Jewish Past and Colonial Shanghai: Trade, Treaty-Port, and Transitive Modernity
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JEWISH PAST AND COLONIAL SHANGHAI: TRADE, TREATY-PORT, AND TRANSITIVE MODERNITY BY JIN GONG DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in East Asian Languages and Cultures in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Dan Shao, Chair Professor Poshek Fu Professor Eugene Avrutin Professor Kai-wing Chow ii Abstract This dissertation explores the transnational and colonial encounters of Sephardic Jews and Chinese in treaty-port Shanghai by examining 1) the Jewish networks of capital, goods, and market; 2) Jewish elites and their political activism; 3) transnational legal and political status of Sephardic Jewish elites in Shanghai and 4) Jewish cultural heritage in Shanghai. A central argument of this work is that as an expatriate business community living in treaty-port Shanghai, Sephardic Jews took advantage of the British colonial system to achieve wealth and at the same time established extensive contacts with the Chinese in Shanghai. As a result, they deeply influenced Shanghai’s economic, political and social institutions and rhythms of life. Using both Chinese and English archival resources, a wide range of Chinese and English language newspapers and periodicals, this study contributes new materials and analyses to three areas of scholarly research: the modern history of Shanghai, Jewish diaspora in port-cities, and colonial studies in China. Ultimately, the purpose of this study is twofold: to document the economic/social encounters of Jews and Chinese in a colonial context and to examine the urbanization and modernization process of Shanghai itself as a result of this encounter. iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my deepest appreciation and thanks to my advisor and committee chair, Professor Shao Dan, who has supported me throughout my academic research and scholarship. When this work was still in its embryonic stage, Professor Shao’s spirit of adventure convinced me to pursue the topic further. While I was in the middle of my archival research and initial stages of writing, she offered me suggestions that redirected my focus and helped me wisely use my limited resources as a graduate student. As I was completing my work, she read every chapter meticulously and provided me useful comments and feedback. Without Professor Shao’s guidance and persistent help, this dissertation would not have been possible. I would also like to thank my committee members, Professor Eugene Avrutin, Professor Poshek Fu, and Professor Kai-wing Chow. They generously took their time reviewing my draft and provided me comments and suggestions during my research and writing. In addition, they also gave me academic career advice when I began to explore the job market. I am grateful for their valuable guidance. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends who contributed to this project. And to John, thanks for your generous and loving support. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………………1 CHAPTER 1: CHINESE MARKETS, JEWISH MERCHANTS AND TREATY-PORT ECONOMY—SASSOON FIRMS IN SHANGHAI…………………………………………...31 CHAPTER 2: JEWISH ELITES, SOCIAL NETWORKS AND THE COMMUNAL POLITICS IN TREATY-PORT SHANGHAI………………………………………………………………78 CHAPTER 3: HARDOON WILL/INHERITANCE CASE—LEGAL STATUS OF EXTRATERRITORIAL JEWS IN SEMI-COLONIAL SHANGHAI…………………………126 CHAPTER 4: HERITAGE, MEMORY AND POLITICS—IN SEARCH OF JEWISH PAST IN SHANGHAI…………………………………………………………………………………….168 EPILOGUE……………………………………………………………………………………..220 BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………………230 1 Introduction Walking on the Bund in Shanghai today, one is impressed by the many architectural landmarks overlooking the Huangpu River. Among these buildings, the Fairmont Peace Hotel, built as Sassoon House and called The Cathay Hotel before 1949, is considered the crowning achievement (Figure 1). Its severe yet elegant ferroconcrete facade topped by a green pyramid roof has been a stunning landmark on the Bund for over 80 years. However, few people know of the deeper connections that this building has with the city of Shanghai. As architectural historian Jon W. Huebner points out, this 12-story hotel built in the Gothic style of the Chicago School, with its granite exterior and copper-sheathed roof, “conveyed the optimism of an expatriate business community which established an enduring presence in Shanghai under the social and economic order which had been created by extraterritoriality.”1 The business community that Huebner describes is that of the Sephardic Jews who lived in Shanghai for over a century beginning in the mid-1800s, and who are the subject of this dissertation project. During the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries, three waves of Jewish immigrants came to Shanghai. These waves of immigration comprised Jews from various national, social, economic, political and cultural backgrounds. The Sephardic Jews were among the earliest foreign settlers in Shanghai since its opening as a treaty port in 1843. Since the mid- 19th century, Sephardic Jews from Baghdad, Iraq and its adjacent areas in the Ottoman Empire started moving eastward to British India and further to South Asian countries such as Malaysia, 1 Jon W. Huebner, “Architecture on the Shanghai Bund,” Papers on Far Eastern History, Vol. 39, (March 1989):127-166. 2 Java, Singapore, Myanmar and Philippines. After the First Opium War in 1842, with the British expansion in China, the weakening of anti-Semitism in the British Empire and the renunciation of the monopoly of trade by the East India Company, Sephardic Jews began to form a well- integrated “trade diaspora” that stretched from British Bombay to Hong Kong and Shanghai with London as its European base.2 Along with this trade diaspora, Sephardic Jews in Shanghai established a living community in the International Settlement of Shanghai that was known for its own communal institutions, economic prosperity, and vibrant cultural life. By 1874, there were more than two dozen Baghdadi Sephardic Jews employed by the Sassoon Company.3 They made up of the core population of the Shanghai Jewish community. By the 1880s, many of these former Sassoon 2 Chiara Betta in her study of “The Trade Diaspora of Baghdadi Jews: From Ottoman Baghdad to China’s treaty Ports, 1843-1931” states that there is a continuity of Jewish networks within the framework of the British Empire. She uses the term “trade diaspora” even though, in the last part of the 19th century, trade diasporas tended to disappear as a result of the westernization of commerce and the consequent creation of large ecumenical trade zones. Her article describes in detail the trade network that Baghdadi Jews established during this time period. My work will elaborate it more in the first chapter through the examination of the Sassoon Company’s opium trade. 3 The history of the Baghdadi Sephardic Jews in Shanghai could be traced back to the time when the Sassoons, Baghdad’s most eminent Jewish family, extended their trade network to treaty port Shanghai during the mid-19th century. In 1844 shortly after the Opium War, Elias David Sassoon (1820-1880) came to Shanghai and established David Sassoon and Sons & Co. (“Old Sassoon Group”) in 1845. Soon after, a steady flow of Sephardic Jewish clerks and their families joined the Sassoons in Shanghai. The history of the Jewish immigrants’ settlement in Shanghai thus began. Elias David Sassoon’s grandson, Victor Sassoon (1881-1961), established a new branch of the Sassoon company, E.D. Sassoon & Co., Ltd. in 1920, also called “New Sassoon Group.” 3 employees had developed their own independent businesses and thus expanded the Sephardic Jewish population in Shanghai. According to one estimate, by 1895 there were approximately 175 Sephardic Jews living in Shanghai, most of whom were employed in the opium and cotton businesses.4 By the early 20th century, the number of Sephardic Jews in Shanghai had grown to between 800 and 1,000. They were later joined by Ashkenazic Jewish immigrants from Russia in the late 19th century and Jewish refugees from Central Europe during WWII to form the largest Jewish community in the Far East. 5 Taking advantage of close connections with their business partners in British-ruled areas, Sephardic Jews acquired wealth quickly by first developing a robust import and export trade. Later they invested in real estate, public utilities and manufacturing and became the most active industrial and commercial-financial group in Shanghai. During the 1920s and 1930s, Sephardic Jews owned almost half of the shopping, business and residential districts and private estates in 4 Jacob B. Abraham B. Sudea , “Die Juden in China,” Monatsschrift fur Geschichte und Wissenschaft des Judenthums, 39 (1895): 327-31. 5 Maisie J. Meyer. From the Rivers of Babylon to the Whangpoo—A Century of Sephardi Jewish Life in Shanghai. (London & New York: University of America, Inc. 2003),12. There are various other secondary resources that provide information about the Sephardic Jewish population in Shanghai at the turn of the 20th century. Jacob B Abraham in his book Jews in China estimated that by 1895, there were around 175 Baghdadi Sephardic Jews living in Shanghai who were mostly involved in opium and cotton trade business. By 1900, there were at least 800 Baghdadi Sephardic Jews living in Shanghai. The whole population of Jews in Shanghai by WWII had reached more than 20, 000 because of the incoming the large numbers of Jewish refugees from central Europe. 4 the city.6 The political and social outlook of the Sephardic Jewish community was deeply influenced by the strong position of the British Empire in the Far East. During WWI, most of the Sephardic Jewish elites in Shanghai renounced their Ottoman nationality and obtained British protection under the British mandate.7 The community was also known for its well-established political and communal institutions, as well as its active involvement in the politics in and out of the foreign settlements in treaty-port Shanghai.