The last kings of Shanghai : the rival Jewish dynasties that helped create modern China / Jonathan Kaufman.

Author
Kaufman, Jonathan [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Published/​Created
[New York, New York] : Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, [2020]
Description
xxxi, 350 pages : illustrations, map ; 24 cm

Availability

Available Online

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks DS135.C5 K37 2020 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Library of Congress genre(s)
    Getty AAT genre
    Summary note
    "An epic, multigenerational story of two rival dynasties who flourished in Shanghai and Hong Kong as twentieth-century China surged into the modern era, from the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Shanghai, 1936. The Cathay Hotel, located on the city's famous waterfront, is one of the most glamorous in the world. Built by Victor Sassoon--billionaire playboy and scion of the Sassoon dynasty--the hotel hosts a who's who of global celebrities: Noel Coward has written a draft of Private Lives in his suite, Charlie Chaplin entertained his wife-to-be, and the American socialite Wallis Simpson reportedly posed for dirty photographs. A few miles away, Mao and the nascent communist party have been plotting revolution before being forced to flee the city. By the 1930's, the Sassoons had been doing business in China for a century, rivaled in wealth and influence by only one other dynasty--the Kadoories. These two Jewish families, both originally from Baghdad, stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than one hundred seventy-five years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and nearly losing everything as the Communists swept into power. In The Last Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable story of how these families ignited an economic boom and opened China to the world, but remained blind to the country's deep inequality and to the political turmoil on their doorsteps. In a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, Kaufman enters the lives and minds of these ambitious men and women to forge a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival. He also tells the triumphant story of how they joined to rescue and protect eighteen thousand Jewish refugees fleeing Nazism."-- Provided by publisher.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references and index.
    Contents
    • The Patriarch
    • Empire of the Sons-and Opium
    • Laura and Elly
    • Shanghai Rising
    • The Impresario
    • "Me Voila Therefore Walking a Tightrope"
    • War
    • "I Gave Up India and China Gave Me Up"
    • The Reckoning
    • The Last Taipan
    • Back on the Bund.
    Other title(s)
    Rival Jewish dynasties that helped create modern China
    ISBN
    • 9780735224414 ((hardcover))
    • 0735224412 ((hardcover))
    • 9780735224438 ((paperback))
    • 0735224439
    LCCN
    2019052103
    OCLC
    1127549990
    Other standard number
    • 16531655
    Statement on language in description
    Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage. Read more...
    Other views
    Staff view