Jewish Refugees in Shanghai

This lecture explores Shanghai as a temporary “promised land” for German-speaking Jewish refugees during World War II, focusing not only on refugee survival but also on the complex encounters between Jewish refugees and local Chinese society.

Drawing on Chinese-language sources, contemporary scholarship, and public memory debates in China, the lecture examines how this history has been remembered and reinterpreted in different historical periods.

Particular attention will be paid to everyday social interactions, the legacy of Jewish exile in Shanghai, and the current role of the Shanghai Jewish Refugee Museum in shaping public understanding of this shared past. The lecture will also reflect on how the Shanghai refugee experience is viewed in China today amid changing global and political contexts.

This event is part of Many Promised Lands, LBI's 2026 lecture series covering migration of German-Jewish refugees after 1946.

This programming is made possible through the generous support of the Levi-Thalheimer Fund for Research and Public History.

Dr. YANG Meng is an Assistant Professor at Peking University, where she founded China’s most influential course on Jewish civilization and created the country’s first university-level Yiddish course. She is also a Fellow of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. Her research focuses on global antisemitism, Holocaust studies, the history of Jewish exile in Shanghai, and Sino–Israeli innovation cooperation etc. Please feel free to be in touch: allshallpass@gmail.com