On to the book, my favorite book for the first week of this year was "The Last Rose of Shanghai" by Weina Dai Randel. This gripping and beautiful novel follows a young Chinese woman and Jewish refugee in Japanese occupied Shanghai during WWII. I started this novel last year and while my Mom finished it absolutely raving about it, I put it down due to my mental health at the time (sometimes heavy books don't work out when I'm having heavy feelings) and then I flitted from one book to another never picking this one back up.
When I set out to have a "set" reading list and clear out some of my unreads I specifically added unread books from my Kindle Unlimited "shelf" that had been sitting there waiting for awhile, while the don't have a due date, 6 months was pushing on the ridiculous to me. I wish I had finished this book sooner, it is a beautiful tale of love, loss, family expectations and the beauty of life in the midst of chaos.
Ernest is a young pianist who flees Berlin with his young sister, immigrating to Shanghai at the beginning of the war, lucky to have secured two exist visas they have arrived in Shanghai with nothing to their name leaving their parents behind. Ernest struggles to find work until he unexpectedly meets Aiyi; a young Chinese woman with a love for Jazz and a head for business.
The two form an unlikely pair but begin to bring Aiyi's club to the forefront of the Shanghai scene; much to the annoyance of her stoutly traditional family. As often happens when two people bond over a shared pasion Ernest and Aiyi fall in love. Their paths take many twisted and sad turns as the conflict in Shanghai escalates and the Japanese begin to imprison foreigners and Aiyi's club falls under the suspicion of an angry officer.
We are told the story through Aiyi, Ernest and a young American Journalist years in the future who has traveled to Shanghai to interview Aiyi for a documentary she is doing on Ernest and his efforts during the war to help the Jewish Refugees in Shanghai.
To say I learned a lot reading this novel is an understatement...I have a morbid fascination with WWII. It's honestly embarassing to admit because I feel like it's a weird time in history to have read so much about and be fascinated with. The absolute horror of the time, the fact that humanity can be capable of such awful acts, is abhorrent and yet fascinating, it's like watching serial killer documentaries or reading true crime stories, you're horrified and yet you want to understand what would make someone be that. For me it's that, but it's also the resilience, the tenacity, the bravery and compassion of so many strangers towards each other; the thousands of people over a multitude of countries who hid perfect strangers in their homes, who did what they could, however little it was to protect someone else, to fight back. It's overwhelming and beautiful and something that gives me a little bit of faith back in humanity.
While I feel, or I guess should say I felt, widely read on the subject I'm beginning to reassess that opinion. I have read so many novels about this time in history. And yet, there are perspectives still new to me. I've read many (mostly fiction based in truth) regarding French, British, American citizens. So many stories from a Jewish perspective whether fictionalized or memoirs. A few German perspectives (none from Nazi perspectives, my morbid curiosity has its limits). But, this was the first time I have even stumbled across an Asian country's perspective of this time. Sure I've read some on the Japanese internment camps in the United States; but I knew nothing of what actually happened in China, the Philippines, India; any Asian country during this time. I knew Japan was involved, that they were allied with Hitler at the time, that they bombed pearl harbor...there the extent of my knowledge ended.
I was unaware that during WWII Japan's leader's goal was to dominate Asian and that they were occupying Shanghai from very early on. That German Jews who fled to Shanghai ended up in internment camps there. While the area they were designated to was not officially a "camp" they were segregated to an area unallowed to leave, rampant with disease and filth in tight quarters making do with whatever odd jobs and corners of rooms they could rent from the Chinese citizens already living in the neighborhood.
This novel was beautiful and tragic, eye opening to a part of that history I was unaware of. A beautiful representation on humanity's survival through it all. The people who gave up everything to help, no matter of race or religion. A reminder that even in the bleakest of times, people fall in love, people find small snippets of joy, people reach out a helping hand to each other.
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