Open Doors

America’s ‘Open Door’ policy towards pre-revolutionary China was essentially that China should be kept open to all countries on an equal and competitive basis rather than being carved up into exclusive zones of interest by the imperial powers. The Danish entrepeneur Vilhelm Meyer was a firm believer in this policy. Thus, it is not surprising that the doors of his own home in Shanghai were always open to a wide range of different people, not least to his Chinese friends. On one level, this volume is an intriguing account of the life and times of a Danish couple prominent in Shanghai’s international settlement between 1902 and 1935, on another, it charts the introduction and growth of new western technologies in China, and with them the establishment of the General Electric Company there. Early 20th-century China itself is the backdrop for these stories, recounting the hopes, fears, turmoil and grandeur of the age.