Shanghai orders oratorio on its Jewish refugees
NewsVisitors to the Jewish Museum in Shanghai – the former Ohel Moshe synagogue – are greeted by a statement that antisemitism was unknown in China. The city took in many thousands of Jewish refugees from Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, asking them to leave after the Communist takeover in 1949.
Now it is commemorating their existence.
From the press release:
Long Yu, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic announce the co-commission of Émigré, a new oratorio by award-winning composer Aaron Zigman, with lyrics by Pulitzer Prize winning librettist Mark Campbell and songwriter Brock Walsh. The work will be premiered on 17 November 2023 at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall before its US premiere on 29 February 2024 at David Geffen Hall. The work will be recorded by Deutsche Grammophon in live and studio sessions in the context of the world premiere.
In the late 1930s, over 30,000 Jews fled to Shanghai to escape the Nazis in Europe after Kristallnacht, with 16,000 taking refuge in the city, arriving shortly after China had recently suffered the atrocities of the Japanese occupation and the Nanjing Massacre. Zigman’s 90-minute oratorio tells the story of two Jewish brothers who arrive in Shanghai as refugees in 1938 and go on to navigate their new life and seek a home and community there. The work is sung in English with minimal visual and production elements. The cast for the November premiere will feature Ben Bliss and Arnold Livingston Geis as the two brothers, plus Shenyang, Zhang Meigui, Andrew Dwan, Zhu Huiling and Diana Newman, the same cast that will be performing it in New York, where Long Yu will be conducting the NY Phil for the US premiere.
Following the premiere, the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra will perform the oratorio at the 2024 Beijing International Music Festival and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchestra Berlin will perform the work in 2024. Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra will perform the work in 2025 and further international performances including the UK will be announced in due course.
Long Yu, Music Director of the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, said: “In the flood of history, we cannot avoid the changes in social circumstances and human destiny, but the light and goodness of humanity is a flat boat that never sinks. She can pierce the darkness and carry the destiny of humanity and the continuity of history, sailing towards a bright and hopeful future. I am proud to be sharing this important work, brought to life by Aaron and Mark, and to be conducting the world premiere performance and the Deutsche Grammophon recording of the piece.”
Aaron Zigman said: “Writing this oratorio about the cultural exchange between the people of China and the Jews has such a compelling meaning for me. If not for Shanghai and the good will of the people of China, some of my ancestors and someone very close to me would have perished at the hands of the Nazis during World War II. My aim was to write a piece that expressed the beauty, yet also pain and hope for a better future that both the Chinese and Jews experienced together during the 1930s and 1940s. With libretto by Mark Campbell and additional lyrics by Brock Walsh, I am so blessed to have been able to collaborate with Maestro Long Yu, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic to bring this story to life.”
Nice gesture but China can’t whitewash the crime of 1 million Uighurs languishing in concentration camps.
The thread is about an amazing gesture of historical hospitality to peoples who had been for the most part denied entrance by other nations. China, the USA, the UK and many other nations have dreadful parts of their relatively recent histories that many would wish had not happened. Let us for at least a short time celebrate this one act of great kindness by the people of China to desperate Jewish refugees.
Let’s point out that the current murderous genocidal communist regime was not responsible for accepting these refugees. China, officially, named the Republic of China, was ruled by the Nationalist KMT before 1949. Any commemoration would be more appropriately held in Taipei, Taiwan ROC rather than China.
Yes, and the staggering lack of self-awareness in comparing that present Chinese regime with the UK and USA just absolutely beggars belief!!
Hang on a bit!!! Aren’t millions of people currently trying to illegally arrive in those same UK and USA??!!
Like so many, Short Yu conveniently forgets that pre WWII China was ruled by the murdering, thieving, corrupt, repressive, gangster and right-wing dictator Chiang Kai-shek who owed his power to the Shanghai Green Gang. This criminal organization controlled drugs, prostitution, gambling and other vice in the city. It shared its profits with Chiang’s political party and thereby helped his rise to – and maintenance of – power. Chiang even made its mob boss Du Yueshang a general in his National Revolutionary Army. Many considered Shanghai the vice capital of the world at that time!
Mao Zedong vs. Chiang Kai-shek atrocity bodies count:
1958-1962 the Great Leap Forward: Mao’s regime killed 45 million. This is not factoring in the murders during the civil war (unknown) and the Cultural Revolution (2.95 million).
1927-1949: Chiang Kai-shek’s regime killed 2.13 million civilians and soldiers. Chiang’s regime also killed thousands of native Taiwanese after taking over from the Japanese in 1947.
2023: Shanghai commemorates the escape of thousands of Jews from Nazis concentration camps, with visas issued by the Chiang Kai-shek government.
Almost one million Uyghurs are currently being held in concentration camps in China while Shanghai congratulates itself for saving a few thousand Jews from Nazis concentration camps. The same Jews were promptly expelled after the communist took power in 1949.
Links:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Anti-communist_mass_killings
https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/chronology-mass-killings-during-chinese-cultural-revolution-1966-1976.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2016/08/03/giving-historys-greatest-mass-murderer-his-due/
Most of Short Yu’s post is an irrelevant commentary over body count (and it’s not accurate)! This thread is about Shanghai, a city in the country of China, accepting Jews when many others had rejected them. That is certainly worthy of commemoration given the world situation at the time.
China has a very selective and strategic attitude to history. Whatever they officially want to remember, or forget, will have a reason of political significance to the government. Yu Long, who has always progressed on political rather than musical merit, will be doing this for a reason. So the obvious questions are why this, and why now ?
It’s a characteristic shared by the Left more generally. Haven’t you noticed?
Any evidence????
Interesting that the Communists didn’t like Jews either. Hitler often accused the Soviets of being Jewish. Pogroms under the Tsars were commonplace.
They required all Europeans to leave Shanghai in 1949.
Norman,
That being the case, would it not have been clearer in your introduction to say “ The city took in many thousands of Jewish refugees from Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany, asking them to leave *together with all other Europeans* after the Communist takeover in 1949.”
Was that a policy instituted by Mao who become Communist Party chief the same year?
Thanks for this.
Let us never forget that the Europeans and Americans who lived in Shanghai prior to WWII had basically stolen their lands from the severely weakened Imperial power as the colonial countries carved up much of China’s coastline in the 19th century. In their settlements, Chinese law did not apply. In Shanghai the international settlement had different laws for the 14 nationals of the Treaty powers who lived there. Thus the French were ruled by French law, the British by English law etc.
The privileges of most foreigners were terminated after the Japanese overran the city in 1941. These came into legal effect in 1945. Those interned by the Japanese, including the Jewish refugees were then liberated. But when Mao’s forces took over Shanghai in 1949, they tried to persuade foreign businesses and their personnel to remain in the city. These experts were needed as the communist forces were well aware they did not have the necessary experience to run banks and trading companies, for example. Then there was a blockade of the city’s exports by Chiang who was now in Taiwan and a general exodus of Chinese and other major companies to Hong Kong. With the Korean War at its height, by 1951 almost all foreigners abandoned the city.
Just to be clear, in 1938, Shanghai was an open port and was already under Japanese occupation with different international settlements. No entry visas were required to enter Shanghai so it is a mischaracterization to say that the Jews were taken in – which implies that they were given asylum. Rather, the hero in this story is Ho Feng Shan, who was the Chinese Consul-General in Vienna, who started issuing tens of thousands of “visas” to Jews so that they could obtain an exit permit from Austria and escape the Nazis. Ho Feng Shan has been recognized for his role in saving tens of thousands of Austrian Jews as “Righteous Among Nations.” I hope he is mentioned in this oratorio. https://www.yadvashem.org/righteous/stories/ho.html
Well put Andrea. Ho Feng Shan worked for the Republic of China government, which was later located to Taiwan. The ROC government issued the visas, not Mao’s communists, who didn’t come to power until 1949.
Silly comment! The visas were issued by the then government of China. Your argument is rather like saying the Labour Party enacted a policy but the UK is now a different country because it is governed by the Conservative Party!
You obviously don’t know your history. It was a civil war: Nationalist KMT vs. Communists. The KMT ran Shanghai and issued the visas. The Communists would rather expel and kill all foreigners except fellow travelers such as Edgar Snow and comitern agents. They did expel foreigners including the refugees who found asylum from Shanghai after taking power in 1949.
Having lived in China for 20 years and knowing a great deal about its history – the good, the bad and the disastrous – it’s obvious Short Yu’s comments again try to separate the country of China from the parties which ruled it. Would he/she do that with other countries which changed their form of government through revolution in some form or other? I suppose he/she considers South Africa a different country after it abandoned apartheid! The government of China issued the visas for Jewish immigrants when other countries denied them. That is what this thread is about and that is what is rightly being celebrated.
Nick2 doesn’t see the distinction between the government that issued the visa (KMT) for the Jews in the 1930s and the current government (CCP) that jails almost 1 million Uighurs in concentration camps based on their ethnicity. Nick2 cannot imagine the enormity of this crime while continuing to gloss over the CCP atrocity. It’s a travesty that CCP China is commemorating an act that it wasn’t responsible for while committing the same crime as the Nazis.
YES, Nick2 South Africa is a different country than it was under apartheid. Germany is a different country after Hitler.