The Image of Jews in Contemporary China - James Ross and Song Lihong

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Image of Jews in Contemporary China ed. by James Ross and Song Lihong Noam Urbach The Image of Jews in Contemporary China. Edited by James Ross and Song Lihong. Boston: Academic Studies Press, 2016. 256 pages. $32.00 (paper). This is an exciting collection of articles centered around a unique theme: the image of Jews in China. It is exciting because in most parts of the Jewish Diaspora the predominant religious culture is either Christian or Islamic. For both traditions, Jews and Judaism play a significant role in religious texts and culture. For Christians, there is the shared Bible and Jesus' origin as a Jew; for Muslims the heated polemic with Bani Yisraeel and el Yahud starts as early as the second sura of the Quran. For Christian and Muslim civilization, then, Jews have been omnipresent in either abstract or physical form. There is India, one could say, where Hinduism is void of theological links to Judaism; however, there too, Islam has been present for centuries. It is in the Sinitic sphere—consisting of China, Mongolia, Tibet, Vietnam, Korea, and Japan—where Jews and Judaism are a new import. It is this novelty that makes this collection so intriguing. The uniqueness of the Chinese case, in terms of the evolving image of Jews and Judaism, places many expectations on a book that sets out to study this subject. Of these, some are met, while others are not. The assumption that due to China being neither Christian nor Islamic in culture or religion, the image of Jews must be different from other parts of the world runs through the book, yet it is never explicitly discussed. Only Song Lihong points this out clearly, presenting the opposing views of two important writers, the late Irene Eber and Bernard Lewis. This reference deserves to have been placed at the heart of the introduction, offering a clear premise for the book. It is somewhat disappointing that most of the chapters drift outside the range set by the title; however, this is not to say they are not worthy on their own merit. I therefore divide the articles into two categories: those that cover the topic of the book and those that do not, starting with the latter. Zhou Xun, who authors the first chapter, has written a book that became the standard work in its field (Chinese Perceptions of the [End Page 424] "Jews" and Judaism: A History of the Youtai [Richmond, Surrey: Curzon Press, 2001]). Surprisingly, her chapter "Perceiving Jews in Modern China" starts off with a long summary of this past book, and only at the end turns to the actual theme of the chapter—the Jewish presence in contemporary Beijing (17). This is a short but interesting description of the life of expatriate Jews living in or visiting the Chinese capital, as well as the community institutions they established. Her focus is placed on the experience of the founding members of this community rather than the image Chinese have of them. Future work on this subject is certainly necessary. Fu Youde is founder and head of the Center for Judaic and Inter-Religious Studies at Shandong University, a one-of-a-kind Chinese center focusing on Judaism as a religion, rather than on Jewish history, culture, or sociology. In his comparative discussion, Fu contrasts the Jewish drive for distinctiveness with the Chinese stress on uniformity. Fu is critical of the Chinese stress on "upholding uniformity" as it "killed the innovative spirit" and "imprisoned the thoughts of the people" (52), and concludes that "it is inspiring and significant for the Chinese nation . . . to review the Jewish characteristic of distinctiveness" (53). This is an intriguing glimpse into the way a Chinese scholar tackles the study of Judaism from the position of his own identity. Two of the book's chapters deal with the unique story of Kaifeng Jews, or "Jewish descendants" as they are generally characterized. Xu Xin's "Chinese Policy Toward Kaifeng Jews" is a reprint of a reprint, something that should have been stated clearly by the editors. Moshe Y. Berenstein, on the other hand, shares his in-depth interpretation of the unique way Kaifeng Jewish descendants negotiate...