Aleister Crowley and Madame Wellington Koo

I’ve blogged previously a couple of times about the English occultist Aleister Crowley and his interests in China (his perception of himself as Master Kwaw etc). Crowley did visit Shanghai briefly in 1906 for most of the month of April. Interestingly I recently came across a reference to him contacting the wife of the Chinese diplomat Wellington Koo soliciting funds and sending a copy of his book. Madame Koo, the stylish and beautiful Perakanese sugar fortune heiress Oei Hui-lan, sent a rather charming reply, returning the copy of Crowley’s Book of the Law with a note reading:

‘Instead of destroying your Book of the Law, I venture to return it to you in case you might be short of copies.’

No new recruits to the Beast there then!…

FYI: for more on Crowley’s time in Shanghai read Ned Kelly’s tale of the Beast’s brief sojourn on the Whangpoo here…

by Bassano, vintage print, December 1943