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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
Online Content
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
DS135.C5 K37 2020
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Details
Subject(s)
Jews
—
China
—
Shanghai
—
History
[Browse]
Jews
—
China
—
Shanghai
—
Social life and customs
[Browse]
Jewish businesspeople
—
China
—
Shanghai
—
Biography
[Browse]
Jewish businesspeople
[Browse]
Shanghai (China)
—
Ethnic relations
[Browse]
Shanghai (China)
—
Biography
[Browse]
Sassoon, David 1792-1864
—
Family
[Browse]
Sassoon family
[Browse]
Kadoorie, Elly 1865-1944
—
Family
[Browse]
Kadoorie family
[Browse]
Library of Congress genre(s)
Biographies
[Browse]
Getty AAT genre
collective biographies
[Browse]
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.
Show 8 more Contents items
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.
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The last kings of Shanghai : the rival Jewish dynasties that helped create modern China / Jonathan Kaufman.
id
99119375423506421
The last kings of Shanghai : the rival Jewish dynasties that helped create modern China / Jonathan Kaufman.
id
SCSB-14228165