Chinese Perspectives on the Jews of China
Keywords:
Jewish presence in China, Jewish Studies, Chinese Jews, Shanghai, Tianjin, HarbinAbstract
This article approaches the theme of Jewish presence in China and provides a new point of view, as it tries to analyze such presence through a Chinese perspective. After the Opium Wars, foreign communities established concessions in open port cities, and among them were an important number of Jews. The most relevant Jewish communities were located in the open-port cities of Shanghai and Tianjin and in the former Russian city of Harbin.
The Jewish world has always praised China for the help received after the Russian Revolution and especially in the wake of Nazism in Europe, but academic and political recognition of this history occurred especially in conjunction with the beginning of the diplomatic relations of the PRC and the State of Israel in 1992. New interest in the Jews of China was again produced as a side effect by the “Belt and Road Initiative” in recent years. As this piece of history tends to be exploited by both parties when particular needs arise, we are left wondering how the Chinese average man considers the Jewish past of its country. For such purpose the article analyses the results of a survey conducted to Chinese nationals who were asked to reflect upon Jewish presence in their homeland. Doing so, the article tries to understand how many people in China are aware of its Jewish past and what kind of consideration they have of it.
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