carved bookcase given to them by Tan Zhanchao's mother when the two got married, and there is a brocade of eight immortals crossing the sea.
It can be seen that Tan Zhanchao is a very important man in her life and the person she once loved, but due to the influence of many reasons, the red line on the fingers of the two broke early.
Elderly Beanga
Tan Aimei took her to see the famous Chinese medicine doctor Di Kegang, and on the day she went to see the Chinese doctor, Beanga was very relaxed when she dressed up, but fate was ruthless, and she received the final judgment of her life. On October 14, 1993, at the age of 75, Beanga reached the end of his life.
Before seeing a Chinese doctor, Behanga told Tan Aimei an interesting story, Beanga once went to a hospital in Los Angeles, the doctor said that it would cost $7,000 for treatment, but instead of continuing the treatment, she turned around and bought a set of jewelry worth $7,000.
Perhaps, in her heart, the meaning of life is not whether to live long, but whether to live happily.
She said, "It's too much of a waste of time to live in the regrets of the past, and how many new things are waiting for us to embrace?" How many new places are waiting for us to explore? ”
"Do your best to pursue the goals you need within the limitations of reality. This is not a compromise, nor a surrender to reality, much less a submission to fate. Beian's words may be a true portrayal of her life.