Between Europe…		…and Asia

Carl D. Barkman (1919–2006)

Born in Amsterdam in 1919, Carl Barkman studied Sinology at the University of Leiden, Netherlands, with Russian as a subsidiary subject. He wrote a doctoral thesis The Return of the Torghuts from Russia to China, which was published in 1955 in Hong Kong (Journal of Oriental Studies).

Books and short stories

The Twisting Dragon

This is not a history book, but a novel, and a historical novel only in the sense that it is a mixture of fiction and historical reality; and partly autobiographical. After all that has been published about Mao Zedong’s China, its author attempts to give his own vision of Mao’s years of decline.

Ubashi’s Concubine (postlude to The Mandate)

Ubashi’s former concubine, Meilan, stayed in the luxurious ger which she had been provided with. Ubashi himself, for all his vanity, was soon forgotten, but all attention was now secretly focussed on the Chinese beauty. The common people associated her with Ubashi’s extravagant spending and his dependence on the Chinese; they hated her and jeered at her when she went by in her sedan-chair.