Jin Moyu (; 1918 – May 26, 2014), also known as Aisin Gioro Xianqi (), was a Chinese educator and the last surviving

Manchu The Manchus (; ) are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia. They are an officially recognized ethnic minority in China and the people from whom Manchuria derives its name. The Later Jin (1616–1636) and ...

princess. She was the 17th and youngest daughter of

Shanqi Shanqi (; 5 October 1866 – 29 March 1922), courtesy name Aitang (), formally Prince Su of the First Rank, was a prince of the Aisin-Gioro clan, the ruling clan of the Qing Dynasty, as well as a minister in the late Qing. He was from the Bord ...

, the 10th heir to the Prince Su peerage of the

Aisin Gioro The House of Aisin-Gioro was a Manchu clan that ruled the Later Jin dynasty (1616–1636), the Qing dynasty (1636–1912), and Manchukuo (1932–1945) in the history of China. Under the Ming dynasty, members of the Aisin Gioro clan served as c ...

clan, the imperial clan of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

, which ended with the

Xinhai Revolution The 1911 Revolution, also known as the Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution, ended China's last imperial dynasty, the Manchu-led Qing dynasty, and led to the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution was the culmination of a d ...

in 1911.

Background

Jin was born in Lüshun in 1918, seven years after the fall of the Qing dynasty. Both her father and mother died when she was just four years old. She was raised by her three stepsisters after her parents' deaths. She lived in Japan as a student. However, Jin chose to move back to Beijing when she was nineteen years old to pursue a career as either a journalist or entertainer. She settled for a position with a Japanese firm instead. Jin's elder sister

Yoshiko Kawashima was a Qing dynasty princess of the Aisin-Gioro clan. She was raised in Japan and served as a spy for the Japanese Kwantung Army and Manchukuo during the Second Sino-Japanese War. She is sometimes known in fiction under the pseudonym "Eastern Ma ...

was a Japanese spy who was executed by the Chinese Nationalist Government as a traitor in March 1948. Jin's elder brothers lost most of the Aisin Gioro family fortune in 1948 after the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

. The brothers fled to

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the Briti ...

, leaving Jin to take care of her six nieces and nephews, as well as Jin's own daughter and the family's elderly nanny. Nearly destitute, Jin sold most of the possessions in her family home. She also earned additional income by selling knitted

jumpers Jumper or Jumpers may refer to: Clothing * Jumper (sweater), a long-sleeve article of clothing; also called a top, pullover, or sweater **A waist-length top garment of dense wool, part of the Royal Navy uniform and the uniform of the United Stat ...

and taking out loans. Jin opened her own restaurant specialising in

Sichuan cuisine Sichuan cuisine, alternatively romanized as Szechwan cuisine or Szechuan cuisine (, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), is a style of Chinese cuisine originating from Sichuan Province. It has bold flavours, particularly the pungency and spicin ...

in 1952. She married Chinese artist Ma Wanli in 1953 (Jin was Ma's third wife). Jin left her restaurant around the time of her wedding and took a position with the country's central translation agency. In February 1958, Jin was arrested at her home and imprisoned, due solely to her being a descendant of the former imperial family. She remained in prison for 15 years, until her release as a forced farm labourer in 1973. She struggled for several years. In 1978, Jin wrote a letter to Vice Premier

Deng Xiaoping Deng Xiaoping (22 August 1904 – 19 February 1997) was a Chinese revolutionary leader, military commander and statesman who served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from December 1978 to November 1989. After CC ...

pleading for a job. Deng gave her a new job soon after. During the 1980s, Jin began planning to create a Japanese language school in China. She and her second husband opened a school in

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

in 1996. Jin died at a hospital in Beijing on May 26, 2014, at the age of 95.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jin, Moyu 1918 births 2014 deaths Aisin Gioro Manchu people Qing dynasty princesses Prisoners and detainees of the People's Republic of China People from Dalian Educators from Liaoning