THE NATIVE OF FINLAND, JOHAN AMINOFF’S LETTER FROM FORMOSA: “THE HIGHEST MARK IS ON THE ORIGINAL”

The lives of Russians who settled down in Taiwan in the 19th century are still an unexplored field in studies on history of the island and Russian-Taiwanese relations. In 1996 the grave of certain Johan Aminoff, born in Finland, was located by one of the authors at the Westerners’ cemetery in Taipei (Tamsui district). Ten years later, a letter written by a person named Aminoff was found in the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire (AFPRE). This letter was sent by him to the Russian consulate in Foochow in the summer of 1900. The content of this letter, forwarded to the Russian Embassy in Beijing and later to Sanct-Petersburg, was so significant that it was brought to the attention of Nicholas II, the Russian Emperor, who “left the Highest mark on the original” with a blue pencil. As it’s proved by our research, the author of the letter and the man buried in Taipei is the same person. This article details the amazing life story of Johan Aminoff, a Finnish with Russian-Swedish roots, who lived in Taiwan for nearly 30 years. He served in the Japanese police, but kept in mind Russia and the duty to his country. This biographical research is based on a wide range of sources, including reports from the American Bible Society, Finnish genealogical archives, documents from the Foreign Policy Archive of Russian Empire and the archives of Japanese colonial administration in Taiwan, as well as the publications in the pre-revolutionary Russian press.

Aminoff, China, Japan, letter, Russia, Taiwan, Finland, Formosa

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