The character of Lotus, like many elements from the film Cleopatra, is a modern fabrication. But is it possible that a Chinese person could have been present in Cleopatra's court? Maybe, but it would have been a difficult journey.

Cleopatra's court was exceptionally diverse. This was both a consequence of the size of the Ptolemaic Empire (at its height it stretched from modern day Sudan, to parts of Greece and the Levant), and of royal policy. Ptolemaic propaganda boasted about the various peoples represented in the royal court, and in the diversity of the nations that paid homage to them. The presence of courtiers, officials and servants from far and wide broadcasted the size and power of the empire.

In the 1st Century BCE, this certainly included peoples from Arabia, East Africa and Central Asia. Through direct maritime trade, Egypt also had close ties to India and Sri Lanka.

Ptolemaic maritime trade with Asia is well documented. One of the most important trade routes was the route to India, through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. At first, Greek and Egyptian traders relied on Arabian and Indian navigators, and most trade probably went through middlemen in port cities along the coast of Arabia and East Africa.

By the time Cleopatra was born, direct trade with India and Sri Lanka had been possible for about 20 years. Ptolemaic navigators had learned how to navigate monsoon winds to reach India and Sri Lanka directly. This meant that a ship could, for example, leave a city like Myos Hormos, Egypt and end up in what is now Pune, India. After cutting out the middleman, the volume of trade on the Red Sea exploded (although according to Pliny, Indian/Egyptian trade expanded fivefold after Egypt was conquered by Rome).

It became so important that the Ptolemaic dynasty created the office of the Strategos of the Red Sea (equal parts governor and general). Traditionally, a strategos was appointed over a province or territory, so it's telling that the Red Sea was considered to be equal in importance to a land territory.

It was necessary for the Ptolemaic dynasty to maintain a fleet with the sole purpose of patrolling the Red Sea, due to interference from Nabatean pirates. These pirates harassed ships off the coast of Arabia and even engaged in larger conflicts with the Ptolemaic navy.

Someone from South Asia could well have found themselves in Alexandria and through chance or due to exceptional attributes, ended up serving Cleopatra.

For obvious reasons, most examples of Indians in Egypt were merchants. Port cities also often had more Indians and other South Asians than inland cities. Archaeologists have found notes on pottery from Roman era Myos Hormos that are marked with Tamil-Brahmin script and others written in Sanskrit.

The 1st Century CE orator Dio Chrysostom remarked on the diversity of the crowds which listened to him speak:

Ethiopians and Arabians from distant regions and Bactrians, Scythians, Persians and a few Indians all help to make up the audience

In Rome and Hellenistic kingdoms, enslaved people from distant regions like India and sub-Saharan Africa were sought after, due to their expensiveness and rarity as opposed to slaves from closer to home. Because of this, many foreign slaves became personal attendants since in some ways they acted as status symbols. This was as true in Cleopatra's court as anywhere else.

This doesn't really answer the question of how likely it is that a Chinese person might have ended up serving Cleopatra.

Archaeological evidence such as art with clear Hellenistic influences makes it seem likely that Greeks (probably from the Greco-Bactrian kingdoms or other Central Asian peripheral territories) paid homage to the Chinese emperor in the 5th or 4th Centuries BCE. This provides an early first date for contact between the Hellenistic world of Cleopatra and China.

One of the best clues about the extent of this trade was the Peripluy the 1st Century CE,was likely written by a Greek merchant with firsthand eiving Roman Periplus of the Red Sea CE. By the time the Periplus was created, Mediterranean trade with Burmese kingdoms had grown. The creator of the Periplus was aware that China existed, believing it to border on Burma.

Roman geographers had vague notions of what the South China Sea looked like, but it was definitely not familiar territory even 100 years after Cleopatra's death.

Being aware that something exists and being able to reach it are also far from the same thing. There is no evidence that Greek, Egyptian or Roman traders ever made it as far as China, or that Chinese merchants made it to the Mediterranean.

It is known that representatives from Rome made contact with China during the 2nd Century CE. Although no Roman record of this diplomatic visit has survived - no doubt due to the disarray Rome was in at the time - Chinese records of envoys from "Da Qin" document it.

This occurred some 300 years after Cleopatra died, but it's not impossible that Chinese people could have made the voyage long before an official state envoy made a trip to the Mediterranean. One prized item that made this journey was coveted by the Ptolemaic dynasty: silk. Chinese silk was much finer and hard to come by then the varieties of silk produced in the Mediterranean.

The silk trade was conducted through intermediaries in Central Asia, who received silk from Chinese traders, and passed it along the line until it reached the Mediterranean. Direct overland trade between China and the Mediterranean is not attested to during Cleopatra's lifetime. It does stand to reason though, that as goods could pass through this route, so too could a very well travelled person.

The skeleton of a man from the 1st or 2nd CE was unearthed in a graveyard in Vagnari, Italy. Analysis found that he had East Asian ancestry on his mother's side, although his exact origins are unknown. Someone like Lotus might well have been a slave, or the descendant of a slave.

Depending on her background, a woman from the Far East might have been able to work her way up in the hierarchy of royal servants. Many high-status slaves or freedmen are known to have enjoyed Cleopatra's favour, including the Sicilian Apollodorus and her handmaidens Charmian and Iras. Cleopatra herself was famously interested in learning foreign languages, and would no doubt have enjoyed the presence of a servant from the near-mythical East.

I hate to leave this so open ended, but there's still a lot we do not know. Cleopatra's reign is something of a black hole, as documents from her reign did not survive as well as those from earlier rulers. Similarly, the Ptolemaic Red Sea trade has not been as well studied as the Roman Red Sea trade. It could be that more evidence of Chinese interactions with the Mediterranean is out there, just waiting to be discovered.