The bonds between imperial China and Western missionaries are an eternally fascinating subject. Amongst them are Italian missionary Giuseppe Castiglione. He came to China to spread the gospel, but ended up spreading Western arts and science to the middle kingdom. Castiglione’s holy calling took a detour when his artistic skills impressed Emperor 康熙/Kangxi who later commissioned him to paint and design Western style houses for the royal family. Castiglione went on to work for the subsequent two emperors 雍正/Yongzheng and 乾隆/Qianlong. He also took the Chinese name 郎士宁/lang2 shi4 ning2.

His style was a unique blend of European painting and Chinese subjects and themes (see the portrait of Emperoro Qianlong). Castiglione’s time was the golden age of Qing Dynasty. Contact with the West thrived, especially in arts and science. Missionaries played a key role in the process. Castiglione even became the subject of a TV series about his life and work here. In a rather beguiling casting decison, he was played by famous Canadian sinophile Dashan (picture and clip).

Another prominent Italian missionary was Matteo Ricci‎/利玛窦 who contributed largely to math and science. Like Castiglione, he passed away and was buried in China. His grave is in a beautiful garden which is now the Communist Party School in Beijing.