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jeffinflorida · Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2005 5:48 pm Post subject: JEWS IN CHINA

Does anyone know if there are JEWS in China or any bias or anti-semitism towards JEWS? I ask this as I have a friend who is of the Jewish faith and he wants to go teach or travel there.

Also, are there any Jewish temples or Synagogues left in China?

Input please.

Idea

foreignDevil · Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 580

I know that Jews are returning to Shanghai. Before the Japanese invasion there was a large Jewish community in SH. This history, and the new (small) Jewish community in SH, was even the subject of a documentary on CCTV-9.

There is very little, if any, anti-Semitism in China... if only because there are so few Jewish people. Much the same situation in my state in the USA... very few black people, so it's easy for people to say "Oh there is no racism here".

Now... if Jewish people ever started to buy up the neighborhood Fujian dumpling shops... Wink

tofuman · Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 937

If your "friend" is worried about being called a "Jew" derisively, he might want to find some other whining, snivelling, immature individuals at Jewdate. He should forget about China. Perhaps a stint in the Israeli army would be helpful.

Otherwise, you might want to read about the Jews of Kaifeng. Of dubious origin, speculation suggests they came with Marco Polo or migrated from India. They were well established by the time of Kang Hsi and encountered by the Jesuit missionary, Matteo Ricci, in the 1600s.

Just type "Kaifeng Jews" into Google or read the book, "Mandarins, Jews, and Missionaries."[/u]

The Great Wall of Whiner · Joined: 29 Jan 2003 Posts: 4946 Location: Blabbing

The only anti-Jewish thing I have heard in China is political. It goes something like this:

"Israel is so bad to Palastine. They always do what America says just like Japan and England."

Not common. Only heard it once.

The G-stringed Avenger · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:32 am Post subject:

That might possibly be anti-Israeli, not anti-Semitic.

You might be surprised, the majority of Israelis are not Jewish.

Norman Bethune · Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 731

cj750 · Joined: 27 Apr 2004 Posts: 3081 Location: Beijing

Jewish students are thought to be very smart and there for the Chinese will make observations about money and brains...try Harbin...as historically a large populations of Jew did exist there and I beleave there is a syngogue that is still standing.

Brian Caulfield · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 1247 Location: China

I took up the religion here in China . I don't teach those Saturday classes they schedule to make up for holidays .
Wish you could have seen their faces when I told them this .

jeffinflorida · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:51 pm Post subject: Ahh So

So Brian what you say is to get out of Saturday make-up classes tell them you are an observant Jew?

Thats pretty clever... they don't say anything when they see you at the pub on a Friday night chucking down beers and ham sandwiches?

Talkdoc · Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 696

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

There are plans afoot to return part of Shanghai to its former pre-liberation glory when it was owned or lived and worked in by Jews fleeing anti-Semitism in Europe. Until the end of WW II, there were 38'000 people of Jewish faith in SHanghai. At present, a small Jewish community meets regularly in a house of their own to observe their religious traditions. Their synagogue is not officially open to Jews just yet because the authorities are worried if they allow it to be used according to its original intentions the national constitution would be faced with a dilemma: how to accommodate a "new" faith that's not explicitly mentioned as the five creeds tolerated by law.

The Kaifeng Jews did exist, and probably mixed with Chinese. THey seem to have arrived together with Nestorian CHristians from Syria and Persia in the late medieval age. But today there is no Jewish community as such in Kaifeng; I also find it implausible that Harbin, Peking and Guangzhou should have Jewish communities although they no doubt do harbour Jews.

Personally, I doubt being Jewish poses many prlblems apart from dietary restrictions and the work week requirements of teaching in China. However, I do know of some Chinese who take some rather strong views on Israel (Israelis were banned until 1992 from entering China), and the word "holocaust" often is used wrongly in China. Once I had a heated debate with a Chinese girl who claimed "Jews are the greediest people in the world - you only need to read Shakespeare..." She explicitly referred to Jew Shylock in the "Merchant of Venice".

tofuman · Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 937

China is the only country that completely assimilated the Jewish community. It's thought that some of the Moslems were Jews at one time.

Jews with the Nestorians? Unlikely, although the ramblings on the Nestorian stone hardly attest a Christianity with redemptive merit.

Neither Nestorian Christianity nor Judaism had much to offer the Chinese. It's best that they went the way of other useless religions.

Brian Caulfield · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 1247 Location: China

Roger was Shakespeare really against Jews . My feeling about Shylock is that Shakespeare created a character who was truely human . A man who cried when he was hurt and seeked retribution when unjustly treated .
For me as an English teacher in China , Korea and Taiwan I miss my Jewish friends and teachers from McGill and Montreal .
Jews are into long term relationships in business , education and friendships . They generally don't operate on a I win and you lose program .
Why are there so few Jews in Asia ? They too have a 4,000 year written history .

Kurochan · Joined: 01 Mar 2003 Posts: 944 Location: China

I agree with the other people -- your friend won't run into anti-Semitism really, partly because Chinese people are not really aware of Judaism or western stereotypes of Jews. They also don't have the "baggage" of a Christian background -- there's not the "Jews killed Jesus" thing here, unlike in the west.

A couple things might be disquieting for your friend -- Chinese people often use the word "great" when they mean "really powerful." If they desribe someone as great, they don't necessarily mean the person is admirable. Your friend might hear someone say that Hitler was "great," but the person would mean he was really powerful, not a good man. Also, most Chinese don't have a deep understanding of the Holocaust -- there was a big flap a few years ago about Hong Kong singers posing in Nazi, or Nazi-like uniforms, for publicity shots. People only really know about it through movies like Schindler's List or Life is Beautiful. So, it's best to keep that in mind.

I know that Shanghai has a Jewish Center, and there is at least one synagogue in Hong Kong. I've met quite a few Jews here in Shanghai, but they all are pretty secular. I'm not sure where your friend could go to take part in religious celebrations, if he were so inclined.