Culture Shock and Community Creation in Shanghai

Abstract

As European luxury liners steamed up the Huangpu River, their Jewish refugee passengers were on the verge of unimaginably new lives. Arrival in Shanghai was a shock. Loaded onto trucks like so much baggage, they were driven across the Garden Bridge to a barracks outfitted with bunk beds. Two hallmarks of European domestic life, privacy and cleanliness, were suddenly replaced by tropical heat, bedbugs, and shared toilets. The Nazis had stolen their possessions in Europe, but the reality of refugee poverty struck them first in China.