Shanghai Street View: Historical Haunts

Shanghai is full of fascinating historical stories involving foreigners in China, including the story of thousands of Jewish refugees who fled to the city during World War Two and set up a vibrant community in the Hongkou District. Too many of these stories are neglected and remain largely invisible in Shanghai’s emerging modern landscape, which seems like a huge missed opportunity since this kind of history is a defining part of  Shanghai’s unique identity as a meeting point between East and West.
So I was quite pleasantly surprised to read this week about a new plan for a modest but still significant facelift for the area that was once at the center of Jewish refugee life in Shanghai some 75 years ago. That plan will see several buildings refurbished or rebuilt to their original state, including a cafe that was once at the heart of the refugee Jewish community in Shanghai.

Shanghai should be commended for this plan, and should work harder to identify similar “stories” that could serve as the basis for redevelopment of areas with unusual history. Such efforts could include similar makeovers for areas that were home to many White Russians who fled to the city after the 1917 revolution that launched the formation of the Soviet Union. The city is also home to many neighborhoods that were focal points for some of China’s most famous homegrown intellectual movements of the 20th century.

Coming from a Jewish background myself, I am particularly fascinated by the story of the thousands of Jewish refugees who came to Shanghai during World War Two. Some 20,000 Jews lived in the city at the height of the influx, many of them in a relatively untraveled part of the Hongkou District in an area around Huoshan Road.

I’ve done a fair amount of reading on the subject, partly for personal interest and partly because it’s one of the few foreign stories that’s well chronicled in the media. The heavy concentration of those refugees in Hongkou wasn’t coincidence, since they were ordered to live there by the occupying Japanese who gave the area its other name of the Japanese Concession at that time.

That’s just one of the many interesting facts that may become better known with this new development, which will see a number of buildings refurbished to their condition from that era. One of those will be the former residence of refugee Michael Blumenthal, who fled with his family from Germany in 1939 and would later go on to become the US Treasury Secretary under President Jimmy Carter in the 1970s.

A centerpiece of the renovations will be the Wiener Cafe Restaurant, a center of life for local refugees at that time, which was later demolished but will be rebuilt based on its original design across the street from the current Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum. The refugee museum itself is actually housed in a former synagogue that was also a center for Jewish life during that time.

I’ve been to the neighborhood a few times, usually on trips with visiting friends, and am always a bit disappointed with how few people know about or visit the area. The museum is the only building that’s been nicely restored, and even that is in no small part due to strong financial support from Israel. The small number of people who do visit are almost all foreigners, and while many Chinese are aware of the area, I have yet to meet any friends who have actually visited.

So this new effort should be a welcome addition that can hopefully draw more people to the area, both foreign and Chinese. The renovations should focus not only on renovating specific buildings, but more broadly on trying to recreate an atmosphere of how the community felt back then.

Shanghai is filled with similar areas, but this looks like one of the first attempts to rebuild a sort of themed area centered on the broader history that occurred there. Most of the other city’s other restoration projects usually center on single buildings here or there. In many cases, the only real tribute to history is a plaque outside many of these structures, stating when they were built, who lived there and their architectural style.

I’m cautiously hopeful that perhaps this modest initiative in Hongkou could launch a bigger trend that sees Shanghai try to redevelop historical areas based on their broader “stories” like the one involving Jewish refugees. The White Russian refugee story is another good one filled with interesting details, which I only recently learned about from a Russian graduate student at the university where I teach.

Hongkou is also home to a large number homes of early 20th century Chinese academics, including leading thinker Lu Shun and other big names like Mao Dun. By redeveloping areas based on these “stories” rather than just renovating individual structures, Shanghai could create some truly unique destinations that showcase the city’s unique historical position as a true melting pot for people from throughout China, and also from around the world.