BOOK REVIEWS

Christopher Bo Bramsen, Open Doors. Vilhelm Meyer and the Establishment of General Electric in China

A large house overlooking the port of Copenhagen and, next to the sea in Sokdsberg, an enormous summer residence, full of children and loyal domestic staff, where elegant young girls dream as they write in their personal diaries. Their fathers, uncles and friends are all important merchants, ministers or diplomats—the scene is reminiscent of an Ingmar Bergman film, a taste of Wild Strawberries maybe. So what does China have to do with this Scandinavian family saga? It acts as the setting, the backdrop for the destiny of a couple of “Shanghailanders” born into this Danish high society. The story of Vilhelm Meyer and Kirsten Bramsen is told to us by their grandson, Christopher Bo Bramsen who, in 1995 and in keeping with the family tradition, presented Jiang Zemin with his credentials as Denmark’s ambassador to China.

Vilhelm Meyer arrived in Shanghai in 1902, where, a few years later, he founded Andersen, Meyer & Co., which was to become one of the largest companies in China. Almost immediately, the company began to specialise in the import of building materials—iron, steel and glass. When World War I closed down European supply markets, Meyer placed his orders with the US, where he also found new capital and new partners. Andersen, Meyer & Co. thus became an American company, registered in New York, and the General Electric Company’s sole agent in China. The company broadened its horizons—it created half-a-dozen branches in the coastal provinces, began processing and exporting wool, leather and carpets, and extended its business activities to Manila.

The chronicle of commercial success alternates with that of family life—between 1910 to 1920, four little girls came into the world, each new birth resulting in the hiring of additional nannies, amahs and governesses. As he never actually knew his grandparents, the author’s main sources are notes, letters and diaries written by Kirsten Meyer, her four daughters and one of her nephews. Other than some texts published in 1959 by one of the Meyer daughters, these documents have so far remained unpublished. The author also relies heavily on correspondence from the young girls’ Danish governess, who was with them in Shanghai from 1920 to 1923.

The nature of this documentation means that the account tends towards a semi-domestic/semi-society story. It includes touches that are found in the memoirs of all wealthy expatriates—the tribute paid to loyal and ingenious Chinese servants and the descriptions of birthday, Christmas and New Year celebrations. The parties are lavish, as demonstrated by the sophistication of the menus and the quality of the orchestras that make the guests dance. These guests include various business acquaintances of the master of the house, key figures from the foreign concessions, and European and American dignitaries who happen to be passing through town. There are also Chinese guests, of whom only two are identified by name—the banker Li Min and the opera singer Mei Lanfang. The book’s title Open Doors, which makes reference to the Open Door(1) policy, should also be understood as a tribute to the warm hospitality extended by Meyer.

In the summer, the family and its army of domestic staff decamp to the seaside at Wei-hai-wei, a British enclave on the northern coast of Shandong. Sometimes, when Vilhelm set out on one of his many business trips or family gatherings, his wife, children, nannies and governesses would follow in his wake. These could be very long journeys that took the entire party across the Pacific, the United States and Europe, giving them the chance to form pleasant relationships with people they met on the way.

The lifestyle described in this chronicle is much the same as that evoked in many other accounts given by former residents of the Shanghai concessions, except maybe for the ostentation that the Meyers exhibit and their preference for musical rather than sporting activities. The upheavals in Chinese political life and the dramas taking place in Shanghai in the period from 1920 to 1930 (revolutionary struggles, the police’s reign of terror and Japanese aggression) are evoked by the author but they do not appear to have much impact on the circles in which the Meyers move. As one of the governesses wrote to her mother, “Do not worry if you hear about problems in China…these do not affect us” (p. 160). And so, in this family saga, it comes to pass that the visit of a nephew in the autumn of 1926 eclipses the revolutionary uprising of Shanghai workers.

Even though his wife Kirsten seems to keep abreast of her husband’s business dealings, the rest of the family content themselves with their admiration and respect for the capacity for work shown by the big boss. Given the absence of any archives from Andersen, Meyer & Co., which were apparently lost, we would undoubtedly know little more about the company if the author had not come across a booklet published in 1931 to mark the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary. At its height, the company had nine branches in China. It had undertaken significant diversification of its business activities which were grouped in specialised departments—textile equipment, electricity, general tooling, plumbing and heating, building materials, chemicals, agricultural equipment, etc. Andersen and Meyer gradually moved from being a simple importer of materials and equipment to the construction business. Even in China itself, they built industrial plants (cotton mills, electricity plants and dockyards) that were delivered “ready-to-use”.

Kirsten’s premature death in 1934, followed a few months later by that of her husband, brought an end to this great Danish family’s Shanghainese adventure. The family business was thus taken over by its main American partner, General Electric, whose first steps into the Chinese market the company had fostered.

More than just a history book, Open Doors is a family album, abundantly illustrated and carefully narrated. You can easily let yourself be captivated, or not, by the charm of its pictures and its accounts drawn from another century and another world—that of the “happy few” for whom Shanghai was “a paradise”. 

Translated from the French original by Bernie Mahapatra