‘…bright, vivacious, intelligent and not of a particularly high moral standard.’ Desmond Alexander of the Commonwealth Investigation Branch describing his informant called Lorraine.
Shanghai Demimondaine is a book about a woman and how she dealt with the avatars of 20th century history in a man’s world. Her main cross to bear in the early days is the knowledge that her birth took place out of wedlock. The book explains how the main character, Lorraine, manages to deflect any attempts at discovering this uncomfortable truth.
The author has thoroughly researched the historical period, giving the characters dynamic form and content. At first, the reader is struck by the number of friends, family and contacts Lorraine’s network in Shanghai gives rise to. By introducing the characters multiple times in different situations sometimes using pseudonyms, and as the historical sketch picks up speed, the author creates a special unique universe for the reader to discover. A helpful glossary is also provided to define some of the characters found in the book.
Shanghai Demimondaine’s Lorraine, from Australia, spends much of her time attempting to flee the island kingdom for more exotic climes. She did not want to be the mirror image of her mother, Laura, whose social condition as an unwed mother made life a challenge for her and her children. Instead of making a life in Australia, Lorraine seeks a more dynamic lifestyle in Shanghai of the 1930s, internationally known for its brothels and vibrant nightlife at the time. Living on the edge of a Japanese invasion, Lorraine continues to thrive on the attributes of her wealthy clients while recognising the stigma attaching itself to her reputation and future life. Lorraine cements a number of significant relationships with the wealthy and powerful in Shanghai 1930. Moreover, it is there that Lorraine meets the writer Emily Hahn with whom she will become friends as well as the subject of several of Emily’s books. The book ascribes to Emily the task of convincing Lorraine to accept herself despite the intervalle in Shanghai. As for Lorraine, she was driven by two impulses–attempt to conceal the past while making it out to have been an incredibly ostentatious life. The reader apprehends a lack of authenticity in Lorraine’s explanations in an effort to deflect the truth at any cost by sometimes making it more glamourous than it really was.
When the Shanghailanders are sent packing by the Japanese, Laura returns to Australia and later marries one of her former clients and spends most of her remaining days in London’s high society far from any memory of her time as a sex worker. It is as if Lorraine keeps one hand in Shanghai and the other available to describe historical events, particularly the impact of World War Two on Australia’s emancipation from British colonial rule only to confront the new regional American geo-political giant.
Throughout the historical period, fascism and communism face off in regions around the world. Neither ideology appears to have made an impact on Lorraine’s own political opinions. These opinions are manufactured by Lorraine’s own life requiring her to
hobnob with Japanese and Italian fascists in Shanghai while becoming an informant for the Australian government during World War Two. The later part of Lorraine’s life is characterised by a comfortable bourgeois existence in London far from the continuing ideological wars.
Easy and enjoyable to read using cogent historical context, Shanghai Demimondaine is a historical and cultural fresque of modern times. The characters described are compelling, especially that of Lorraine, who remains forever ambivalent about the place Shanghai holds in her life. A place where shame over her scarlet past competes with nostalgia at having lived in a world of glitter and glamour. Nostalgia would be her constant companion over the years.
In this way, the reader can readily identify with Lorraine’s predicament, which is one among many difficulties, all of which human life must face in the course of a lifetime.
This is a review of Nick Hordern’s Shanghai Demimondaine (Earnshaw Books Ltd, 2023). ISBN: 9789888843046
Bruce Mabley is an author specializing in international affairs, including the novel The Diary of a Rogue Diplomat. A former Canadian diplomat and university professor of politics and philosophy. He identifies as progressive while opposing both woke and MAGA ideologies. In 2003, he was decorated by the French Republic as Chevalier des Palmes académiques
This review is published under a Creative Commons License and may be republished with attribution.
