The last kings of Shanghai: the rival Jewish dynasties that helped create modern China

0

0

Kaufman, Jonathan

Kaufman, Jonathan

Green Road Community
Leesville Community
Morrisville Community
North Regional
Oberlin Regional
Southeast Regional

Adult Non-Fiction

Green Road Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Leesville Community - Adult Non-Fiction
Morrisville Community - Adult Non-Fiction
North Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Oberlin Regional - Adult Non-Fiction
Southeast Regional - Adult Non-Fiction

"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."--

Book

Books

82d7d385-0d0a-07d1-4332-29bf54f4cc32

9780735224414

2025-07-17T19:54:49.025Z

-1

Non Fiction

Non Fiction

951 KAUFM

Wake County Public Libraries

Green Road Community
Leesville Community
Morrisville Community
North Regional
Oberlin Regional
Southeast Regional

9780735224414

2020

Viking

grouped_work

Jewish businesspeople -- China -- Shanghai -- Biography
Jews -- China -- Shanghai -- History
Jews -- China -- Shanghai -- Social life and customs
Kadoorie family
Kadoorie, Elly, -- 1865-1944 -- Family
Sassoon family
Sassoon, David, -- 1792-1864 -- Family
Shanghai (China) -- Biography
Shanghai (China) -- Ethnic relations

The last kings of Shanghai : the rival Jewish dynasties that helped create modern China

The last kings of Shanghai : the rival Jewish dynasties that helped create modern China / Jonathan Kaufman

The last kings of Shanghai

the rival Jewish dynasties that helped create modern China

Ethnic relations
Family
History
Jewish businesspeople
Jews
Kadoorie family
Kadoorie, Elly
Sassoon family
Sassoon, David
Social life and customs