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Published: June 30th 2010
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The plan was to rise by 9am—one of us made it. I enjoyed orange juice and some writing while Matt slept. We were still out the door by 1030, though, so not too bad.
We went north a bit to the former Jewish neighborhood. During WWII Shanghai was the only city in the world you didn’t need a visa for and about 30,000 Jewish refugees from Europe came to Shanghai.
The main museum is an old synagogue, the Ohel Moshe Synagogue. The area surrounding it I s where the Jews primarily lived and had a European feel to it. The streets were quiet and very few people were out—unusual in China. We started our tour with a lovely Chinese woman who told us the history of the area and the synagogue. There was a short movie, and then lots of photos, stories, and memorabilia from the people who lived there.
Across the street and down a bit was the park where the Jewish family used to gather and relax Except for a sign, you’d never know that this peaceful nook had such a history. We found some of the other buildings noted in the brochure, but I mostly
just took photos of the area.
We had little luck in our lunch search (we had set out goal a bit high, secretly hoping for a good deli—which is on the other side of the city), so instead we set out to find the Shanghai Propaganda and Poster Art Museum, located in a tiny basement under an apartment building deep inside an apartment complex. It was a bit of a walk from the metro, but the walk was down tree-lined streets and by houses with tall walls. At one point we ran across some tall yellow walls and a number of guards standing at strict attention. Guards in China are often a bit relaxed, so we wondered who or what was so important. Then we rounded a corner and saw a plaque reading, “The Consulate of the United States of America.” Over the wall we could see Old Glory. Yep, important. As you were, gentlemen. Keep up the good work. Then we passed the Iranian Consulate, looked at each other, and kept walking.
We finally found the museum and it proved to be well worth the trek. It was small museum, but the walls were covered in posters
from 1950-1980. Slogans reading, “Defeat the Imperialist Americans,” “Defend Korea from Foreign Invaders,” “Work Together to Bring Prosperity to China,” China USSR Friendship,” and “Citizens of the World Against Colonialism” hung in chronological order. All the posters were brightly colored and saturated in red. Americans were often depicted as wretched, decrepit, and small, while the tall, strong Chinese people looked on. (After spending two years in Guangdong Province, I find this ironic since I’m bigger than many of the men.) In all of the posters, the faces of the Chinese seemed to glow with joy and enthusiasm.
We left the museum in search of dinner and a movie theater. We wanted to see the new film, “Shanghai,” that was in English and obviously set in Shanghai. I had checked online and US release dates are even posted (but some cities in Europe are) so I didn’t want to chance missing it. Besides, it’s kind of cool to be able to say I saw “Shanghai” while in Shanghai.
After wandering a bit, and then a bit more, we finally found the theater Matt was thinking of, but it wasn’t showing the movie until 8pm. We didn’t buy tickets but
we did have dinner at a restaurant I’d been hearing about from friends for month and read about online. It lived up to my perceived reputation and expectations. Then we caught the movie at a theater near Matt’s apartment.
The movie was fantastic—lots of action, suspense, betrayal, and a bit of a love story, all set in WWII Shanghai. The perfect war movie with out the battle scenes. It was fun to get an idea what the city looked like so many years ago, too.
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sunketing
Sunketing
Jews in Shanghai
I actually saw a movie about it back when I lived in the US and borrowed from the library frequently. No clue what it was called but it had a lot of information. Bet you can find it when you're home this summer.