Emperor Khai Dinh

An emperor stepped out into the courtyard of his hall, glittering from head to foot. On his head was the traditional wrapped headcloth, and over it sat an elaborately decorated hat with a pointed top. He wore a royal robe, but Western-style epaulettes were fixed to both shoulders. His hands were in spotless white gloves, and on his feet were gleaming leather shoes. He looked like a painting in many colors, at once familiar and strange. This was Emperor Khải Định.

His birth name was Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Đảo, and he was born on October 8, 1885. He was the twelfth emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. That was Vietnam's last royal dynasty, which reigned from 1802 to 1945. He lived and reigned in the old capital of Hue, beside the Perfume River.

Khải Định was the son of Emperor Đồng Khánh. He was also the father of Bảo Đại, the last emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. Three generations of one family, father, son and grandson, climbed in turn onto the same golden throne in Hue. Khải Định stood in the middle of that line.

He took the throne in 1916 and chose the reign name Khải Định. That name stayed with him all his life.

But what people remember most about him is a taste all his own. Khải Định loved striking beauty. He liked things that glittered, that were full of color, and that were finished with care down to the smallest detail.

He loved beauty so much that he designed his own clothes. He took the royal robe of a Vietnamese emperor and skillfully added touches of Western dress. He fastened on an elaborate belt. At times he had shimmering epaulettes on both shoulders. His hands wore white gloves. Most striking of all, he gave up the traditional soft slippers and walked in Western-style leather shoes.

The Vietnamese headcloth sat beside the Western leather shoes. The soft folds of the robe sat beside the stiff epaulettes. Two worlds, East and West, far apart, came to rest on a single man. This blend was so unusual that anyone who saw him in those days had to take notice.

A man who loved striking beauty like this would surely be curious about the wide world beyond. And so it was. On May 20, 1922, Emperor Khải Định set out for a country very far away, France. He went to attend a great fair called the Đấu Xảo, held in the seaside city of Marseille.

It was a remarkable trip. Khải Định was the first reigning Nguyễn emperor to go abroad. No reigning Nguyễn emperor before him had ever traveled so far from his country. In those days there were no airplanes like today's, so the road to France ran by sea, many days aboard a ship on the open water.

Here was an emperor from the old capital of Hue, used to the sound of pagoda bells and the Perfume River, now standing among the strange streets of faraway France. He took in the fair, the streets, and the new sights he had never seen at home. In time he returned, carrying home in his heart all that he had seen with his own eyes in that distant land.

Perhaps because he was so taken with a beauty that joined East and West, his glittering taste did not stay on his robe alone. Everywhere, he liked to set Vietnamese patterns beside Western touches, so that a whole space shone with as many colors as the man himself.

Sadly, he did not live long. Khải Định died on November 6, 1925, when he was only 40 years old. His son Bảo Đại later took the throne after him, closing the line of three generations in Hue.

He was an emperor who truly loved beauty. He dared to set the headcloth of his homeland beside leather shoes from far away, and he dared to cross the sea to France to see the world, then brought that vision home to adorn his own land. A painting of many colors, glittering in the heart of old Hue.