Lotus Fragrance had a promising start as a young starlet in the British
film industry of the 1930s, only to have it cut short by World War II.
She was born in China as Rebecca Ho Hing Du around 1914 and grew up in
Hong Kong. In her late teens, her family arranged for her marriage into
the wealthy Ma family, with a move to London, and a society wedding in
St. Martin in the Fields Church in 1932. Her natural beauty and grace
led to her discovery by British talent scouts, and she acted in a few
movies ("Incident in Shanghai" (Pinewood Studios, 1938), "The Wife of
General Ling" (Shepperton Studios, 1937; available in DVD) as well as
in a few plays, under the stage name "Lotus Fragrance". And she was
glowingly mentioned in Paddy Carstairs' memoir, "Hadn't We the Gaity."
During the London Blitz of 1940-41, Lotus volunteered in the war effort
while her husband served in the British Army. However, the war
effectively ended her budding acting career, as well as her marriage.
In early 1941, she fled London with her two children, Francis and
Roxana, to return to her family in China. On their first attempt, their
ship was bombed and torpedoed in the Atlantic. The second attempt took
them by a circuitous route by ship via South Africa to Burma, overland
into Chungking, and eventually by air to India, where she set up a
fashionable beauty salon in Bombay. In late 1946, Lotus moved to
Shanghai to emigrate with her daughter to the United States, arriving
in Los Angeles, where she had Hollywood friends known from her London
years, the Oscar-winning cinematographer James Wong Howe, and his wife,
the writer Sanora Babb.
Despite her LA film connections, Lotus set about to become an
independent career woman, eventually settling into a 30-year successful
career as translator, interpreter, and office associate for a private
immigration lawyer specializing in Chinese clients, who fondly
addressed her as "Ma Gu Neung." She remarried in the 1960s to Donald
Lee, and was thereafter known professionally as Lotus Ma Lee. After
Donald passed away, Lotus remained in west Los Angeles until 2011, when
she relocated to Bloomington, Indiana to be near her daughter, Roxana
Ma Newman, who has lived there since 1983 and recently retired from
Indiana University. Lotus remains in good health; she celebrated her
99th birthday in July 2013.
