Flora 羅馥貞

The Hardoon couple did not have natural offsprings. They adopted more than 20 Chinese and foreign orphans throughout time. Lisa Hardoon, whose Chinese name was Luo Jialing (罗嘉陵), adopted Chinese children (first as nephews) to whom she gave her own Chinese family name. She adopted six male children: Luo Youliang (罗友良) around 1900, Luo Youlan (罗友兰) in 1908, Luo Yousan (罗友三) in 1910, Luo Youxiang(罗友翔) in 1913, Luo Youqi (罗友启) in 1916 and Luo Youren (罗友仁) in 1920; and five daughters: the Eurasian Luo Fuzhen ( 罗馥贞 also known as Flora) in 1897, followed by Luo Buqian (罗补乾), Luo Zhuankun (罗转坤), Luo Xiumei (罗岫梅) and Luo Huixiu (罗慧秀). The male children were able to continue living in the Aili Garden after their marriage. Hence the Luo family resembled the ideal Chinese concept of various generations of the same family living together. The main goal of Lisa Hardoon’s adoption, according to the memoir of Ji Juemi, 279 was to have a male descendant so that she wouldn’t become a hungry and wandering ghost after she passed away.

It was not until when Silas A. Hardoon was around seventy years old that he and his wife decided to adopt foreign children as well. Foreign children in the Hardoon family enjoyed a higher status in the family hierarchy and the two eldest sons were the official inheritors of Hardoon’s real estate empire. They first adopted Nora in 1919, then next year David George, followed by Reuben Victor, Madeline, Louis, and Maple. Then there were also Duphney, Eva, the twins of Emily and Leo, and Philip. Among them, Duphney and Philip were children of Jewish origin. All the foreign children adopted by Silas A Hardoon were supposed to be brought up as Jews and receive Jewish education. Hardoon in his last will also made it clear that, “I hereby declare that I desire that my adopted children…shall be brought up in the Jewish faith.”

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/92898/GONG-DI...