A Jewish Girl in Shanghai: Interview with Lu Win

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Previews

Published on Saturday, 20 August 2011 13:49

Written by Laura Blum

A Jewish Girl in Shanghai is both the title of China's first homespun Jewish film and a quick history lesson.

Who knew Jews of any gender existed in Shanghai? Apparently not many Chinese citizens. At least not until the animated film based on Wu Lin's graphic novel opened in theaters across China in May 2009.

Now Lin is making a sequel to extend the course. More about The Secrets of the Necklace (working title) in a bit. Meanwhile...

A Jewish Girl in Shanghai tells the story of Shanghai’s Hongkou district, where more than 30,000 Jews sought refuge from Nazi-occupied Europe. In particular it tracks the saga of Rina, who fled there from Poland with her younger brother Mishalli. Their wartime adventures with a Chinese pancake seller named Zhou A-Gen set the scenario for exploring friendship between Chinese and Jewish children.

The film also allows director Wang Genfu, working off a screenplay that Lin himself wrote, to give a sense of China's own experience with fascism. Tension mounts as Germany's Japanese allies hold the city where Rina and A-Gen forage for scarce food.

Plying a traditional Chinese cartoon style and Mandarin-language dialogue, the Shanghai Animation Film Studio production reached a broader audience than the graphic novel, which was only released in English. Now its university press plans to publish in Mandarin and Hebrew, to slake both China and Israel's growing appetites for one another's culture.

Judaism and the Jewish state are enjoying a vogue in China. Judaic studies programs are springing up on Chinese campuses, and last year China's national station CCTV broadcast its first series on Israel.

Also in 2010, the Israeli pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo struck a popular chord, as did architect Haim Dotan’s ancestral China tale. Following Expo, the historic Ohel Rachel Synagogue was officially reopened for worship. The Shanghai bastion was built in the early 1900s, though the country's Jewish history dates back to the 8th century.

It's in this yin yang spirit that Film Festival Traveler contacted Wu Lin in his native Shanghai, with the help of a local translator. The former history teacher reflects on his country's Jewish past and present, deepening ties with Israel -- where A Jewish Girl in Shanghai was nominated for an award at the 2010 Jerusalem Film Festival -- and that much anticipated sequel.

Q: What inspired you to create this story?

A: In 2005, my Jewish friends who took refuge here during WWII came back to Shanghai. They visited old neighbors and houses, reliving powerful emotions with Shanghai citizens. I felt very inspired.

Particularly, a Jewish person who was once just five or six said, "At that time, my parents both went to work. When it came to dinner, my sister and I felt very hungry. The neighbors always let us have dinner with them. My parents would come home late to find us having eaten, and they were always very grateful."

This was actually a minor thing, but it touched me a lot. I believed the mutual help between Sino-Jewish people during that anti-Nazi period would be of great meaning to today's harmonious society establishment. I decided to write it out.

Q: When did you first learn about Shanghai's Jewish war refugees?

A: As a history teacher, I was very familiar with the famous events over several hundred years. I learned about the Jewish refugees from an old man who was staying in the Hongkou district in the 70s. He told me, "These Jewish people were so poor and innocent; Germans persecuted them. However, they came to Shanghai and developed a firm friendship with the Chinese. They were very nice and smart."

Q: When did most Chinese find out about their country's Jewish history, and how did they respond?

A: The graphic novel came out in 2008, three years after events marking the 60th anniversary of WWII brought new exposure to China's history of sheltering Jews.

The film lets more people know the historical facts. Chinese people think of their country's help as a very reasonable thing. The Jewish nation has virtue and wisdom. They should receive as fair treatment as any other nation in the world. It can never be forgiven, the crime of the Nazis.

Q: Is China's Jewish history taught in Chinese schools today?

A: We haven’t yet seen this history in the schoolbooks. However, many teachers will mention stories of Jewish refugees when it comes to the lessons of the Second World War. Many books have systematically described the history. A Jewish Girl in Shanghai is the first feature film telling the story above, also the first one with cartoon form to qualify as children's education.

Q: Your story is set in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. How did Eastern Jewry's persecution by the Nazis parallel China's struggle against Japan?

A: In the Second World War as a whole, whether in the East or the West, many fought for goodness. German Nazism and Japanese militarism both failed, which can be regarded as a victory belonging to the whole world.

Native Chinese as well as Jews all dedicated a lot to the final success. During this period, there were so many affecting stories. People spontaneously joined with each other to take action, which was precisely the historical foundation of my creation.

Q: How did you go about your research?

A: My creation is a true story, namely one of thousands of true ones in which you can find prototypes. One person who particularly informed my work is a former Shanghai resident named Jerry Moses. I met Jerry when I was living in Los Angeles for several years, working for a company.

But I think tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were the prototypes of my movie. At the Shanghai press conference of A Jewish Girl in Shanghai, an 80-year-old man came to tell me that he is the prototype of Rina. Then at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, a lady called Sonja -- also in her 80s -- told me that she is the antithesis of Rina.

I once knew these characters from newspapers or publications, and now I feel that I can hold their hands in reality to inquire about that history in a more detailed way.

Q: Talk a little about your encounters with Hongkou's former Jewish residents. How do they feel about China in light of their wartime experience there?

A: We should ask those refugees, but I’d like to answer for them. Across the US, Europe, Israel and China, I’ve seen many refugees and their offspring who are very friendly and grateful to China, to Shanghai.

Especially at Expo 2010 Shanghai, I saw lots of Jewish friends yearning for that era of companionship in China’s development. At the same time I felt so delighted with their wealthy and peaceful life.

Q: Mutual help is a prominent theme in your story. Was this typical of Jewish-Chinese relations during this era? What impact do you hope this theme will have on future generations?

A: My movie is to publicize people’s mutual support, to oppose war and to advocate harmony, especially hoping for world peace and amity. Just like what I wrote in the first page of the book A Jewish Girl in Shanghai: "Benevolence and Righteousness are the guide of one’s soul."

And our film won the nomination for The Jewish Experience Award at the 27th Jerusalem Film Festival as well as the Golden Cartoon Award and Best Chinese Film Award in China's International Animation and Digital Arts Festival, among other major awards. The book A Jewish Girl in Shanghai has sold in the tens of thousands, which itself is an impressive story.

Q: Why did you chose to make this a children's story?

A: Once I wrote novels and produced cartoons mainly for adults, but now I’m very eager to write for children. The future generation is the hope of world, so I produced a children’s movie in order to influence them and deposit the most precious things into their hearts.

After knowing more Jewish stories, I think it will be of positive meaning to make the historical events into cartoons. Children may become wiser and more apt to use their imagination when reading beast fables and science fiction; likewise they may become more powerful with historical stories. I hope that children today will not forget history and will become happier.

Q: How did Chinese children respond to the film?

A: It may be the first learning for children on this topic, which will be quite meaningful. I’ve accompanied hundreds of kids watching of A Jewish Girl in Shanghai. Though children rarely cry when watching cartoons, this time both adults and children are crying. They understand what hatred is, what compassion is and what justice is. That is what I hoped for.

Q: What came of the film's Israeli screening?

A: The film has seen vast repercussions from the Israeli screening. CCTV-News exclusively reported the movie's debut on July, 15, 2010. Many Jews perceived the film as a pretty good one, and lots of articles were published in newspapers and magazines.

Q: Why has China become more interested in Judaism and Israel in recent years? How important is the Sino-Israeli relationship and what fuels it?

A: The Sino-Jewish friendship has been harmonious. Thirty years having passed since the reform and opening-up, this kind of relationship has been reinforced. As you can see, the contact between two countries' leaders is also frequent.

Long-awaited government permission was has been granted to the Jews to worship once again in Shanghai's Ohel Rachel Synagogue. During the Shanghai Expo, the Israel Pavilion was quite popular with its brilliant exterior as well as cultural connotation.

Q: What are your impressions of Israel, and what does Israeli culture have in common with Chinese culture?

A: Israelis are very friendly to us. Technology is advanced and lower energy consumption is rather vital there. We Chinese are good at learning strengths from other nations, especially Israel. The two nations have much in common, which should develop a better relationship with the pace of mutual understanding and economic evolution.

Q: Is the fact that Karl Marx was Jewish a good thing or a bad thing?

A: Mr. Marx was a forerunner of revolution, also a very wonderful figure. As I see it, he is not only of Jewish descent, but also one of the world’s first-class giants. I respect him very much. He should belong to the whole world.

Q: In Israel and China, your fans are eager for a sequel. How is this coming along?

A: I’ve finished its cartoon book and will publish it very soon. If all goes smoothly, the film will be started in a very short time. I want to name this sequel or companion volume The Secrets of the Necklace.

During the Second World War, Nazis robbed countless Jewish possessions said to be worth tens of billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the Jews fought bravely against the enemies for their own properties. The Secrets of the Necklace describes a death match between the offspring of Vronsky and Nazis.

I extremely hope that this film can be screened in dozens of world movie festivals. The next step is to find a perfect film distributor who can help us to release the film and popularize it to the world.

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