HANNAH ROVNER (visual art management) writes:
Whew, it’s raining heavily today, just got back from lunch and a tour of Jewish Shanghai.
Despite the weather the tour was great, and our tour guide Dvir Bar Gal is an expert on the subject; he knew the ins and outs of every neighborhood we toured.
The Jewish people have a relatively short but very interesting history in Shanghai. Dvir explained that the migration of Jewish people to Shanghai is divided up into three major waves. The first was a movement of Iraqi Jews shortly after the Opium War in 1839, which brought over two of Shanghai’s most famous families, the Sassoons and the Kadooris. The second would be Sfardic, or mostly Russian Jews escaping the Pogroms. And the third would be the at least 20,000 Jewish refugees during WWII.
Shanghai was an easy place for people to take refuge due to its open port policy, which meant that anyone could enter without a visa or passport. It was good for business and good for refuges. (It was also good for mobsters and criminals. But that’s another story.)
As with much of the architectural history of Shanghai, the physical history of the Jews of Shanghai is also disappearing due to urban development. Dvir is working with several others to rescue the disappearing neighborhoods where the Jews of Shanghai once lived.
While the Chinese government does not officially recognize Judaism as a state religion, according to Dvir, there is a thriving Jewish population of almost 3,000 in Shanghai today. As he puts it, even though the government does not condone the practice of Judaism, it is practical and is willing to overlook it.
Throughout my trip I’ve noticed this constant struggle over preservation and development. Gentrification is not just a problem in Chicago; it's a problem all over the world.
In China it appears to be even more intensified. Architects put their best efforts into preserving traditional forms by incorporating theses motifs into new buildings, such as the Shanghai Museum. But in the crush to bring the new, places such as the Jewish Ghetto and other monumental buildings along the Bund are being lost. It will be interesting to see the skyline of Shanghai a year from now, and I wonder what will be the fate of these historic landmarks several years from now.
Hannah Rovner is a senior visual arts management major.
