Jewish past and colonial Shanghai: trade, treaty-port, and transitive modernity

This dissertation explores the transnational and colonial encounters of Sephardic Jews and Chinese in treaty-port Shanghai by examining 1) the Jewish networks of capital, goods, and market; 2) Jewish elites and their political activism; 3) transnational legal and political status of Sephardic Jewish elites in Shanghai and 4) Jewish cultural heritage in Shanghai. A central argument of this work is that as an expatriate business community living in treaty-port Shanghai, Sephardic Jews took advantage of the British colonial system to achieve wealth and at the same time established extensive contacts with the Chinese in Shanghai. As a result, they deeply influenced Shanghai’s economic, political and social institutions and rhythms of life. Using both Chinese and English archival resources, a wide range of Chinese and English language newspapers and periodicals, this study contributes new materials and analyses to three areas of scholarly research: the modern history of Shanghai, Jewish diaspora in port-cities, and colonial studies in China. Ultimately, the purpose of this study is twofold: to document the economic/social encounters of Jews and Chinese in a colonial context and to examine the urbanization and modernization process of Shanghai itself as a result of this encounter.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

E Asian Languages & Cultures

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Gong, Jin

Contributors dc:contributor

• Shao, Dan
• Fu, Poshek
• Avrutin, Eugene
• Chow, Kai-Wing

• Sephardic Jews
• Treaty-port Shanghai
• Colonial Encounters

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2016 Jin Gong

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/92898

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/92898