A Bittersweet Love – Jews and Shanghai

Jul 25, 2023 by Two Sues On the Aisle

By Sue Weston and Susan Rosenbluth –  Two Sues On The Aisle

The Jewish connection to Shanghai is complicated. Shanghai located on China’s central coast, was known as “The Paris of the East, the New York of the West” during the 1920s and 1930s. This city of contradictions struggled to survive the economic depression and war with Japan, barely balancing opportunities alongside opium, prostitution, and gambling. However, it was one of the few destinations offering safety for Jews fleeing Europe. Despite increasing resentment against the foreign presence, Jews flocked to Shanghai.

Author Weina Dai Randel offers her unique perspective, and insight into this rarely discussed relationship connecting these coexisting cultures.

Little Known Story

Randel, born in China moved to the United States at twenty-four, empowered with a profound understanding of Chinese culture, and a love for history.

Her masterfully developed stories are breathtakingly real, with a powerful punch.  They weave together heartbreak and joy as seen through the lens of human passion. Each character is faced with monumental decisions, layered with ethical implications and desperation. Her stories torn from little-known historical accounts show the best and the worst qualities of humanity, exploring the intoxication of power, love, and responsibility.

Jewish Migration to Shanghai

Night Angels is a historical fiction based on the story of Dr. Ho Fengshan, consul general of China, posted in Vienna. Ho, singlehandedly disobeyed orders to maintain amicable relations with the Third Reich. He took it upon himself to issue thousands of visas allowing Jews to escape Vienna. His decision was complicated by cultural norms. As an Asian diplomat, Ho was trained to obey, and respect authority. But Ho was also a man with a conscience that propelled him to act honorably and save Jewish lives.

The situation in 1938 Vienna defied logic. Ho witnessed systematic dehumanization and brutality. He viewed this as an affront to the cultured Vienna society, which became personal when his American wife, Grace was caught and detained with her Jewish tutor, Lola Schnitzler. After Kristallnacht violence against Jews escalated, conditions worsened, and Nazi threats mounted. Dr. Ho, unable to sit idle began issuing exit visas. Ho’s actions earned him a place in history as a Righteous Gentile but cost him his career.

We were enthralled by Dr. and Mrs. Ho’s commitment to remaining human, and finding a way to respectfully defy the Nazis, and help others survive.

Night Angels is a compelling story of right over might.

Cross-cultural Connection

The Last Rose of Shanghai shares an unfamiliar story of the Jews who immigrated to Shanghai. It is a love story between a Chinese woman Aiyi Shao, a young heiress turned nightclub owner. Aiyi’s actions defy the cultural norms and traditional roles in 1940 Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Aiyi is entangled in a prearranged marriage to a controlling powerful man, who believes in traditional roles and disapproves of her career.

Then Aiyi meets Ernest Reismann a penniless Jewish refugee from Germany. Ernest, an accomplished musician, and a recent immigrant to Shanghai who finds it impossible for a Jewish foreigner to find employment.

The two develop a strong connection thru music and shared values and the need to be accepted. Weighted down by the complexities of their situations. They find comfort in jazz, “Jazz makes us feel alive; it helps us forget about reality. Classical music is different; it’s about remembering.”

This is not a traditional love story, but one of the complications. One subplot involves Sir Victor Sassoon – a Jewish photographer and nightclub owner forced to flee as the Japanese soldiers occupy Shanghai.

The story unfolds backward, beginning in 1980 with Aiyi ‘an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and a troubled woman’ returning to the Peace Hotel in Shanghai in a wheelchair to make a documentary. Filling in the pieces, like a jigsaw puzzle everything fits together in the most unlikely way.

A Difficult Shared Perspective

We relate to these stories from a Jewish perspective. These are complicated stories blending the oppression of the Chinese who were oppressed by their Japanese overlords, offering parallels to the Nazi regime in Vienna. Randel introduces our shared history, through people whose paths crossed briefly, but left a permanent impression.

Randel develops strong female leads who are complex. These women are intelligent, with inner strength and persistence, which makes their stories resonate. She offers a window into the Chinese families and diplomats and the rules they lived by. Sharing the atrocities carried out with callous indifference, Nazis in Vienna, and the Japanese in Shanghai, we were drawn to the characters’ struggles, hungry to read more. Both books are tragic love stories, ending with a connection between the past, and the present.

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Two Sues on the Aisle bases its ratings on how many challahs (1-5) it pays to buy (rather than make) in order to see the play, show, film, book, or exhibit being reviewed. 

Night Angles & The Last Rose of Shanghai -received a four Challah rating