Charles Lépissier – 1924 c. in Hā'ĕrbīn (Manchuria)
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On his return to China with his young wife Madeleine, Charles Lépissier was appointed Consul in Harbin (Hā'ĕrbīn – 哈尔滨) in Manchuria, where he remained from June 1920 to October 1924.
Manchuria was then under the control of Marshal Zhāng Zuòlín (张作霖), nicknamed the “Manchurian Tiger”, one of the most powerful warlords of the time.
Amongst others, Charles was involved with the complicated case of the Eastern Chinese Railway (ECR). The town of Hā'ĕrbīn was created by Czarist Russia in 1898 for the purpose of the Eastern Chinese Railway. Until April 1920, and for the previous two decades, Dimitri Horvath was the powerful General Manager of the ECR and Mayor of Hā'ĕrbīn. Boris Ostroumoff replaced him in February 1921.
At the time of the Lépissier family’s arrival, Hā'ĕrbīn was still a Russian town. Street names and adverts in the Western town were still in Russian.
Madeleine Lépissier, already bilingual in English after a stint of several years as a French teacher in Kent (1912-1919), learned Russian, which she would later speak perfectly. She volunteered for the Russian Red Cross in Hā'ĕrbīn.
The young Lépissier couple quickly established the French Consulate in a property in the Novy Gorod neighbourhood, at n°37 Tsitsi Karskaya Ulitza.
Their eldest son, Henri, was born in Hā'ĕrbīn on 6 April 1921. In April/May 1922, Madeleine hired Siécha, a ‘white’ Russian 'nia-nia' (governess). Siécha stayed with the Lépissier family until 1930.
In July 1922, a pregnant Madeleine Lépissier arranged for her younger sister Geneviève Gerber, a professional pianist, to come to China to help her.
Geneviève, Charles and Madeleine’s second child, was born in Hā'ĕrbīn on 29 January 1923.
Madeleine also arranged for her brother Paul Gerber to come to China; he would work in Peking (Běijīng – 北京) at the Russian-Asian Bank with Petithuguenin.
At the beginning of October 1924, the Chinese put Boris Ostroumoff in prison and took control of the Eastern Chinese Railway. Charles Lépissier would meet Ostroumoff again in Tiānjīn (天津) in 1931.
From December 1924 to October 1925, while the family was on leave in France with Siécha, their third child, Jacqueline, was born on 25 August 1925.
Following his leave, Charles Lépissier was posted to Yúnnánfu (Kūnmíng – 昆明市) in Yúnnán (云南).
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The following tab contains additional information on Charles Lépissier during his time in Hā'ĕrbīn : 'Book on Charles Lépissier in Hā'ĕrbīn – Manchuria (1921-1924)' with 470 illustrations (Only available to members of the Association Émile-Jean Lépissier).
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