Double First Class Project

China’s Politics of Hospitality:
The Shanghai Jewish Community during World War II

This project starts from one notable historical event in world history: during WW2, when 6 million European Jews perished in Nazi concentration and death camps, around 20,000 Jews were saved in Shanghai. It explores the existing literature (both historical accounts and narratives) on Shanghai’s Jewish agencies and Chinese people helping refugees in times of anti-Semitic persecution, adopting an innovative perspective which attempts to conceptualize an unconditional politics of hospitality. The Derridean notion of ‘unconditional hospitality’ is used as conceptual lever for the analysis of a corpus of memoirs written by Austrian, German, Polish and Russian Jewish refugees. While there have been several studies, chiefly in English and in Chinese, focusing on historical facts, a trans-disciplinary study articulating the concept of hospitality of the Shanghai community during WW2 within cultural practices and critical constructions, as well as a systematic theoretical exploration of the narratives published on this event, are definitely lacking. These provide the background for and the rationale behind my research project.

This project is therefore informed by two complementary methods:

1) critical theory, more specifically deconstruction, which will be brought to bear on the analysis of a historical event

2) narratology / theory of narratives.

Team members: Zengjing Li (PhD student), Ling Chen (PhD student), Ronrong Qian (PhD student), Laurent Milesi (Professor), Xiaofei Wei (Professor)

Research Output

Edited Journal Issues

Arleen Ionescu and Simona Mitroiu (eds), Parallax 29.1: ‘Holocaust Narratives in the Post-Testimonial Era’ (2023), pp. 137 [AHCI/SSCI]

Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

Arleen Ionescu, ‘Preserving Memory in the Twenty-First Century: The Testimonial Lives of Holocaust Objects’, Parallax 29.1 (2023): pp. 120-137; DOI: 10.1080/13534645.2023.2271727 [AHCI/SSCI]
Arleen Ionescu, ‘Hospitality in Shanghai: The Russian Jewish Community as Hosts and Polish Jewish Refugees as Guests during WW2’, SLOVO 35.2 (Fall 2022): pp. 1-25; DOI: 10.14324/111.444.0954-6839.1297 [AHCI]
Arleen Ionescu, ‘Layers of Memory in Kuznetsov’s and Trubakov’s Babi Yar Narratives’, Eastern European Holocaust Studies, special issue on A. Kuznetsov, ed. Leona Toker (online, 2022):, pp. 1-19; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/eehs-2022-0012
Arleen Ionescu and Laurent Milesi, ‘Re-Membering – A Plea for Togetherness’, Oxford Literary Review 44.1 (July 2022): pp. 110-20; DOI: 10.3366/olr.2022.0380 [AHCI]

Forthcoming

Arleen Ionescu, ‘Towards A Memorial Ethics of Hope: The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum’, Memory Studies (under review) [AHCI/SSCI]
Arleen Ionescu, ‘Healing Future Generations: Witnessing in Memoirs of Shanghai Refugees during WW2’, Life Writing, ed. Stefanie Hofer and Idit Gil (under review) [AHCI]

Reviews and Review Articles in Peer-Reviewed Journals

Rongrong Qian, ‘Review of Remembering Asia’s World War Two’, Memory Studies 14.4 (2021): pp. 929–32; DOI: 10.1177/17506980211024054a (AHCI)

Book Chapters

Ling Chen, ‘Remembering Trauma in Multimodal Ways: The Rape of Nanking’, in Multimodal Communication and Soft Skills Development, ed. Maria-Ionela Neagu and Diana Costea, Berlin: Peter Lang, 2022, pp. 97-112; ISBN 978-3-631-87524-7 (Print), E-ISBN 978-3-631-87885-9 (ePDF)
Arleen Ionescu, ‘Traces of Survival in a World of Terror: Kathy Kacer’s Shanghai Escape’, in Memories of Terror: Essays on Recent History, ed. Mihaela Gligor, Frankfurt am Main: CEEOL Press, 2021, pp. 173-202; ISBN 978-3-946993-88-9 (print), ISBN 978-3-946993-87-2 (ebook)

Major Conference Participations (‘Titles of Papers Presented’)

Arleen Ionescu, 20th-Century Jewish Exile Remembered, University of Brașov, March 2023: ‘From Trauma towards Healing: Memoirs of Shanghai Jewish Refugees’
Arleen Ionescu, MSA Meetings, Witnessing Group and Trauma Group, November 2022: ‘Layers of Memory in Kuznetsov’s and Trubakov’s Babi Yar Narratives’
Arleen Ionescu, Memory Studies Association Convention, Panel of Witnessing Group: Material Aspects of Witnessing Seoul, July 2022: ‘Memorial Objecthood: The Testimonial Lives of Holocaust Objects’
Arleen Ionescu, Memoria Holocaustului [Memory of the Holocaust], Roundtable organized by Institutul de Istorie George Barițiu al Academiei Române, Filiala Cluj Napoca, January 2021, ‘The Shanghai Ghetto’
Ling Chen, International Conference Multimodal Communication and Soft Skills Development, University of Ploiești, ETSIAE, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and Université de la Manouba Tunis, November 2020: ‘Remembering Trauma in Multimodal Ways: The Rape of Nanjing’
Arleen Ionescu, The Ninth Convention of the International Association for Ethical Literary Criticism, The Ethico-Political Turn in Literary Studies: Cross-Cultural and Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, November 2019: ‘Dilemmas beyond Ethics: The Challenge of the Holocaust Novel to Ethical Literary Criticism’

Organized Events

Workshop: Jewishness in History and Memory, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, School of Foreign Languages, 8 December 2021

Speaker 1: Feng Li

Bio: Feng Li (Frank LEE), Ph.D. (Nanjing University), is Professor of English Language and Literature at Shanghai International Studies University (SISU), a research fellow in SISU’s Institute of Jewish Studies and ‘Zhi Yuan Distinguished Scholar’. Before moving to SISU, he worked in Shanghai University of Finance & Economics (as Deputy Dean of the School of Foreign Studies), Columbia University (as Fulbright Research Scholar), and the State University of New York at Albany (as Visiting Professor). His major areas of interest include British and American literature (esp. alternate history, cross-disciplinary study of literature and business culture), modern Jewish literature, and Western critical theories. He is the author of Economic Contexts and Business Culture in 20^th Century American Literature and the translator of works by George Orwell, W. Somerset Maugham, Linda Hutcheon, etc.

Keywords: alternate history fiction, counterfactual history, Zionism, anti-Semitism

Paper: ‘The Fate of Jews in British and American Fictions of Alternate History’

Abstract: The hypothetical fate of Jews has been one of the common topics in historical research, and it is an important motif in alternate history fictions as well. This speech gives a survey of relevant alternate history fictions in British and American literature and summarizes three primary patterns/motifs in their presentation of alternate histories, namely (1) hypothetical Zionist or patriotic wars, (2) alternative versions of anti-Semitism, and (3) a Jewish state in a place other than Palestine. For each pattern there are case studies in an attempt to explore the social and historical causes of such designs and political and cultural implications in these works, along with the authors’ psychological motivation in writing. The purpose is to obtain a better command of subject matters and artistic features of alternate history writings in Jewish literature as well as in British and American literature.

Speaker 2: Xiaofei Wei

Bio: Xiaofei Wei, Professor of Jewish American literature and American history at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, obtained his PhD at Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2003) and visited Harvard University (2007) and Columbia University (2013-14). He has chaired several academic projects, international as well as national, among which, The National Project of Social Sciences for Translating Chinese Classics (2016), The National Project of Social Sciences (2011) and The Gilder Lehman Institute Project (New York, 2007). In 2016, WEI became the first recipient of the annual Bernard Malamud Scholar Award sponsored by Trinity University and The Bernard Malamud Society. WEI’s English textbook A Panoramic History of American Civilization for Colleges (Peking University Press, 2008, rev. ed. 2013) has won a Prize of Shanghai Municipal Committee of Education (2011) and two Grand Prizes of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2011, 2015). He is the author of Jewishness in Jewish American Literature (Guangxi Normal University Press, 2009), and A Holistic Literary Criticism: Bernard Malamud’s Historical, Philosophical and Ethical Dimensions (Shanghai Jiao Tong University Press, 2021). His translation of the Chinese textbook A Panoramic History of Traditional Chinese Ethics was published by Springer in 2021.

Paper: ‘An Exploration into the Historical Causes of Anti-Semitism’

Keywords: Judaism, Jewry, anti-Semitism, prejudice

Abstract: Exploring the historical causes of anti-Semitism, this paper reviews several historical figures, events, and documents on anti-Semitism, discusses the influence of anti-Semitism in religion, economy, politics and society, contemplates upon the contemporary consequences of anti-Semitism, and finally attempts to discover the historical motives behind the lack of cultural communication and the conflict between diverse religions and nations. The paper is meant to reflect on helping eliminate parochial religious and racial prejudices and prompting compromise and collaboration between different peoples.

Speaker 3: Arleen Ionescu

Bio: Arleen Ionescu is Tenured Professor of English Literature and Critical Theory at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and “Oriental Scholar” (2020). Her major research interests are in the fields of Modernist prose, Critical Theory, Memory Studies, Holocaust and Trauma Studies. Her work on James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Maurice Blanchot, Jacques Derrida, Samuel Beckett as well as on various aspects of historical trauma has appeared in reputed academic journals such as James Joyce Quarterly, Journal of Modern Literature, Memory Studies, Oxford Literary Review, Parallax, Partial Answers, Joyce Studies Annual, SLOVO, and Style. She is joint-editor-in-chief (with Laurent Milesi) of Word and Text – A Journal of Literary Studies and Linguistics. Her books include Romanian Joyce: From Hostility to Hospitality (Peter Lang, 2014), The Memorial Ethics of Libeskind’s Berlin Jewish Museum (Palgrave, 2017), and Arts of Healing: Cultural Narratives of Trauma (co-edited with Maria Margaroni; Rowman and Littlefield International, 2020).

Keywords: Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, experiential museum, memorial ethics, (objects of) hope, re-semanticization

Paper: ‘Towards a Memorial Ethics of Hope: The Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum’

Abstract: Taking further Ann Rigney’s invitation to expand her case study on memories of hope (2018), this article investigates the positive turn in memory studies by focusing on the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum (SJRM) as an exemplary model of a memorial ethics of hope. After defining the concept and relating it to both Western and Eastern culture and philosophy, the first two sections of the paper explore those features which make SJRM an experiential museum (Amy Sodaro) and look into SJRM’s exhibiting strategies and tropes. First it investigates how the narrative of the museum testifies to the alterity of the Other and the responsibility of the Chinese people and foreign organizations that offered the Jewish refugees the hope of living and second, it analyses the way in which several artefacts such as suitcases, shoes, means of transport that are generally associated with metonymies of death in different Holocaust museums around the world were re-semanticized in SJRM as objects/ memories of hope. The final section inquires whether reinterpreting painful memories as memories of hope is convincing to the very end, attempting to differentiate between the reactions of SJRM’s foreign and Chinese visitors.

Online Workshop: 20^th-Century Jewish Exile Remembered, Co-organized with Edward Waysband (Transilvania University of Brașov), The Faculty of Letters at Transilvania University of Brașov, 13 March 2023

Asserting that Jewish people have been probably in the longest exile – since 587 BCE, 70 CE, after the rise of Islam in the 7^th century, during the Crusades in the 11^th-13^th centuries – Bronislava Volková defined exile in its basic form as follows: ‘to be away from one’s home country, while either explicitly being refused permission to return or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return’ (Forms of Exile in Jewish Literature and Thought: Twentieth-Century Central Europe and Migration to America, 12). She referred to two types of exile, the ‘physical exile’ (‘of country, birthplace, language, support, and belonging, and in all cases an absence of an engaged and responsive community’) and the ‘internal exile’, which consists in ‘a kind of withdrawal’ or, following Svetlana Boym, ‘estrangement’ (14).

In Exile and the Narrative Imagination, Michael Seidel defined exile stories as signifying a dual consciousness of displacement. For Seidel, exiled authors bring two spaces in their works, one which they inhabit and one which they remember and whose reality they project on the other. Many ‘autobiographical accounts of the initial panic, flight, and settlement in a new country illuminate the paths that exiles used to escape from harm during the thirties in Europe’, dealing with both ‘devastating life changes’ but also ‘perseverance, resourcefulness, and adaptability’ (Judith M. Melton, The Face of Exile: Autobiographical Journeys, 7).

Yet, perhaps the best definition of exile is given by Elie Wiesel in an interview with Roger Lipsey: ‘What is exile? What is galut? Whenever I have a problem, I go to the original Hebrew idioms. After all, the world was created in that language. Let’s go back to the relations of that word: gal, move, gil, joy: it means movement, continuous movement. It means that everything is moving, except me; or the other way—I am moving and everything else stands still; or still a third way, we are not moving in the same direction. Then exile means to be displaced, I am here and I am not here. The content and form do not espouse one another. That means they are in exile. When a person is in exile, nothing fits’ (Parabola, 10.2 (1985), republished in 2016). In the same interview, asked how he sees exile from his position of a witness, Wiesel interrupted Lipsey, considering that ‘We are all witnesses, I have no privilege’, and instead of replying directly to Lipsey’s interrupted question, he mentioned simply: ‘Memory must not stop. If I were to stop in, let’s say, 1944, it would lead to madness.’

It is precisely this intersection of dual consciousness, of here and there that the exiled remembers in memoirs / diaries / fiction / arts that we endeavour to look for and give voice to in our workshop, whose programme can be found here.

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