Explaining China’s Fascination With Jews
DEVELOPMENTS
The Chinese admire the Jews for their five thousand years of history, ability to withstand persecution in scattered minority communities, and their work ethic. But most importantly there is a widespread belief that the Jews have cornered the market for making money, and the Chinese want to get their share. Bookstores across China are filled with publications purporting to teach Chinese the cultural habits behind famous Jewish fortunes, or how Jewish child-rearing can produce diligent, money-making young adults. Jewish visitors to China often find themselves complimented on their cleverness and business acumen. According to Google’s Zeitgeist China rankings, among the most popular search terms in the ‘why’ category in 2009–just behind the question ‘why should I enter the Party’–was the question ‘why are Jews excellent?’ “The way [the Chinese] see it is that there are a lot of Jewish Nobel Prize winners, big finance people, business people,” said Wang Jiang, vice-director of the Shanghai Jewish Center, “and they want to get in on the action.”
BACKGROUND
It’s hard to trace the roots of China’s view of the Jews, but the characters that began flocking to China in the mid-19th century probably had something to do with it. The scions of David Sassoon, former treasurer of the Caliph of Baghdad, moved to Shanghai in the 1840s and eventually dominated the real estate and opium markets. In 1929, David’s great-grandson Victor Sassoon built the Peace Hotel, the tallest building in Shanghai at the time. Today, he’s remembered mostly for his quote, “There is only one race greater than the Jews, and that is the Derby.” Other Jewish business legends in Shanghai include Lord Kadoorie, whose billionaire grandson Michael Kadoorie is the richest Jew in Hong Kong, and Morris ‘Two-Gun’ Cohen, one of Sun Yat-sen’s bodyguards, who was also called ‘Five-Percent’ Cohen for the commission he’d receive facilitating arms deals.
As China descended into civil war in the 1930s, ideology began to play more of a role in the relationship between the two peoples. “Many Jews were sympathetic to the Chinese revolution in the 20th century,” professor of Jewish studies at Nanjing University Xu Xin said during an interview. After Mao proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, “half the foreigners who stayed behind to help the regime were Jewish,” Xu said. Because of this, “Chinese intellectuals became very interested in Jewish culture.” The foreigners included Sidney Rittenberg, the only American citizen to join the Chinese Communist Party, and journalist Israel Epstein, who interviewed Mao at length and had a funeral attended by both Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao. Sidney Rittenberg, who spent sixteen years in solitary confinement wrongly accused of being a spy, made the transition from party ideologue to consultant and now operates the profitable Rittenberg & Associates, which trades off his personal relationships with Communist leaders. Like Rittenberg, Henry Kissinger has built a business that benefits greatly from his personal relationships with old Chinese leaders and his credibility built from helping establish American relations with China.
According to Professor Xu, “the Chinese are impressed by Jewish achievement, either as a people, or as individuals, especially in their ability to survive for thousands of years on bad circumstances.” Perhaps, the most poignant example of this took place during World War II. As one of the few places in the world at that time without visa requirements, Shanghai became a haven for 26,000 Jews. After the Japanese occupied the city, the Germans pressured them to exterminate the Jewish population. As journalist Warren Kozak relates, the Japanese military governor sent for Jewish community leaders, including one of the city’s chief Rabbis, Shimon Sholom Kalish. The Japanese governor asked the Rabbi, “Why do the Germans hate you so much?” Without hesitation and knowing the fate of his community hung on his answer, Reb Kalish said, “Tell him the Germans hate us because we are Oriental.” The governor, whose face had been stern throughout the confrontation, broke into a slight smile. In spite of the military alliance, he did not accede to the German demand, and the Shanghai Jews were never handed over.
ANALYSIS
At its most granular level, the Chinese phenomenon of philo-semitism is the idea that there is something essential about Jewish culture that helps its practitioners form corporations and earn money, and that this is a good thing. As one European kosher inspector said, “The Chinese don’t think nothing about religion, only money. As long as you give, they’re looking at you.” “The less educated people basically just know that if you’re Jewish, you’re intelligent and good at finance,” said Rabbi Nussin Rodin a Beijing-based emissary of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. “They’ll ask me if I’m going home for Christmas, or if I’m Muslim,” he said.
Similar to their attempt to disassemble a Volkswagen to produce their own more efficient version, the Chinese have tried to find out why people like Kissinger, Freud, Jesus, and–depending on whom you ask–Picasso are so successful. “I’ve heard a couple of people say that Jews are smart because of the Talmud. But they don’t seem to know what it is; I think they see it as some sort of secret intelligence book,” said Rodin. There is a cottage industry of titles purporting to offer success the “Jewish Way,” such as “The Eight Good Fortunes Jewish Parents Give Their Children,” which bills itself as the ‘child-rearing bible of the world’s best businessmen.’ Talmud titles include, “The Talmud Bedside Guide to Wisdom,” “The Talmud: The Jews Second Bible,” and “Crack the Talmud: 101 Jewish Business Rules,” featuring a quote purportedly from George Soros: “No one can defeat the Jews, unless they have studied the Talmud.”
Rabbi Shimon Freundlich, who heads Chabad Beijing and who has been likened in appearance to both Santa Claus and Osama Bin Laden, claims the relationship is based on both people’s attempt to overcome adversary. “The Chinese are enthralled with the Jewish people simply because they were able to thrive without a nation. On a business level, they admire our perseverance, we get knocked down and keep coming up for more, so to speak, our pride. In China, pride is everything. You can buy anything in China, but you can’t buy their pride.”
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Isaac Stone Fish is a Newsweek/Daily Beast correspondent in Beijing. This article was adapted from an earlier Newsweek article.
