I’m delighted to announce that after 6 years of work – which included research trips across Britain, Hong Kong and the U.S. – I’ve finally completed my thesis on the subject of Jewish refugees in Hong Kong.
However, that won’t spell the end of this blog.
I’ll continue to write about this topic and to share my findings here.
Should you have any questions or queries about my research, or if you have something to share, please don’t hestitate to get in touch.
I was recently asked to contribute an article about European Jewish refugees as part of Jewish Renaissance magazine’s special ‘Passport’ issue about Hong Kong (Spring / 2022). The article chronicles the nascent beginnings of the refugee community including their journeys to Hong Kong, interactions with the city’s existing Jewish and Chinese communities, as well as the internment of German and Austrian Jewish refugees in 1939 as so-called ‘enemy aliens’.
Other writers in this issue include artists Carol Man and Louise Solway. The magazine also features articles by authors Christopher DeWolf and Jonathan Kaufman.
I was recently interviewed by a journalist at the South China Morning Post (SCMP) about the lives and experiences of Jewish refugees in Hong Kong, most of whom were transiting to or from Shanghai.
The article was written in honour of the new Goethe-Institut exhibition, which I’ve written about here. You can find the SCMP article here, which was written by journalist Tamar Herman.
In partnership with the Center for Persecuted Arts in Solingen, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Program and The Hong Kong Heritage Project, the Goethe-Institut and the German Consul in Hong Kong are proud to present a new exhibition titled ‘Seven Places’, which chronicles Jewish life in German cities across 1,700 years.
The exhibition also includes the story of Hong Kong – a place of transit in the 1930s for Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe for the safety of Shanghai. I was honoured to help write and research this aspect of the narrative. If you are in Hong Kong, please do go check out the exhibition. It is running until 12 December 2021 and will be hosted at the Hong Kong Arts Centre. More information can be found on the Goethe-Institut’s website, here.
Continuing my blog series on lockdown-friendly resources, I recently came across the Hong Kong Oral History Collection on the Hong Kong Public Libraries website. Of particular interest to me are the Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) interviews with Hong Kong personalities recorded in the 1960s.
Click ‘view all items’ on the top right-hand corner of the search engine and you’ll be taken to a page where you can refine your search by year, collection and language (Chinese, English and Japanese). Interviewees include Michael Herries, the Jardines taipan, Dr Gerald Choa, the Director of Medical Services, and Gerry Forsgate, manager of Kowloon Wharf. All audio interviews are available to listen online, although no transcripts are provided. Happy searching!
A Borrowed Place 