THE JEWS OF CHINA, VOLUME TWO.

A Sourcebook and Research Guide. Edited and with an introduction by Jonathan Goldstein with a bibliography by Frank Joseph Shulman. Armonk (New York) and London: M.E.Sharpe. 2000. xiii, 202 pp. US$69.95, cloth. ISBN 0-7656-0105-2.

Notwithstanding its title, this volume is no mere sourcebook and research guide; indeed, more than half of it may be regarded as a continuation of Volume One (reviewed in Pacific Affairs, no:73-1, Spring 2000). Indeed, parts of it are thematically linked to chapters contained in the earlier volume: this is notably the case with the six chapters of the memoirs section, the authors of which grew up in Shanghai, Manchuria, and Tianjin. Three of the chapters in the research guides section likewise deal with the Jewish communities of Shanghai and Manchuria, while the fourth deals with the ancient Jewish community of Kaifeng. The theme of acculturation may be said to run through both volumes, and perhaps the most remarkable characteristic of the entire book is that it projects a global perspective on the study of the Jewish historical presence in China.

The first section of the present volume contains four chapters by Chinese scholars of Judaism: these deal with past and present Chinese perceptions of the Jews and are valuable additions to the compilation of thirteen works translated and edited by Sidney Shapiro (Jews in Old China: Studies by Chinese Scholars. New York, 1984). In the first of these chapters, Xu Xin, the preeminent Judaic scholar of China, draws attention to the not unsubstantial contributions made over a period of nearly a century by Chinese scholars, who not only documented the history of Jewish communities in China, but also highlighted their legacy, such as the fundamental role played by Jewish refugee musicians in the development of symphonic music in Shanghai. Xu also places before scholars a number of problems deserving of further research, notably the Jewish communities in cities other than Kaifeng and Shanghai. Such research might clarify the still-not-entirely-understood process of acculturation of the Jews in Chinese society. On this matter, Irene Eber argues in her article, describing the Research Project on Jewish Communities in Modern China launched by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, that even our amply documented knowledge about the Jewish community of Shanghai remains fragmentary, and that a great deal more needs to be researched about it, and even more about the Russian Jewish communities of Manchuria. Fortunately, a treasure house of materials of many different kinds, from personal diaries, newspapers and reports of various organizations, to the police files written about by Marcia Ristaino and the consular records surveyed by Jonathan Goldstein, awaits the intrepid researcher.

Leafing through the pages of this book brings the student of Judaism in China much exciting new knowledge. The prolific Wang Yisha contributes to this volume a unique survey of writings by Kaifeng Jews, some of which he uncovered at the same time as he identified sites of Jewish houses, shops and also graves in Kaifeng. Phyllis Horal's note, "Cemeteries of Kaifeng Jews," adds hitherto unpublished materials to the description of these graves. In his introduction, Jonathan Goldstein points to some of the lacunae in the surveys and selections featured in this book, one of them being the lack of study of the religious literature of the Baghdadi and Ashkenazi Jews in China. Curiously enough, he does not list anti-Semitism among the subjects begging for investigation, even though one of the unique features of this book is precisely the brief treatments of that subject, which are found in the chapters authored by Xiao Xian and Israel Epstein. One could, I suggest, also draw a comprehensive survey of the very significant role played in China's modern revolutions, Nationalist and communist, by Jews such as Voitinsky, Joffe, Borodin, Mif, "Two-Gun Cohen" and others. Frank Shulman's short bibliography reflects the continuing growth of "Sino-Judaica" since the publication of the major bibliographies of Michael Pollak and Donald Leslie.