Penn CREF/Nanjing University conference: "China and Ashkenazic European Jewry: Transnational Encounters"

Monday, June 4, 2018 - 8:45am to Tuesday, June 5, 2018 - 5:15pm

Nanjing University

The June 2018 International Conference, “China and Ashkenazic European Jewry: Transnational Encounters,” aims to deepen discussions of how Jewish and Chinese cultures have been enriched by the points of contact between peoples and nations, which arise with the translation of literature, philosophy, and other humanistic texts.  This conference is the first to focus on the transnational cultural exchange specifically between Ashkenazic Jewry and China.  It aims to provide a unique opportunity to investigate such translation, both from the languages and cultures of Ashkenazic Jewry into Chinese, and from Chinese into those Jewish languages and cultures.  As well as looking at cultural ramifications of texts and translations, the conference also intends to highlight the roles played by actual, personal contact between Jews from Central and Eastern Europe and Chinese people in China during the turbulent decades of the mid-twentieth century.  We hope that the papers, presented by scholars from a range of disciplines (literature and translation, history, sociology, religious studies) based in China, North America, Europe, and Israel, will lead to a cross-disciplinary dialogue that will open new ground for understanding how cultures and peoples so different have found ways to communicate and will illuminated where such communication becomes problematic.  Such an investigation of how people talk to each other through translation has profound implications for our contemporary global society.

Conference Program

CHINA AND ASHKENAZIC EUROPEAN JEWRY: TRANSNATIONAL ENCOUNTERS

Monday, June 4

Venue: Shao Yifu Building, Room C308

8:40-9:00 Welcoming Remarks

Tang Zhengdong (Dean, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Nanjing University)
Kathryn Hellerstein (University of Pennsylvania)
Xu Xin (Nanjing University)

Group Photo

9:00-9:30

Keynote: Xu Xin (Nanjing University). Jewish Communities and Modern China: Encounter of Modern Civilization
Moderator: Fu Youde (Shandong University)

9:35-10:50 Religious Jews in China: 20th & 21st Century

Samuel Heilman (Queens College, CUNY). Chabad Lubavitch and Contemporary China: Explaining the Connection
Marc Shapiro (University of Scranton). The Mir Yeshiva and Its Shanghai Experience
Ai Rengui (Henan University). When Did the Muscle Jews Come to the Far East: Jewish Sports and Identity in the First Half of Twentieth Century Shanghai
Moderator: Rebecca Kobrin (Columbia University)

Tea Break: 10:50-11:05

11:05-11:55 Comparative Theologies

Fu Youde (Shandong University). Reform Judaism in Germany and the New Cultural Movement in China
Hu Hao (Henan University). Comparative Studies on the Theological Faith of Taoism and Judaism
Moderator: Samuel Heilman (Queens College, CUNY).

Lunch (Third Floor, International Conference Center)

14:00-15:15 Jews in Shanghai I

Wang Jian (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences). On the Routes of the Escape of Jewish Refugees to China during World War II from the Newly Found Historical Materials
Nancy Berliner (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Jewish Artists in Shanghai: Visions of a Place and Time
Yang Meng (Free University of Berlin). Jewish Exile in Shanghai
Moderator: Maisie J. Meyer (London School of Economics)

Tea Break: 15:15-15:30

15:30-16:45 Immigrants & Travelers

Rebecca Kobrin (Columbia University). From Angel Island and Ellis Island: American Jews and Chinese-Americans in the American Immigration Regime
Stephen Jacobs (Rochester Institute of Technology). Mordechi Marches to Manchuria: A Case Study in the Challenges and Rewards of Adapting and Expanding Historical Documents for the World Wide Web
Bao Anruo (Columbia University). The Image of China in the Yiddish Newspapers during the Russo-Japanese War
Moderator: Jan Schwarz (Lund University)

16:50-17:40 Cross-cultural Dialogue—Drama and Pedagogy

Zhang Ping (Tel Aviv University). Life is Bigger than Suffering: Hanoch Levin’s Suitcase Packers and Cao Yu’s Beijingers in the Light of Cross-textual Dialogue
Li Dong (Shanghai International Studies University). How to Teach a Class of Jewish American Literature to Chinese Students---With Anzia Yezierska’s Short Fiction Children of Loneliness as an Example
Moderator: Fu Xiaowei (Sichuan International Studies University)

Dinner (Third Floor, International Conference Center)


Tuesday, June 5

Venue: Shao Yifu Building, Room C308

9:00-9:30

Keynote: Zhang Longxi (City University of Hong Kong). Jewish and Chinese Literature as World Literature
Moderator: David Stern (Harvard University)

9:35-10:50 Translation & Reception: China and Yiddish

Kathryn Hellerstein (University of Pennsylvania). China in Yiddish: Translations of Poetry and Theater
Fu Xiaowei (Sichuan International Studies University). The Influence of Central and Eastern European Jewish Literature in China
Jan Schwarz (Lund University). I. B. Singer’s Art of Ghost Writing and Its Chinese Reception: Enemies, A Love Story
Moderator: Zhong Zhiqing (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)

Tea Break: 10:50-11:05

11:05-11:55 The Hebrew Bible in Chinese

Irene Eber (Hebrew University). From Rags to Riches: Joseph and His Family
Liu Yan (Beijing International Studies University). The Transcultural Characteristics of the Chinese Bible Translated by Jewish Christian S.I.J. Schereschewsky (1831-1906) ---A Case Study of Song of Songs
Moderator: Meng Zhenhua (Nanjing University)

Lunch (Third Floor, International Conference Center)

14:00-14:50 Jews in Shanghai II

Maisie J. Meyer (London School of Economics). The Transnationalism of Shanghai’s Baghdadi Jews
Han Yi (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences). The Council of the Jewish Community Shanghai and Its Relief Activities
Moderator: Wang Jian (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)

14:55-16:30 Chinese Perception of Jews and Israelis

Zhong Zhiqing (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). The Reception of Amos Oz in China
Cao Jian (Sun Ye-san University). The “Jewish Question” and Its Discussion in China
Zhou Jiaxin (Nanjing University). Studies on Moses Hess in China
Song Lihong (Nanjing University). Israel in Chinese Eyes
Moderator: Zhang Ping (Tel Aviv University)

16:40-17:10 Conclusion

David Stern, Zhang Longxi, Song Lihong and Kathryn Hellerstein

Dinner (Third Floor, International Conference Center)

 

Sponsored by:

Glazer Institute of Jewish and Israel Studies, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, Nanjing University
University of Pennsylvania China Research and Engagement Fund
Jewish Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania
Institute of Advanced Studies, Nanjing University