Vietnamese Provincial Governing Mandarin

(Quan Tổng-Đốc)

Photograph of a Vietnamese provincial governor appears in a French postcard circa the late 19th to early 20th century.  The mandarin was shown seated in a palanquin shaded by four parasols.  When a high-ranking Vietnamese official traveled during that era, his attendants would carry parasols to shade him, and the number of parasols corresponded to the rank level.  A four-parasol mandarin status was equivalent to province chief (quan Tổng-Ðốc).