A HISTORY OF CHINESE PERCEPTIONS OF THE ‘JEWS’ AND JUDAISM Zhou Xun A PhD Thesis SOAS University of London 1 /IsSX 110NDIH.J \UHIV/ ProQuest Number: 10672796 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10672796 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 ABSTRACT While prejudice against Jews has been regarded as a real and ongoing category in Western culture, little attention has been paid to the myths of the ‘Jews’ and their impact in countries outside the West. My work draws on a wide variety of source material from the past two centuries to examine the images of the ‘Jews’ as constructed in China. However, my interest here does not lie in the determination of the boundary between the real and fictional aspects of these images. Rather, it lies in the implications associated with the ‘Jew’ as an ‘other’, which remains a distant mirror in the construction of the ‘self’ amongst various social groups in modern China. In China, representations of the ‘Jews’ and Judaism are very complex. Although these representations seem to correspond to images of the ‘Jews’ in Europe, it would be superficial to reduce them to purely ‘Western influence’. Representations of the ‘Jews’ have been endowed with indigenous meaning by modernizing elites since the late nineteenth-century. Unlike anti-Semites of Europe who used the language of Jews as the mark of their inferiority, in China the difference of the ‘Jews’ has been marked by their ‘non-Chineseness’. By creating the ‘Jews’ as a homogenous group, which acts as a constitutive outsider which embodies all the negative, as well as positive qualities, which were feared or desired by various social groups in China, theses Chinese could thus identify themselves as a integrated reference group: a homogenous ‘in-group’. They are thus able to project their own anxieties onto outsiders like the ‘Jews’. In this respect, it corresponds to a widespread fear, as well as need of an ‘other’, which can be found 2 in many cultures and societies. The present thesis does not, however, supply the final answer. It is meant to be a historical study in order to point out that the prejudice about the ‘Jews’ is not merely a ‘western problem’, it exists in China. It therefore opens a field for general and wider discussions, not only about the ‘Jews’, but also about other ‘marginalised’ groups, such as ‘blacks’ and ‘homosexuals’. 3 CONTENTS Abstract 2-3 Table of Contents 4-6 Dedication 7 Acknowledgements 8-9 ‘A Chinese and a Jew at Canal Street’ (a photograph) 10 ‘An old Chinese man and a rabbi’ 11 Introduction 12-18 Chapter One China, Missionaries and ‘Jews’ (1605 - 1870) 19-62 The Unknown ‘Jews’ of China The Map of Ricci and the Chinese ‘Discovery’ of the World The Entering of the Protestant Missions Xu Jiyu, Wei Yuan and their Geographies of the World The ‘Eastern Jews’ Chapter Two Encountering and Re-inventing the ‘Jews’ (1870 - 1915) 63-100 Journey to the West The ‘Jews’ as a ‘Historical Race’ The ‘Jews’ as Inferior The ‘Stateless Jew’ The ‘Jews’ as a Victim of the ‘White Race’ The ‘Jews’ in Literature Japan’s Impact 4 The ‘Jews’ as Nationalists The ‘Jews’ as Imperialists Jewish Merchants in Shanghai Chapter Three The ‘Jews’ in the May Fourth Period (1915 - 1930s) 101-136 The ‘Jew’ as ‘Old’ The ‘Jew’ as Spiritual Yiddish as the ‘New’ The Jewish Theatre, George Sidney and the Theatre ‘Revolution’ Modern Hebrew Poetry and the New Poetry Movement Chapter Four The ‘Jews in the ‘Science of Race’ (1915 - 1949) 137-163 The ‘Jews’ as a ‘Superior Race’ The ‘Jews’ as the ‘Diseased’ The ‘Jews’ and Eugenics The ‘Jews’ as a Product of Racial Discrimination Chapter Five Chinese Perceptions of Zionism (1915 - 1949) 164-203 Zionism and the Jewish ‘Homeland’ Zionism and the Chinese Renaissance Zionism as ‘Imperialism’ Zionists as ‘Capitalists’ Zionists as Victims of ‘Imperialism’ and ‘Fascism’ China at the UN and its Attitude towards the Partition of Palestine Recreation, Restoration and Reconstruction (1937-1945) Chapter Six Anti-Jewish Policy in Japanese Occupied China during the War Period (1937 - 1945) 204-224 Epilogue Old Myths and New Phenomena (1949 - 1997) 225-235 5 Appendix 236-259 ‘The History of the Religion of Moses in China’ ‘Ghetto - The Jewish Quarter in Rome’ Selected Bibliography 260-270 Character list 271-276 Illustrations 277-279 6 This thesis is dedicated to my friends Fanya Pines and J. G. Feinberg 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to Professor Timothy H. Barrett of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, my supervisor, for his initial suggestion of my current research topic, and for his guidance, advice, constant support and encouragement over the years. Then there is Dr. Frank Dikotter, of the same institution, who has given me enormous help and valuable suggestions throughout my research; without his generosity in sharing his time and knowledge, this thesis would not have been possible. I am also grateful to Dr. Tudor Parfitt at SOAS, for the support and enthusiasm he has given me to begin and to carry out my research. I acknowledge with gratitude the Great Britain - China Educational Trust and the Sino-British Fellowship Trust for giving me awards which enabled me to carry out research in China during the year of 1995. SOAS also made a contribution towards travel expenses. A one year scholarship from the British Federation for Women Graduates allowed me to put most of my research together as a piece of written work. A particular mention must be made of Professor J. G. Feinberg, University of London, who not only commented on my draft thesis, but had also given me much financial help so that I might be able to complete it. I wish to express my gratitude to Lars P. Laamann, formerly of the British Library and now of SOAS: he has given me much help in obtaining material and has also read the draft of this thesis. I would also like to thank Professor Irene Eber of Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Professor Sander L. Gilman of University of Chicago, Professor David Goodman of University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Professor John Klier of University College London, Professor Jeffery Lesser of Connecticut College, USA, Professor Pan Guang of Shanghai Social Academy, China, Professor Murray Rubinstein of City University of New York, Dr. Avi Shivtiel of University of Cambridge, Dr. Jon Stratton of Gurtin University of Technology, Australia, Dr. R. G. Tiedemann of SOAS, Steven Uran of CETSAH (EHESS - CNRS), Paris, and Professor Xun Xing of Nanjing University, China, for sharing their knowledge and time. I must also thank Dr. Wu Jianzhong and Xu Junjun, of the Shanghai Library, and Zhou Xiaoqing, of the Sichuan University Library, for assisting me to get material. I have also received help from the University Library, Cambridge, the SOAS Library, the Second National Archive in Nanjing, China and many other places during my research. I am grateful to Mr. Andy Greenacre of the Magnum Photos for helping me with one of the illustrations. Then, I wish to thank Joachim Augstein, Dr. Chiara Betta, Dr. Robert Bickers, Barbara Geldermann, Ruth Herd and Dr. Frank J. Shulman for sharing ideas and their materials. I would also like to thank Wang Shiqun, the Archivist of the Sichuan University Archive and my father, Professor Zhou Zhaoxi, for photo-copying material for me. Here, I must also mention Dr. Andrew Palmer and Mr. Simon Weightman, of SOAS, for their support and for giving their time to help me in many ways. Finally, I like to dedicate this thesis to my friend Fanya Pines, an Israeli artist of Chinese brush-painting. Fanya was born in Harbin, China. My friendship with Fanya had resulted me in becoming interested in my current research field in the first place. I would also like to dedicate this thesis to my other Jewish friend J. G. Feinberg. As mentioned before, without his generous help, I would not have been able to complete this dissertation. 9 « ■£. f ) tV <S*»J 3 "I < 4 Ml ^ k •< ^ $ W 1P”' \l(l # r - b ? > ^ *b -Vf ^ ^ * k 4t <£ V < £ ^ f # $ tii Up. 4 V *7#« 1?#* ty-Ms'tfj. ‘An old Chinese man and a Rabbi’ An old Chinese man went to see a Jewish Rabbi and expressed his wish of becoming a Jew. The Rabbi asked: ‘Oh, blit why? Do you know anything about Judaism?’ The Chinese man: ‘No. I know nothing about Judaism and I am not a religious man.’ The Rabbi: ‘Then do you know anything about Jewish traditions?’ The Chinese man: ‘I am afraid I don’t.’ The Rabbi (rather curiously): ‘So, tell me why you want to become a Jew?’ The Chinese man: ‘Well, Rabbi, you see I have been so poor all my life ...’ — A Story told by Dr S. Lowy in Leeds 11 INTRODUCTION In a statement of the early 1990s, Jing Yingzhong, the Secretary-General of the Shanghai Judaica Studies Association and Deputy Director of the Centre of Israel and Jewish Studies of Peace and Development, together with Zu Weilei - Jing’s co-editor of the book A major review of the field of Jewish studies in China in the 1990s - claimed that ‘China is at the time of reform and opening