Kings of Shanghai Kindle Edition
by Jonathan Kaufman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 2,325
#1 Best Seller in History of Hong Kong
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Great on Kindle
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'A masterpiece of research, The Last Kings of Shanghai is a vivid and fascinating story of wealth, family intrigue, and political strategy on the world stage from colonialism to communism to globalized capitalism' Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era
Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city's famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon - billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty - the hotel hosts a who's who of global celebrities: Noel Coward has written a draft of Private Lives in his suite, Charlie Chaplin entertained his wife-to-be, and the American socialite Wallis Simpson reportedly posed for 'glamour' photographs. A few miles away, Mao and the nascent Communist party have been plotting revolution before being forced to flee the city.
By the 1930s, the Sassoons had been doing business in China for a century, rivaled in wealth and influence by only one other dynasty - the Kadoories. These two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than one hundred and seventy five years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and nearly losing everything as the Communists swept into power. In Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families ignited an economic boom and opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil on their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue and survival.
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Language
English
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Review
"The Last Kings of Shanghai is not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history."--LA Review of Books
"Engrossing . . . Kaufman is an old China hand based on stints with the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal, so he brings a reporter's eye for stories as a way of explaining so much more . . . It's a story that will excite readers."--Forbes
"The Last Kings of Shanghai examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties. In the end, if not in the beginning, they were, as Kaufman puts it, 'on the wrong side of history.' But now, thanks to him, they are at least part of history."--The Boston Globe
"A multigenerational epic of the Sassoon and Kadoorie dynasties, which rightly takes business out of the shadows and puts it at the heart of modern China's history . . . The author entertainingly contrasts the undisciplined Sassoons with the strict approach of Kadoorie and his sons Lawrence and Horace . . . The book is excellent too on China's tumultuous history . . . This work does a great service in putting business at the heart of a key development -- China's re-emergence. --Financial Times
"Few histories have been written about the Sassoons and Kadoories in part because the families didn't welcome the attention . . . Kaufman visited an impressive roster of archives to uncover new details."--The Wall Street Journal
"Illuminating . . . It is surely not the end of the story."--The Economist
"The Last Kings of Shanghai reminds us of that time in captivating detail, and even more surprising, reveals that those "last kings" were displaced Jews from Baghdad who mastered Great Britain's tools of empire." --Airmail.com
"Kaufman writes with style and strikes a careful balance between holding the families accountable for their "colonial assumptions" and celebrating their accomplishments. This richly detailed account illuminates an underexamined overlap between modern Jewish and Chinese history."--Publishers Weekly
"An absorbing multigenerational saga . . . of two significant Jewish families who built wildly prosperous financial empires in Shanghai and Hong Kong that lasted for nearly two centuries . . . Kaufman argues persuasively that their entrepreneurial drive built a lasting capitalist legacy in the country."--Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating look at two powerful dynasties as well as a sharp lens through which to view Shanghai's ups and downs."--Booklist
"What's even less likely than a clan of displaced Baghdadi Jews who find themselves in twentieth-century Shanghai and change it forever? Try two clans of displaced Baghdadi Jews. This is the tale that Jonathan Kaufman tells in his remarkable history of the Sassoon and Kadoorie families. Read it and the Bund will never look the same."--Peter Hessler, author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze and Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China
"With exacting research and masterful prose, Kaufman excavates the tremendous influence of two Jewish families, both with roots in Baghdad, on China's layered and complex modern history. An astonishing read, on every level. "--Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones
"Jonathan Kaufman shows how the families of Sassoon and Kadoorie surfed the vicissitudes of history to dominate their chosen arenas commercially and socially. They were indeed 'Kings', but it was the great city of Shanghai that was to both make and break them." --Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking and City of Devils
"Gripping and epic in sweep, The Last Kings of Shanghai reads like a thriller but is also enormously informative, offering a vibrant history of the cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong through the fascinating lens of two rival Jewish dynasties that helped shape them." --Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes
"Jonathan Kaufman mines a rich vein of untold history that knits together the Jewish diaspora with the stirrings of Revolution in modern China. The improbable saga of the Sassoon family reads like an eastern and Sephardic companion to the story of the Warburgs--a saga both personal and political, riveting and ultimately heartbreaking. And in Kaufman's always-deft hands, it's a terrific read."--Roger Lowenstein, author of America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve
"Kaufman brings to life the extraordinary forgotten history of two Jewish families who helped transform China into a global economic powerhouse. A masterpiece of research, The Last Kings of Shanghai is a vivid and fascinating story of wealth, family intrigue, and political strategy on the world stage from colonialism to communism to globalized capitalism."--Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
Review
This heady era is brought vividly to life in Jonathan Kaufman's Kings of Shanghai - a multigenerational epic of the Sassoon and Kadoorie dynasties, which rightly takes business out of the shadows and puts it at the heart of modern China's history. The book is excellent too on China's tumultuous history - the pernicious colonial influence, the collapse of Imperial China, and the Communist Revolution, which swept away both families' Shanghai holdings. Victor Sassoon never recovered but the Kadoories had hedged their bets and invested early enough in Hong Kong to start again. Kaufman deserves praise for highlighting a story that ought to be better known - Financial Times
Read more
Product details
ASIN : B07T6XQ4H1
Publisher : Little, Brown Book Group (2 June 2020)
Language : English
File size : 6735 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 386 pages
Best Sellers Rank: 8,572 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
1 in History of Hong Kong
3 in History of China
6 in Middle Eastern History (Kindle Store)
Customer Reviews: 4.5 out of 5 stars 2,325
Jonathan Kaufman
4.32
184 ratings17 reviews
Kings of Shanghai tells the story of two Jewish families - the Sassoons and the Kadoories - who immigrated to China in the mid nineteenth century and became dynasties of a sort, standing astride Chinese business and politics for more than 175 years. The Kadoories were aristocrats while the Sassoons were essentially royalty, overseeing and governing the Jewish community in Baghdad across many generations. Forced to flee in the nineteenth century, the Sassoons spread out over central Asia, with two sons going to Shanghai following the Opium Wars to establish a business empire that would launch them into the upper echelons of the British establishment. The Kadoories followed soon after, their patriarch Elly first working for the Sassoons and then, after being fired, establishing a rival and equally successful trading company of his own. Jonathan Kaufman traces the intersecting stories of the two families over the course of the next century as they gathered strength and influence through the Taiping and Boxer rebellions, weathered the fall of the emperor, blossomed during the Jazz Age and civil war, and resisted Japan's brutal occupation and the ensuing Communist takeover. Kings of Shanghai is at once the intimate story of two families and a sweeping account of how modern Shanghai was born.
GenresNonfictionChinaHistory
400 pages, Hardcover
Published April 2, 2020
Kings of Shanghai Kindle Edition
by Jonathan Kaufman (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.5 out of 5 stars 2,325
#1 Best Seller in History of Hong Kong
See all formats and editions
Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
'A masterpiece of research, The Last Kings of Shanghai is a vivid and fascinating story of wealth, family intrigue, and political strategy on the world stage from colonialism to communism to globalized capitalism' Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era
Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city's famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon - billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty - the hotel hosts a who's who of global celebrities: Noel Coward has written a draft of Private Lives in his suite, Charlie Chaplin entertained his wife-to-be, and the American socialite Wallis Simpson reportedly posed for 'glamour' photographs. A few miles away, Mao and the nascent Communist party have been plotting revolution before being forced to flee the city.
By the 1930s, the Sassoons had been doing business in China for a century, rivaled in wealth and influence by only one other dynasty - the Kadoories. These two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than one hundred and seventy five years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and nearly losing everything as the Communists swept into power. In Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families ignited an economic boom and opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil on their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue and survival.
Read less
Print length
386 pages
======
Product description
Review
"The Last Kings of Shanghai is not just a brilliant, well-researched, and highly readable book about China's past, it also reveals the contingencies and ironic twists of fate in China's modern history."--LA Review of Books
"Engrossing . . . Kaufman is an old China hand based on stints with the Boston Globe and the Wall Street Journal, so he brings a reporter's eye for stories as a way of explaining so much more . . . It's a story that will excite readers."--Forbes
"The Last Kings of Shanghai examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties. In the end, if not in the beginning, they were, as Kaufman puts it, 'on the wrong side of history.' But now, thanks to him, they are at least part of history."--The Boston Globe
"A multigenerational epic of the Sassoon and Kadoorie dynasties, which rightly takes business out of the shadows and puts it at the heart of modern China's history . . . The author entertainingly contrasts the undisciplined Sassoons with the strict approach of Kadoorie and his sons Lawrence and Horace . . . The book is excellent too on China's tumultuous history . . . This work does a great service in putting business at the heart of a key development -- China's re-emergence. --Financial Times
"Few histories have been written about the Sassoons and Kadoories in part because the families didn't welcome the attention . . . Kaufman visited an impressive roster of archives to uncover new details."--The Wall Street Journal
"Illuminating . . . It is surely not the end of the story."--The Economist
"The Last Kings of Shanghai reminds us of that time in captivating detail, and even more surprising, reveals that those "last kings" were displaced Jews from Baghdad who mastered Great Britain's tools of empire." --Airmail.com
"Kaufman writes with style and strikes a careful balance between holding the families accountable for their "colonial assumptions" and celebrating their accomplishments. This richly detailed account illuminates an underexamined overlap between modern Jewish and Chinese history."--Publishers Weekly
"An absorbing multigenerational saga . . . of two significant Jewish families who built wildly prosperous financial empires in Shanghai and Hong Kong that lasted for nearly two centuries . . . Kaufman argues persuasively that their entrepreneurial drive built a lasting capitalist legacy in the country."--Kirkus Reviews
"A fascinating look at two powerful dynasties as well as a sharp lens through which to view Shanghai's ups and downs."--Booklist
"What's even less likely than a clan of displaced Baghdadi Jews who find themselves in twentieth-century Shanghai and change it forever? Try two clans of displaced Baghdadi Jews. This is the tale that Jonathan Kaufman tells in his remarkable history of the Sassoon and Kadoorie families. Read it and the Bund will never look the same."--Peter Hessler, author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze and Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time in China
"With exacting research and masterful prose, Kaufman excavates the tremendous influence of two Jewish families, both with roots in Baghdad, on China's layered and complex modern history. An astonishing read, on every level. "--Georgia Hunter, author of We Were the Lucky Ones
"Jonathan Kaufman shows how the families of Sassoon and Kadoorie surfed the vicissitudes of history to dominate their chosen arenas commercially and socially. They were indeed 'Kings', but it was the great city of Shanghai that was to both make and break them." --Paul French, author of Midnight in Peking and City of Devils
"Gripping and epic in sweep, The Last Kings of Shanghai reads like a thriller but is also enormously informative, offering a vibrant history of the cities of Shanghai and Hong Kong through the fascinating lens of two rival Jewish dynasties that helped shape them." --Amy Chua, author of Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother and Political Tribes
"Jonathan Kaufman mines a rich vein of untold history that knits together the Jewish diaspora with the stirrings of Revolution in modern China. The improbable saga of the Sassoon family reads like an eastern and Sephardic companion to the story of the Warburgs--a saga both personal and political, riveting and ultimately heartbreaking. And in Kaufman's always-deft hands, it's a terrific read."--Roger Lowenstein, author of America's Bank: The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve
"Kaufman brings to life the extraordinary forgotten history of two Jewish families who helped transform China into a global economic powerhouse. A masterpiece of research, The Last Kings of Shanghai is a vivid and fascinating story of wealth, family intrigue, and political strategy on the world stage from colonialism to communism to globalized capitalism."--Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College
Review
This heady era is brought vividly to life in Jonathan Kaufman's Kings of Shanghai - a multigenerational epic of the Sassoon and Kadoorie dynasties, which rightly takes business out of the shadows and puts it at the heart of modern China's history. The book is excellent too on China's tumultuous history - the pernicious colonial influence, the collapse of Imperial China, and the Communist Revolution, which swept away both families' Shanghai holdings. Victor Sassoon never recovered but the Kadoories had hedged their bets and invested early enough in Hong Kong to start again. Kaufman deserves praise for highlighting a story that ought to be better known - Financial Times
Read more
Product details
ASIN : B07T6XQ4H1
Publisher : Little, Brown Book Group (2 June 2020)
Language : English
File size : 6735 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
Print length : 386 pagesBest Sellers Rank: 8,572 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)1 in History of Hong Kong
3 in History of China
6 in Middle Eastern History (Kindle Store)Customer Reviews:
4.5 out of 5 stars 2,325
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Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer
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November 17, 2021
Easy-to-read biography of two merchant-trader families (both Jewish families originating from Baghdad) – the Sassoons and the Kadoories and which interacts with the history of Shanghai (and later Hong Kong) thtough the 19th and 20th Centuries and into the 21st Century.
2021
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Prathamesh Sharma
22 reviews
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October 31, 2021
Much of the book covers the Jewish history of Shanghai and revolves around the rise of 2 Baghdadi Jewish families that made Shanghai the most cosmopolitan city of the East at that time. It is gut wrenching too read about the plight of the Jews, from the 19th century explusion from Iran to the rise of nazism in Germany. The book also covers the rise of these Exiled Personalities and throws much needed light on the Anti-semintic behavior and policies that were prevailing at that time.
Better still, it is the Jewish Business acumen that the book covers in dept and with glory.
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Diane James
48 reviews1 follower
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July 5, 2022
I really enjoyed this book. Fascinating and lucid account of two Jewish families, the Sasoons and the Kadoories, who emigrated to China in the mid 19th century and went on to acquire immense wealth and prestige. Both families originated in Baghdad and fled Iraq as anti-semitism was on the rise, although Jews had lived in the land for over 800 years. The story of these families is narrated with rich historical background, to include the opium wars, turn of the century life in China, war with Japan, WWII and rise of communism, all of which makes this book a tremendous read.
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Ludovico Benazzo
35 reviews
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August 10, 2023
The book is well written and incredibly insightful about the history of Shanghai and Hong Kong since their early days. Rich in details and historical references, it offers an inside view and a different perspective on some of the historical events that shaped China and its relations with western countries.
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T.P. Williams
173 reviews2 followers
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July 11, 2021
Interesting account of the Sassoon and Kadoorie families in Shanghai and Hong Kong. I enjoyed reading about the founding of the families and their involvement in the opium trade (sound familiar) as a basis of their stupendous wealth. The author quite properly discusses this as a type of wrap up at the end of the book. Of course at the time of their entry into the trade, it was legal (as was Andrew Carnegie's use of "insider information" obtained as a telegraph operator). I will say while I found it to be mostly evenhanded, I never really felt I got much insight into the characters of Victor Sassoon or of Lawrence or Horace Kadoorie. It seemed flat to this reader. I think structurally the book's weakness is in trying to do basically two biographies in one book - Victor and Lawrence. The portion describing Lawrence's efforts to modernize Hong Kong is pure hagiography. I also think the writer placed himself to much into the book, as he mentions his associations with China as a journalist on more than one occasion. I appreciated the manner in which the Jewishness of the leading characters was shown as a major element of their lives and especially the efforts of Victor to rescue European Jews in the 30's. Good stuff. However, I think author got off the track in claiming that as oppressed people, when Jews become super wealthy, they retain their liberal, social justice oriented outlook and support causes accordingly. Without giving examples. Why is author perpetuating a stereotype? Overall, a quick, decent and informative read.
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Yili Zhu
13 reviews
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November 25, 2023
This is an easy to read book. I guess one of the strength of journalists is that they are trained to write in simply and unsophisticated language. I imagine it would be difficult to piece together two families history over one and half century. Kaufman was able to construct many interesting stories out of this long period.
While there are a few minor errors in his description of China's historical events, it amazed me that the author was able to acquire so much knowledge of China and make sense of those events. His observation is also mostly free from western ideology and prejudice, and presented the stories of the two families in the backdrop of China's recent history in an objective and unbiased manner.
The two families appear to have fairly different moral guidance in building their empires. The Sassoons pursued opium trade to accumulate wealth while knowing fully well how they were harming the Chinese people and the society. The Kadoories on the other hand, were more sympathetic to the suffering of the Chinese people, and were willing to do more to help. Nevertheless, their pursuit of wealth over 150 years in Shanghai and Hong Kong has brought modern western civilisation into the backwater of the east Asia. This book has presented very well their impact on and contribution to Shanghai, Hong Kong, and to China.
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Jonathan
47 reviews1 follower
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February 27, 2024
Excellent book bringing together the history of two jewish business families and an alive summary of Shanghai and Hong Kong key historical events. An easy and pleasant read that is very well written and informative. Really enjoyed it.
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Jacqui
34 reviews
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September 22, 2021
Thoroughly enjoyed. Insight into an era in China I knew little about; and learning about the Opium Wars sheds light on how awful the imperialist West was to China.
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Janet
89 reviews
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May 2, 2022
Fascinating look at how the Sassoon and Kadoorie dynasties manipulated Shanghai and Hong Kong.
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Ana-Maria
42 reviews3 followers
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May 22, 2022
Easy to read overview of two impactul families on the life of shanghai. Gives a good glimpse on china history and colonialism developments in the area.
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Summary of Jonathan Kaufman's The Last Kings of Shanghai
By
IRB Media
About this ebook
Get the Summary of Jonathan Kaufman's The Last Kings of Shanghai in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: The book lays bare the moral compromises of the Kadoories and the Sassoons--and their exceptional foresight, success, and generosity. At the height of World War II, they joined together to rescue and protect eighteen thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism. Though their stay in China started out as a business opportunity, the country became a home they were reluctant to leave, even on the eve of revolution. The lavish buildings they built and the booming businesses they nurtured continue to define Shanghai and Hong Kong to this day. As the United States confronts China's rise, and China grapples with the pressures of breakneck modernization and global power, the long-hidden odysseys of the Sassoons and the Kadoories hold a key to understanding the present moment.
'The Last Kings Of Shanghai' Delves Into Role Of Competing Jewish Business Empires
A new book looks at how two Jewish families with massive business empires helped build modern China.
JUN 11, 2020 6 MINUTES
Remove from SavedRemove 'The Last Kings Of Shanghai' Delves Into Role Of Competing Jewish Business Empires from Saved
"The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China" by Jonathan Kaufman. (Courtesy)A new book looks at the history of China’s development and the important role played by two Jewish families with massive business empires.
Here & Now’s Robin Young speaks with Jonathan Kaufman, author of “The Last Kings of Shanghai: The Rival Jewish Dynasties That Helped Create Modern China.” He is also director of the journalism school at Northeastern University.
Book Excerpt: ‘The Last Kings Of Shanghai’
By Jonathan Kaufman
It was a muggy late-summer day in 1979 when I stepped out of the Shanghai heat into the cool marble lobby of the Peace Hotel.
I was twenty-three years old, a fledgling foreign correspondent on assignment. The United States had just established diplomatic relations with China after thirty years of the Cold War. China had begun opening itself to the world. The hotel sat on a curve of the Bund, the pedestrian promenade that runs along the busy Huangpu River waterfront. Its façade, like the prow of a mighty ship, jutted toward the sea, anchoring a skyline of art deco buildings that overlooked the river below. China was preserved in amber, circa 1949, the year the Communists seized power and “liberated” the country from capitalism and foreign invasions. Everything was cast in black and white. No billboards or advertising or colorful storefronts enlivened the streets. Sturdy, thick, black-framed bicycles thronged the roadways, interrupted occasionally by boxy black roadsters.
Chinese men and women alike wore white shirts and stiff dark-blue Mao suits draped over their frames. All the clothes looked one size too big. For thirty years, China had been cut off from the world, certainly from most Americans.
If Shanghai back in 1979 was a black-and-white movie with stilted dialogue, stepping into the Peace Hotel was like entering a 1940s movie. In color. With French subtitles.
Chandeliers hung from the vaulted ceilings. Wall sconces ran along corridors leading from the lobby, illuminating the path to marble and carpeted stairways. Off in a corner, a poster advertised a nightly jazz band. I walked toward the bank of elevators. An elderly bellhop, dressed in white pants, a cropped white jacket, and a small white cap, stepped up to me.
“Puis‑je vous aider? Que voulez-vous voir?” Can I help you? What would you like to see?
“Je ne parle pas français,” I stammered back in long-forgotten high school French.
“Quel dommage,” he said with a smile. What a pity.
What was this place? What was this relic of European luxury—even hedonism—embalmed in a city, and a country, that thirty years of Communist totalitarianism had turned drab, egalitarian, regimented, and a little kooky?
A decade passed before I visited Shanghai again. It was 1989, a few days after the Tiananmen Square massacre that killed hundreds of students in Beijing and sent the rest of China into shock and armed lockdown. I spent much of my time speaking furtively to students and other Chinese. One of the few official visits I was allowed was a tour of the “Children’s Palace.” I knew it would be an innocuous and obviously staged contrast to the anger that was seething outside: Chinese children playing piano and taking ballet lessons—a forced normalcy.
I was right about the propaganda, but the “palace” overwhelmed me. It was a European-style mansion, a “great house” that wouldn’t have been out of place on the outskirts of Paris or London: soaring ceilings and elaborate chandeliers, sumptuous room after sumptuous room with inlaid wooden floors, elegant wainscoting, and fireplaces. It felt like the home of a British noble family. That’s not surprising, my Chinese guide told me earnestly. For twenty-five years, from 1924 until the Communist takeover in 1949, it had been home to a rich British capitalist family—the Kadoories. I stopped.
The Kadoories? I knew from my time in Hong Kong that the Kadoories—led by Sir Lawrence Kadoorie—were one of the city’s richest and most powerful families, owners of the legendary Peninsula Hotel with its elegant lobby, afternoon teas, and exquisite—and expensive—rooms. The Kadoories also owned Hong Kong’s largest electric company. They were “taipans”—a leftover colonial term that conveyed power and money and roots that stretched back to the Opium Wars.
They weren’t just British. I knew, in fact, that they were Jewish. So too was the man who had built the Peace Hotel that soared over the Bund—Victor Sassoon.
A few years my reporting took me to a neighborhood away from the waterfront and away from the hustle and bustle of the business districts. On a street corner, I spotted two elderly Chinese women picking over fruit at a nearby market. They looked old enough that they might remember Shanghai before the Communists conquered the city in 1949.
I went up to them and, with the help of my Chinese assistant, explained that I was visiting the old synagogue building. Before “Liberation,” as the Chinese called the Communists’ 1949 victory, Jews might have lived in this neighborhood. Did they remember that?
“Have you come back for the furniture?” one of the women asked brightly.
“What do you mean?” I asked, baffled.
She heaved two sacks of groceries into her arms and, declining my offer to help carry them, brusquely directed us across the street and up a flight of stairs to the one room where she lived. It had clearly been part of a larger apartment at one time. Now it was chopped up into a series of rooms with dividers of plywood and fabric to accommodate a half-dozen families. A mahogany double bed clearly predating World War II took up one corner of the room, a companion chest of drawers next to it.
“The Jewish people, they lived here,” she said. “Then they left.
They left the furniture.” I quickly conferred with my Chinese assistant. Did she mean the Jews had been taken away, deported by the Chinese or the Japanese? Taken to camps or made to disappear or killed?
No, no, the woman explained. “They lived here during the war. After Liberation, the Jews stayed for a while, then they left. For Israel, for Palestine. Far away.” She pointed again at the mahogany bed and chest.
“Have you come back for the furniture?”
In a sense, I guess I had.
From THE LAST KINGS OF SHANGHAI by Jonathan Kaufman, published by Viking, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2020 by Jonathan Kaufman.
This article was originally published on WBUR.org.
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