I came across a wonderful picture on Facebook today.
This is Prince Maung Maung Gyi, a member of the (deposed) royal family of Burma. Not knowing anything about this man, but being very impressed by this picture, I started to look around on the Internet for information about him.
On the Chronicling America site, I found a brief article in the Washington Herald from August 12, 1922 (page 10). This is what it said:
“English weddings with princes in attendance are quite the fashion. The next one on society’s calendar will be the wedding of Miss Sylvia Helen Forde and the prince this time will be the groom.
“He is Prince Maung Maung Gyi of Mandalay, grandson of King Mindon of Burma. His father, Theebaw, last king of Burma, was deposed by the British in 1885. The prince was photographed recently while visiting Miss Forde in England.”
A month later the Bisbee Daily Review (September 13, 1922, pg. 4) in Arizona carried a picture of the couple with the heading “Burmese Romance,” and a caption that said, “Miss Sylvia Helen Forde of England is to marry Prince Maung Maung Gyi, of Mandalay, son of Theebaw, last king of Burma.”
A day before this picture and text appeared in the Bisbee Daily Review, it was published on the front page of The Bismarck Tribune in North Dakota.
Ominously though, on September 6, 1922, the following notice was published in The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser:
“The Registrar-General has taken action with regard to an announcement of marriage between Prince Maung Gyi, of Mandalay, and Miss Sylvia Charlotte Helen Forde, who lives with her mother at Wimbledon.
“Prince Gyi is an engineering student at a London college and is the great-grandson [or grandson??] of King Mindon of Burma, who was the father of the last King of Burma, King Thibaw, deposed by the British in 1885.
“The announcement of the engagement was made last month. Two days later the Registrar-General circularized all superintendent-registrars with a warning letter stating that should a license be applied for by either Prince Maung Gyi or Miss Sylvia Forde, they were to withhold the issue of a certificate and notify Somerset House.”
Hmmm. . . I would like to know more about this. Was this a case of colonialism rearing its ugly head and the colonizers objecting to “inappropriate” racial relations?
Whatever the case may be, I was reminded of another Southeast Asian royal who would soon fall in love – Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy, who was soon to become Emperor Bảo Đại in the French protectorate of An Nam.
Bảo Đại was studying in France at the time that Prince Maung Maung Gyi was proposing to Miss Sylvia Charlotte Helen Forde. And while Bảo Đại did not attempt to marry a French woman, he did eventually marry someone “problematic” – a Catholic commoner, Marie-Thérèse Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan, who after their marriage came to be known as Empress Nam Phương.
Whereas the British appear to have objected to Prince Maung Maung Gyi marrying an English woman, the French were probably pleased that Bảo Đại wanted to marry a Catholic. However, the ancestors of both of these men were undoubtedly rolling in their graves, as the English and Catholics had been “problems” for each of their respective ancestors.
So why is it that both of these men fell in love with the “enemies” of their ancestors?
It’s hard to know, but they were clearly both dashing, handsome men.
Do you think these two cases were somewhat similar to My Chau – Trong Thuy? Hummm, falling in love with the ‘enemies’ of their ancestors seems to be something that human beings have been enjoying for thousands of years already :). It must be something very attractive, don’t you agree?
Good point!! I guess the other thing we can conclude is that if Trong Thuy was anything like Prince Maung Maung Gyi and Bao Dai, then he was probably a good looking guy. So at least My Chau had good taste!! 😉
Why should such a relationship have angered the two gentlemen´s ancestors? It is not nice to insinuate such an attitude, but maybe they would have – in a conservative, chauvinistic outlook that especially old men tend to have – applauded them. Since they themselves were unable to surmount the intruding enemies, at least their offspring would intrude and conquer “the enemy´s” uterus.
I suppose that is also one of the factors that made Mrs Suu Kyi unpopular with the Burmese nationalists, that she, as the daughter of their national icon, let herself being “seduced” by a British and even married that guy from a foreign nation her father had fought to free his country from.
Yes, and someone told me that this has been used as a way to discredit her. Someone told me once that the government in the 90s and in this century promoted a discourse of it not being acceptable to marry non-Burmese, and that this was an indirect way to discredit ASSK. That said, if that’s true, I’m still not sure how that was done, but there is a strong sense in Burma that “good Burmese girls” should stick with their own.
This recent book by Chie Ikeya has a chapter that talks about the sense of “emasculation” that Burmese men felt by the end of the colonial period. And part of that sense came from the fact that Burmese women were marrying non-Burmese men.
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/p-7432-9780824834616.aspx
Hi. Have you come across any more information about Sylvia Forde. We have found a grave in our local cemetery which I believe is the grave of the same Sylvia Forde and I’m trying to track down her history.
Sorry, but I have no additional information. What you are doing looks impressive though!! Keep up the good work!!!
King Theebaw (or Thibaw, which is the romanization used by most Myanmar people) did not have ANY sons – only daughters. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thibaw_Min Perhaps the reason why Somerset House objected to the marriage was that the Maung Maung Gyi was a fraud? Just an idea.