Her Lotus Year by Paul French
This century has seen the continued decline of the British royal family, whose reputation has sagged at the same time as their domain has shrunk to a second-rate power in the world. But the decline didn’t start with Charles and Diana or their feckless kids. The biggest, messiest, meatiest splash of the last centurysurely was the abdication of Edward in order to marry his mistress, Wallis Simpson.
Paul French writes about the twilight of colonialism in China, the first half of the twentieth century. It turns out that the notorious Wallis entered his patch in 1924, when she spent a year in China, before she met the prince to be king to be ex-king.
This period in her life is not well known, except through a notorious, never seen, and likely fictitious, “China dossier” that allegedly documented an amazing array of misbehavior by her during that short period.
French is clear that this dossier has never been seen by anyone, and likely never existed. What did exist was a concerted effort by the British establishment and royal family to dissuade the king from abdicating, and to break off with the unacceptable Wallis. The “dossier” was part of a public campaign of slander and fake news, maligning Wallis and blaming her for, essentially, beguiling the king.
Spoiler alert: it didn’t work.
But this begs the question, what was Wallis actually doing in China that year?
It’s actually a moderately interesting story, though it takes a bit of reconstruction and effort to find the facts. French is well qualified to put together a plausible account.
Wallis went to China to join her first husband who was a Navy officer posted to Hong Kong. Their failing marriage completely died there, and Wallis fled(?) to Canton, Shanghai, and Peking (to use the names Americans used for those cities at that time). This excursion was stranger at that time than it seems to us today today, because (a) she had no money or prospects, and (b) China was roiling with unrest, chaos, and descending into civil war. And, by the way, she could not finalize her divorce until she returned to the US, so this side trip kept her marriage in an ambiguous state.
In short, she had no business traveling to Peking, and at that time China was no place for an unaccompanied foreign woman to be traveling for any reason, let alone no specific reason.
So why did she go? How did she manage it? And what in the world did she do when she got there?
French suggests, with some evidence, that as a “Navy wife”, Wallis was asked to courier documents for the US government. With rail and telegraph disrupted (and radio not yet capable of large data transmissions), human couriers were a plausible channel. Reliable but unobtrusive travelers, such as military dependents, might be an attractive choice to carry a bundle from Hong Kong to Canton, Shanghai, or Peking. Taking the assignment could have provided Wallis a little cash and a ticket away from her marriage–and maybe an excuse to adventure.
In any case, Wallis did, in fact, brave the difficult and danderous trip all the way to the capital Peking.
Once there, Wallis was at loose ends. Taking advantage of circumstances, and, through pluck and luck, had herself a year-long adventure. She connected with the international community, including diplomats and merchants.
Part of this story is about a young woman growing up. over this year, Wallis proved that she could make her own way in the world, without a husband, parents, or a job. She made friends, including wealthy and sophisticated friends. She (probably) had a love affair. She navigated a complex and very foreign city, and developed a taste and knowledge for Chinese art and style. She made money for herself playing cards and dealing in stylish knick knacks.
As the title of the book suggests, for Wallis, this was a blessed, idyllic interlude, her year in lotus land. When it was over, she had to return to the US to face divorce and whatever came next. But for a brief time, life was fine and her troubles far away.
It’s remarkable. A relatively ordinary, young “Navy wife” went to China. A confident, capable, independent, and worldly woman came back. A woman who, in a few years, was evidently capable of matching the freakin’ king of England! Indeed, a woman for whom he would give up his throne and empire. Remarkable.
French makes a case that her lotus year in China was a year that made her the remarkable woman she turned out to be.
This story is so much more interesting that the trash and slander of the imaginary “China dossier”!
In telling the story of Wallis’ lotus year, French also lavishes attention on China and especially Peking of this now lost era, exactly 100 years ago It was a transitional time, when the empire was dead, but the modern PRC was yet to be born. Colonial powers were still there, but the Chinese were rebelling and clearly the days of foreign domination were numbered.
French recounts many ways that this transition was reflected in the culture and in the architecture of the city. He gives us a luscious picture of some of the beauty and joys that could be found there at that time.
Importantly, French isn’t particularly nostalgic for this past. Wealthy foreigners and Chinese might have a luxurious life, but most ordinary people did not. And the everyday racism and exclusionist culture of the colonial enclaves is repulsive to us now.
For me, it’s worthwhile carefully documenting what life was like back then. If nothing else, the astonishing changes of the last 100 years in China are nothing short of miraculous. Who could have predicted today’s proud and vibrant China, back there and then?
I have to admit that I like this book a lot more than I expected to. I neither know nor care much about the “woman I love” scandal of the 1930s (or any other British royal kerfuffling). I’m not a fan of the old colonialist days, in China or anywhere else. (Part of my family comes from Ireland—I have not a shred of sympathy for English or any imperialism.)
For that matter, I’m not especially interested in the troubles of debutantes who grew up in Baltimore at the end of the nineteenth century.
But I did like the evident pluck of Wallis, a woman who moved on from a crappy marriage, despite the limits of the times, and what’s more, she went on to have one heck of a “gap year”. She far exceeded what I would have imagined a young estranged wife could do on her own, on the other side of the world from where she was born. She becames a lot more interesting than I expected. Perhaps this is something of what the king saw in her.
- Paul French, Her Lotus Year: China, The Roaring Twenties, and the Making of Wallis Simpson, New York, St. Martins’s Press, 2024.
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