Interracial relationships from the past

Romance of the Republic of China: Interracial Relationships That Cannot Be Outshined By: Pan Jianbing Publisher: Dongfang Publishing House Publication year: 2014 Pages: 240 Price: 32 yuan ($5.20) Photo provided to China Daily

Pan Jianbing, a school teacher from Quanzhou in eastern China's Fujian province, is the author of a rare book on interracial relationships from the country's past.

In July, Pan published Romance of the Republic of China: Interracial Relationships That Cannot Be Outshined in which he reveals details of interracial relationships involving government officials, scholars and royal family members in the Republic of China (1912-49)—a period when a rise in such relationships attracted public attention.

The graduate from East China Normal University with a major in Chinese has written six books since 2010 on the Republic of China's history. His first was Arbitrary Lin Yutang, which is a biography of Chinese writer Lin Yutang (1895-1976). By 2012, he wanted to write a book on interracial relationships from the time before New China's founding in 1949.

"While doing research on the first five books, I came across many references to interracial relationships and marriages in the Republic of China, and how couples often needed to get over obstacles to be together," Pan tells China Daily.

"Compared with their love, the so-called romance in modern Chinese TV series and popular novels is superficial. It just occurred to me that I should write a book on interracial romance to tell people how great love can be."