A Critical Review of "Our Hart" by Lloyd Lofthouse

At stuffy Shanghai cocktail parties and underground Beijing book clubs taking place back in 2008, Chinese literati were as scandalized as they were (unadmittedly) titillated by American author Lloyd Lofthouse's new novel, 'My Splendid Concubine' and the lascivious adventures therein of real-life 19th century China expatriate Sir Robert Hart (1835-1911) and his concubines.

Certainly concubinage was as commonplace a practice in that age as it was to, say, smoke opium or hold large-scale rebellions; nothing to get red in the face about. Typically in denial of its own past, however, China's Communist-run newspapers publicly denounced Lofthouse's 'Concubine' as "little more than the author's own fantasy and Asian fetish."

Conversely, Sinologists and China historical fiction fans from Peking to Poukipsee who saw past 'Concubine's' prurient veil applauded Lofthouse for penning a book as scholarly as it was entertaining in its depiction of Robert Hart, the true "Godfather of China's Modernism," a title the Chinese face-savingly prefer to confer on one of their own: Deng Xiaoping, architect of China's new economic reform.

Indeed, this may be the real reason why Lofthouse's book was ostracized. Half a century after Hart's death, the Communist Party put the Irish "imperialist" on trial for his "intimate corrupted life," conveniently forgetting the fact that Sir Robert Hart, an advisor to the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty, was responsible for introducing to China such modern conveniences as a railway network, postal service and a standardized education system.

- LUST? CAUTION! -

For its academic accuracy as well as its honesty, 'My Splendid Concubine' was hailed "sleeper hit of '08" and went on to receive honorable mentions at book festivals across the globe. Rather than resting on his literary laurels, Lofthouse instead returned to the decade's worth of files he had accumulated while researching the life and times of Robert Hart. A year later he has emerged with a sequel, 'Our Hart.'

When we last saw our hero, or should we say, our Hart, 19th century China was being raped, ravaged and rebelled against from every direction. South China has been taken over by European merchants determined to turn the entire country into one big opium den, British military patrolling the Eastern shore are forcing the emperor to pay reparations "for wars China lost but didn't start," whilst Christian fanatics called Taiping are waging bloody hell against imperialism.

Enter a broken, distraught man who has just witnessed the rape and murder of one of his two beloved concubines. It is no secret who the perpetrator is, but instead of having the means or status to avenge his love, Robert Hart must "swallow his hate" and go into hiding with his remaining concubine, Ayaou, for as it turns out, it was she who was his nemesis's intended victim. Some hero!

Robert Hart, as sketched by Lofthouse, was never, in fact, meant to be a hero. He is an admittedly flawed man with weaknesses, vices and sins: he is not above cold-blooded revenge; the "childlike bodies" of Chinese women "excite him"; he even steals concubines from his friends ("He didn't know what was worse - having syphilis or another man hating him").

But Hart's coming-of-age during his riotous first years in China, underscored by the tragic loss of one of his concubines, has now turned the boy into a man, and a bitter one at that, since "replacing the pain with anger made him feel like a thief and a liar."

Just as our protagonist has matured, complete with a receding hairline, 'Our Hart' the novel is also a more mature read than its predecessor. Passion has been replaced by piety while the lust of the first novel has been lost to love ("He had changed...what he enjoyed more was the companionship"). Rather than spending his nights exploring his concubine's body, an older Hart is now kept awake exploring his heart.

Yet despite saving Hart's life in battle and being his Chinese voice of reason throughout his career, Ayaou remains just that: his concubine ("she came from peasant stock...she didn't know any other way"). Hart, in a crisis of conscience that many an expat might identify with, "dreads the day he has to tell his friends and family back home about her." Even after Ayaou gives birth to their first child, Hart remains conflicted ("If he named the baby, he was accepting responsibility..."). And how many westerners residing overseas can relate to this all-too-real passage: "One part of him wanted to make a marriage proposal, but his other half, the British half, said no." Hart, by way of Lloyd Lofthouse, is the voice of any expat who has ever lived and loved in China.

- ELEGY FOR A CONCUBINE -

From dealing with the bedroom complexities that came with having two competing concubines, to dealing with the political complexities of competing imperial officials; from the weight of a pubescent concubine in Robert Hart's arms to the weight of an ancient empire on his shoulders, the story of 'Our Hart' is divided by romantic drama and political intrigue as the protagonist himself is divided by his allegiance to both China and England.

'Our Hart' is a dark novel intent on capturing the despondent spirit of an outsider immersed in a brutal, bloody period of Chinese history. Dynastic Chinese nobility may have held an affinity for scenery and poetry to escape the harsh reality of medieval life, but Lofthouse, writing through the frantic eyes of his title character, wastes no time with lyrical beauty, with nary a description of a sunset to brighten its pages: "The world turned black and white with occasional violent flashes...there was no color in his life."

Lofthouse gets down and dirty with gritty, old-fashioned storytelling, proletariat-style, but where author Lofthouse truly shines is his thought-provoking messages on relationships, attitudes and cultures.

When Lofthouse writes, "It is a sad truth that most (foreigners) only come to China to steal from us or cheat us. They do not spend the time to learn about our people and culture. They sail in...buy Chinese women, defile them and leave the women with ruined lives," it is commentary directed at western expats as valid in 2010 as it was in the mid-1800's.

'Our Hart' may also borrow a page from the author's own experiences married to a Chinese, for only a white man who has ever experienced the near impossibility of trying to reason with an angry Chinese woman ("her voice was high, screeching") could pen the emotionally exhausting dialogue described in the brilliant Chapter 13 - and then sum it up in what this reviewer considers perhaps the book's most poignant sentence: "Understanding her behavior didn't stop him from resenting it."

- A DYING (h)ART -

To be sure, just as Robert Hart had his flaws, so too does 'Our Hart'. With such a rich cast of characters in Hart's universe whom Lofthouse could have tapped for the occasional alternative perspective to the storyline, one wonders why the author was set on a single, one-dimensional narrative. In this respect, Lofthouse could stand to learn from historical fiction masters James Michener and James Clavell, famed for plaiting their epic tales with intersecting subplots. Nonetheless, for its steamy romance and grapeshot-like action sequences, this reviewer nominates Lofthouse's 'Concubine' saga Most Likely to be Optioned for a Film or Miniseries.

Lloyd Lofthouse is to be commended for immortalizing China's most exemplary expatriate in the pages of his 'Concubine' books. For all his faults and sins, Sir Robert Hart was a true hero to both Chinese and westerners alike. Hart resided in China for over fifty years as "the lord and master of Chinese Maritime Customs" while serving the last emperor of the Qing dynasty. He was conferred numerous awards and titles and had a bronze statue constructed in his honor at Shanghai Square.

Yet as Shanghai-born authoress Anchee Min wrote in her prologue to 'My Splendid Concubine,' "Few know that Sir Robert Hart was once a household name in China." A Beijing Today review of 'Concubine' also had it correct when it declared "today Hart is entirely without fame...the most famous foreigner in China would be Dashan." True, true. But in spite of Dashan's cool hair or his god-like name recognition amongst the television-addicted masses of New China, it is highly unlikely that the Canadian CCTV host will ever inspire anyone to pen novels about him.

In fact, one wonders if historical fiction is not a dying art simply because, thus far, the 21st century lacks any real heroes like Sir Robert Hart for future authors to write about.

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Tom Carter is the author of CHINA: Portrait of a People