Researching Central European diasporas in Republican China (1912-1949)
How many times can you be vaccinated? In this post I will share a paragraph describing a Central European refugee's encounter with Japanese anti-cholera vaccination practices in wartime Shanghai. Before the translated quote, I will give a short … [Continue reading] about “The only salutary regulation” of the Japanese in wartime Shanghai’s Jewish Ghetto: A short excerpt from Hungarian refugee-journalist László Frank’s memoir
In this post, I’m going to describe what my week in Harbin taught me. I visited two archives, as well as the libraries, museums, cemeteries and talked to several local scholars. How successful my research trip is deemed, depends on the perspective I … [Continue reading] about The secret of archival research in Mainland China: lower your expectations and be patient
There is a certain excitement to being in the former library of the Shanghai Jesuits, hunching over old newspapers in a dim reading room. Shutters closed, shimmering reading lamps, heavy wooden desks. It doesn’t take too long to get immersed in the … [Continue reading] about “How does a Hungarian Jew get to make an appeal for Austria?” A 1940 anonymous marginalia on the page of a Shanghai daily newspaper
Now, that I've just taken my chances and submitted my application to one of the major research grants in my field, I decided to also share a small part of it with whomever is reading my blog. I also regard it as the latest draft version of my … [Continue reading] about Project Transparency: Sharing a Part of My Dissertation Proposal
Ferenc Schön was a clockmaker and run a jewelry store on the Kitaiskaia Street (Китайская улица) – the pumping artery of Harbin’s commerce and business. Between the 1920s and 1940s he lived just next door to the New Synagogue on Jingwei jie (经纬街), … [Continue reading] about Settling on the shore of the Sungari. A Hungarian Jewish clockmaker in Sino-Russian Harbin