Port of Last Resort: The Diaspora Communities of Shanghai » (1)

Marcia Reynders Ristaino is Senior Chinese Acquisitions Specialist at the Library of Congress. She is the author of China’s Art of Revolution: The Mobilization of Discontent, 1927 and 1928.

This book examines two large and generally overlooked diaspora communities, one Jewish, the other Slavic, who found refuge in Shanghai during the tumultuous first half of the twentieth century.

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During the period from 1900-50, Shanghai was a mecca for waves of Slavic refugees fleeing Bolshevik and fascist powers in Russia/ north China and Jews escaping Russian/Nazi persecution. The author, a Chinese acquisitions specialist at the Library of Congress, studies the commonalities and divergent experiences of these two little-recognized diaspora communities in maintaining their identities while coping with the foreign Chinese culture, Japanese wartime occupation of the city, and discriminatory US refugee legislation. Includes photographs, and a list of some former and current Shanghai street names. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)