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

Gong, Jin

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/92898 Copy

Description

Title

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

Author(s)

Gong, Jin

Issue Date

2016-07-15

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Shao, Dan

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Shao, Dan

Committee Member(s)

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

Department of Study

E Asian Languages & Cultures

Discipline

E Asian Languages & Cultures

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

• Sephardic Jews
• Treaty-port Shanghai
• Colonial Encounters

Abstract

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.

Graduation Semester

2016-08

Type of Resource

text

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

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2016 Jin Gong

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