André Travert (1921–1993) was a French diplomat, scholar of China and keen photographer whose career was closely connected to East Asia. Born in Nantes, he joined the French Resistance during the Second World War and served in the Army Resistance Organisation between 1943 and 1944.
His interest in China began during adolescence after discovering a reproduction of a painting by the fifteenth-century Chinese artist Dai Jin. He studied Chinese at the École des langues orientales under the renowned sinologist Paul Demieville, as well as Asian art at the École du Louvre. He also held degrees in literature and law.
Travert entered the French diplomatic service in 1945 and was posted to China the following year. He worked in Nanjing and Guangzhou before moving to Hong Kong after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. During the following decade, he closely analysed the Chinese press and became a recognised specialist on the Communist regime. In 1951, he married Hsiou-Ching Kouei, a native of Nanjing.
In 1959, Travert wrote an important study on the first decade of the People’s Republic of China, covering the years 1949–1959. His diplomatic career subsequently took him to Japan, New York, Indonesia and Malaysia. In 1982, he returned to Hong Kong as consul general.
Deeply engaged with Chinese culture throughout his life, Travert was particularly passionate about Chinese opera and was an expert on Peking opera. In 1991, he became president of the Association of Friends of Peking Opera.
André Travert died in 1993. His archives, consisting mainly of paper documents, photographs and magnetic tapes, were stored in a specially adapted room in the basement of the building where his apartment was located, at 10 Place Adolphe Max in Paris’s 9th arrondissement, until they were transferred to the French Diplomatic Archives.
More information:
• Images: Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères © Succession André Travert (via website:
jeudepaume.org)
