No Exit: David Marshall and the Last Jews of Shanghai
David Marshall, Singapore's first Chief Minister, visited China in 1956, and became the man who got the last Jews out of China. On Sunday November 20, we heard from Marina Shlau Cunningham, a member of one of those Jewish families who was here until 1957. It's quite a story. (For the event recording, click here.) Who's ...
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Book Review: Witness to History: From Vienna to Shanghai: A Memoir of Escape, Survival and Resilience
by Susan Blumberg-Kason / In his new (but posthumous) memoir, Shanghai Jewish refugee Paul Hoffmann writes about his three most tumultuous experiences. One was enduring six months of Nazi Vienna, the other the terror inflicted by Sargent Kano Ghoya in the Shanghai Jewish Ghetto, and the third life under the new Chinese ...
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The Creative Ambiguity of the Shanghai Communiqué
February 2024 - This month marks the 52nd anniversary of the signing of the 1972 Shanghai Communiqué, on February 27, the world-startling diplomatic letter that marked the beginning of the rapprochement between the People’s Republic of China and the United States. The communiqué was signed on February 27, at the end of a ...
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1972 Nixon Visit: How Shanghai Changed, 1946-72
Fifty-two years ago this month, on February 21, 1972, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon flew into Shanghai on a landmark trip that would lead to the Shanghai Communique, signalling the beginning of a rapprochement between the United States and the People's Republic of China. America suddenly had China fever, and China ...
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Vintage Shanghai Comedy: “Da Li, Xiao Li & Lao Li 大李，小李和老李“
There are so many reasons to love this 1962 screwball comedy, our Historic Shanghai Film Club selection for February – let us count the ways: Scenes of 1960s Shanghai. You think images of 1930s Shanghai are rare? Try 1962, the year the Great Leap Forward ended. This is a rare film documentation of the period, ...
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School Above the Sea: Shanghai Municipal Council Polytechnic Public School
The Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC) Polytechnic, or Gezhi Academy, was founded in 1874, and remarkably, this pioneering institution, with its links to missionaries, reformers, scientists, and revolutionaries, is still going strong. Today, it’s the Shanghai Gezhi High School. In 2005, I was privileged to meet two ...
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The Forgotten Bride in the Shanghai Lane
We found her in a lane called Chusan Liegh (Zhoushan Li 舟山弄), in the old Jewish ghetto. Who was she, this elegant bride wearing heart-shaped earrings and a fairytale wedding gown? Why was she left here? Who would leave a wedding portrait behind? The lane, on Zhoushan Lu in Hongkou, stands in the shadow of the ...
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