wartime Shanghai

Publication News: “The Flag of Paul Komor was Published in Hungarian

July 14, 2020 by Matyas Mervay Leave a Comment

*Shanghai Hungarian businessman and philanthropist Paul Komor in 1930 (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum)*

Today my article about the tragedy of Shanghai Hungarian Paul Komor was published. Written in Hungarian, it is introducing Komor, the savior of the Shanghai Jewish refugees, and the long time quasi-consul of the local Hungarian diaspora in Republican/Japanese occupied China (1915-1943).

Despite being the selfless benefactor of destitute Central Europeans for decades, Paul Komor was abandoned in his troubles by the Hungarian state during World War Two. Today, everyone, including the current Hungarian government’s culture diplomats and the Shanghai Hungarian Consulate General, is right to be proud of Komor. However, the less glorious parts of the story that were left to fade into oblivion now come to light.

Those reading in Hungarian, click on this link for the article on the online historical magazine Újkor.hu. Everyone else waiting for an English version, there might be coming up soon one in the form of an academic publication, so stay tuned! (In the meantime, perhaps a Google translation can give you the gist of the content.)

“The only salutary regulation” of the Japanese in wartime Shanghai’s Jewish Ghetto: A short excerpt from Hungarian refugee-journalist László Frank’s memoir

February 13, 2020 by Matyas Mervay Leave a Comment

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 introduction of the author, who might become a regular guest on this blog in the future.

(L) A hand bill from New York City, 1832 with some outdated public health advice (New York Historical Society) and (R) Chinese Red Cross Juniors explaining cholera posters to street crowd in Shanghai, 1920s (picryl.com)

“How does a Hungarian Jew get to make an appeal for Austria?” A 1940 anonymous marginalia on the page of a Shanghai daily newspaper

November 15, 2019 by Matyas Mervay Leave a Comment

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 past. The environment helps if only you are able shut out a soft male voice set on eternal repetition – the faint but steady sound of the visitors’ introduction to the building. But what’s this atmosphere compared to the thrilling moment when you realize that you aren’t alone reading the now-tattered pages from the 1940s? Well, you are alone, but you discover that someone before you left their comments on the margins with a red pencil. Judging from the vehemence of the note, it must have been written by someone contemporary, responding to what they were reading, back on that March 11, 1940, in wartime Shanghai. That adds a layer between you and the first author who you thought you were alone with.

1) The Biblioteca Zikawei (Xujiahui Library 徐家汇藏书楼) from the outside (by M.M.); 2) from the inside (by Michelle Qiao, Shanghai Daily) 3) (Baidu.com)

The main page of the Gelbe Post (March 15 1940 issue) [Read more…] 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

When being an ex-POW is worse than being a stateless Russian. The case of a Yugoslavian pharmacist in Shanghai’s French Concession

October 10, 2019 by Matyas Mervay Leave a Comment

Pharmacy in 1920’s Harbin (dbs.bh.org.il)

Being a stateless person sucks. If you don’t believe me, ask the U.N.H.C.R., the United Nation’s Refugee Agency. In the East Asian context during the first half of the 20^th century they were the Russian refugees fleeing from the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) or the subsequent Civil War (1918-1921) who experienced this condition and made it well-known for everybody in the region. The tens of thousands of White Russian émigrés who arrived to Chinese territories during the 1920s had to endure tremendous hardships. Not only that they were financially destitute and culturally alien in both the Chinese and other foreign “worlds”, but they also lacked consular representation. Between 1921-1924 the Soviet Union in a series of laws denaturalized those formerly Russian citizens who fled after the Tsarist regime’s collapse. The so-called Nansen Passports issued by the League of Nation were an attempt to give means of identification for them, but the ultimate solution was of course to obtain Chinese or another country’s citizenship. Masses of such impoverished Russians flooded the Shanghai French Concession that was complied to accommodate educated people with degrees and certificates earned in a different system. [Read more…] about When being an ex-POW is worse than being a stateless Russian. The case of a Yugoslavian pharmacist in Shanghai’s French Concession

Retracing the Homes of Central Europeans in Shanghai. The 1940 list of Hungarians.

September 18, 2019 by Matyas Mervay Leave a Comment

I have this list with names of Hungarian nationals and their Shanghai addresses from 1940. “Avenues”, “Rues”, “Lanes”, “Routes”, “Apartments” and “Terraces”, that wouldn’t show up in a Google Map-search, let alone in its Chinese counterpart Baidu Map (百度地图). These French and English designations – symbols of a past era, are long gone. “Avenue Joffre”, “Rue Cardinal Mercier” or “Grosvenor Gardens” are all renamed in Chinese thus could be quite painful to be found, unless you have a guide. Fortunately, a road name-index in Paul French’s The Old Shanghai A-Z can make your life much easier, not to mention the great digital databases like ‘Virtual Shanghai‘ or the ‘Shanghai Art Deco Building Database‘. These sites document the city’s historic architecture, one that has been changing so much in the recent decades of booming urban constructions.

Equipped with the necessary information, I decided to take a walk on a sunny Saturday morning in the city’s former French Concession-area (法租界) to discover these old residences. I wanted to find out whether these locations listed in my 1940 source would still lead me to the homes of the people that once lived there ca. 79 years ago. I have to say that sometimes I found only missing house numbers or gigantic malls that sell high-end fashion on the supposed spot, like in the case of the Viennese ‘Fiaker Café & Restaurant’ I wrote about in my previous post. Luckily though, more often than not I was able to take photos of some of the beautiful buildings that once hosted Shanghai’s Central European community. Stick around for the map and the photos after the quick textual introduction to the source!