Jewish Identities in East and Southeast Asia: Singapore, Manila, Taipei, Harbin, Shanghai, Rangoon, and Surabaya

Jonathan Goldstein’s Jewish Identities in East Asia is a tad pricey, so probably a trip to the college library is involved….

The Jewish communities of East and Southeast Asia display an impressive diversity. Jonathan Goldstein book focuses on transnational Jewish identity in seven of this area’s largest cities and trading emporia: Singapore, Manila, Taipei, Harbin, Shanghai, Rangoon, and Surabaya. What was the source of this enduring identity, which included strong elements of Russian, Chinese, Japanese, but also specifically Jewish culture? What had preserved the Jewish identity under such excruciating circumstances? The book covers the period 1750 up to the present and emphasizes five factors which influenced the formation of Jewish transnational identity in these places: memory, colonialism, regional nationalism, socialism, and Zionism.

Looking for a New Year’s Resolution? Royal Asiatic Society Beijing – Membership Drive 2015

Membership Recruitment Letter

Dear Members and Friends,

The Beijing Chapter of the Royal Asiatic Society China was launched over a year ago, with the aim of uniting Chinese and expats in appreciation and study of China’s history, culture, thought and current affairs.  We’ve held a number of memorable events over the past year. Some highlights:

— A weekend spent at Bailin temple, a working Buddhist monastery in Hebei. We learned about the life and beliefs of the resident monks, attended prayer sessions, and wandered the halls and courtyards of this historic temple in the quiet of the evening.

— A discussion on business ethics between leading experts who compared and contrasted Eastern and Western perspectives.

— A walking tour of the Yuanmingyuan, the old Summer Palace. Our guide was a leading expert on the topic, who brought this iconic site to life with little-known facts and firsthand accounts related to the history of the Yuanmingyuan and its role in Chinese imperial society.

— A day trip to to the ancient village of Moshikou which, despite the onslaught of modern buildings, features a well-preserved necropolis dedicated to imperial eunuchs, as well as the Fahai Temple with extraordinary Buddhist murals dating back to the 15th century; our guide was one of Beijing’s foremost specialists on cultural preservation work.

To build on the achievements of the past year, RASBJ needs your continuing support!  For those who haven’t renewed membership yet, please do so to enjoy membership benefits without interruption.  For those who aren’t members yet, please join now — you’ll receive priority access to upcoming events, a copy of the journal, and invitations to members-only activities.

RASBJ  has more unique offerings coming up — among them a Dec.16 showing of the documentary film “Last Train Home”;  the Annual General Meeting for RASBJ members on Dec. 17; and in  early 2015 an unusual look at Chinese and Western experiences during the Boxer Rebellion as well as a return visit to the Old Summer Palace for a peek at the “virtual Yuanmingyuan” project.

Starting with the 2015 membership year, the RASBJ’s one-year memberships/renewals will be divided into quarters, beginning the first of January, April, July and October. This means your annual membership is valid for at least one full year, from the date on which you joined until the end of the relevant quarter of the following year.  If you joined RASBJ in May 2014, you’ll be asked to renew by June 1, 2015. If you joined in 2013, on any date, you are being asked to renew before January 1, 2015.
       

For more information visit www.rasbj.org or e-mail membership@rasbj.org. Thanks for your support!

The Royal Asiatic Society China, Beijing Chapter

Let’s End 2014 With a Good News Story….the partial reprieve of Saigon’s Grands Magasins Charner

As usual it was not a great year for architectural preservation in Asia – Beijing and Shanghai carried on pulling down perfectly restorable buildings to create car parks and shopping centres and this is the year we can add Burma to the list of devastation cities – Rangoon’s colonial architecture looks to be (I think it’s fair to say) in grave peril. We had a few wins in places like Bombay and Taipei but a few losses in places like Pondicherry and Keelung and plenty of “uncerrtains” across the region from Manila to Kashgar.

But here’s some good news – I blogged recently on plans to destroy the old Grands Magasins Charner department store building in Saigon, a fine relic of French colonial architecture. Despite the usual coalition of property developers and the communist party wanting to destroy the building (with the usual slogans of progress, profit, leaving the past behind etc etc) there was a pretty decent public campaign to save at least part of the building.

And so it has been announced that the Ho Chi Minh City mayor’s office has approved a proposal to preserve parts of the Saigon Tax Trade Centre that had slated to be torn down to make way for a 40-story skyscraper.According to the proposal, made by the city’s architecture department, the developer of the new building is to preserve the main lobby, the grand staircase and bronze railings as well as the tiled lobby mosaic. As for the building’s exterior, the developer will have to preserve the ornate overhangs that shade the sidewalks.There’s more details here from the Vietnamese newspapers…but I’m calling this a victory for preservation at the end of 2014 and a hopefully good sign for 2015….

A banister contour at the Saigon Tax Trade Center carved in the shape of the Coq Gaulois (the Gallic Rooster).

When Marlene Played Tokyo

Oh, if there was ever a new year’s eve night out to be had!! Strangely, I didn’t know Marlene Dietrich, of Shanghai Express fame (at least on this blog which has done any number of posts on Dietrich as Shanghai Lily!!), gave concerts in Tokyo – but she did in 1974…and here’s the playbill…..

One Turbulent Year – China 1975

Peter Peverelli’s memoir of his year in China, One Turbulent Year, is a fascinating read. Of course ex-pat memoirs (Carl Crow, JB Powell, Hallett Abend, Frances Wood and a few others excepted) are not normally noteworthy, but it was 1975! Peverelli has posted excerpts from the book on his blog too…

Pondicherry – Some Bad Losses and Lessons to Learn

An interesting article in The Hindu from Annie Philip on the state of Pondicherry (Puducherry), once the major town of the French Indian territory. For some time Pondicherry was seen as a good example of preservation and heritage conservation in India and across Asia, but the truth appears somewhat less enthusiastic sadly. According to the article many buildings have been lost through neglect and despite a UNESCO award. Worst of all perhaps the iconic French-era Mairie, or Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) Building on a rain-hit afternoon in November this year. It’s a sad story though may be encouraging citizen activism with the formation of ‘People for Pondicherry’s Heritage’. The article is well worth a read. And so, remembering the old Mairie of Pondicherry….

When originally constructed

Until recently…

and now gutted…

and broken…

Through old Shanghai with a cat detective – The Cat with the Telltale Tattoo

Nathaniel Scobie’s new graphic novel, The Cat with the Telltale Tattoo, features a Shanghai Municipal copper who’s a cat, Constable Khang, solving crimes in old Shanghai. It’s influenced by Tin Tin and, perhaps, Lao She’s Cat Country too I guess. It looks fun anyway and there’s an interview with the artist/author here. This seems to be the only place to get the book.

Maurice Dekobra Finds the East in Pigalle

A few weeks ago I blogged about the French writer Maurice Dekobra and his novel Macao: L’enfer du jeu. Dekobra was unknown to me until recently, but now, having read a bunch of his books I think of him as a sort of French version of Arnold Bennett with a bit of Somerset Maugham thrown in. Dekobra spent some time in China and around the Far East and wrote a number of books set in the East, though most of his work was set in his native France. However, traces of the East constantly appear in his French-set novels. Here’s a passage from his novel Midnight on the Place Pigalle (hard not like a writer who uses Midnight in his title!) published in 1932 and concerning a young man who has been thoroughly corrupted by being introduced to sex and the cabaret culture of Pigalle in Paris in the 1920s…

‘True, I have had a liaison with a little English dancer named Molly. She had a friend, and they insisted on my smoking opium. After Molly, I had an affaire with the wife of a banker who was addicted to flagellation. She initiated me by degrees in anima vili to the theories of Sacher Masoch…and the last month or so I tried cocaine with a literary lady, who consumed two dessertspoonfuls a week, and who handed me over to the tender care of a little Annamite, newly arrived from Saigon.’

Antoine Blanchard’s Place Pigalle