Michael Shen Fu-Tsung

Michael Alphonsius Shen Fu-Tsung
The Chinese Convert, a portrait of Shen Fu-Tsung by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1687
Native name	Chinese: 沈福宗; pinyin: Shěn Fúzōng; Wade–Giles: Shen Fu-tsung
Born	Nanjing
Died	1691 Mozambique
Occupation	Mandarin
Known for	Being an early Chinese visitor to Western Europe

Michael Alphonsius Shen Fu-Tsung, also Michel Sin, Michel Chin-fo-tsoung, Shen Fo-tsung, Shen Fuzong (Chinese: 沈福宗; pinyin: Shěn Fúzōng; Wade–Giles: Shen Fu-tsung, died 1691), was a Chinese mandarin from Nanjing and a convert to Catholicism who was brought to Europe by the Walloon Jesuit priest Philippe Couplet, Procurator of the China Jesuit Missions in Rome. They left Macao in 1681 and visited together Flanders, Italy, France, and England. He later became a Jesuit in Portugal and died near Mozambique while returning home.

Michael Shen Fu-Tsung arrived with Philippe Couplet by boat from Macao in October 1682. They visited the city where Couplet was born, Mechelen. They then left for Rome, where Couplet tried to obtain a Papal authorization to celebrate mass in Chinese.

Shen was presented to King Louis XIV on September 15, 1684, and he demonstrated how to use chopsticks and how to write Chinese characters. He is described as participating in a royal dinner with Couplet, wearing green silk with deep blue brocade, decorated with Chinese dragons. They also visited the Maison royale de Saint-Louis, where they set up a display of Chinese silk portraits.

After his visit in France, Shen Fu-Tsung also went to Oxford where he met with Thomas Hyde in 1685, and he taught him some Chinese. Shen Fu-Tsung apparently communicated in Latin.