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Stateless in Shanghai
With vivid firsthand descriptions of Asia's most cosmopolitan city from the 1920s to the 1950s, this recollection chronicles Liliane Willens' life and trials in Shanghai as China collapsed under the weight of foreign invaders and civil war. Engaging and often humorous, this unique memoir relates Willens' experiences as a Jewish Russian living in early Communist China.
327 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 2010
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June 23, 2024
You put you right foot in
Your put your right foot out
You put your right foot in
And you shake it all about
You do the hokey pokey
And you turn yourself around
That’s what it’s all about.
So, Liliane, how’s by you? I just finished your memoir. Thank you.
I, david, knight errant and occasional shoe shiner, confess to know almost nothing about most things. A scholar I am not. When I started this book, I knew close to nothing about the history of China from the 1900’s to the 1950’s. And to think that in a month I will have forgotten all that I learned. And so it goes.
It is an incredible story. This young girl, one parent from the Ukraine and the other from that large city in Siberia, found it necessary to leave an oppressive Russia. They ventured to Shanghai, a virtual Babel in those days, to start a new life.
They endured all the nutty things that each new government brings with it. They were witnesses to vicious attacks from within their ranks and from outside hostile forces, like the Japanese during this period. And the war in Europe was raging. Pearl Harbor. Nagasaki. Hiroshima. Korea. And when Mao was in control, well, it was time for foreigners to leave again.
Liliane was born in 1909 and it appears that she is still alive and active. She taught me a lot. And I enjoyed seeing her world through her eyes. I would recommend this book about the life of a young lady, her sisters and her parents to anyone.
Surely, this is one of the few accounts of that period that has been written and shared by someone who actually experienced it.
May you live another healthy hundred years and write to us again.
Your put your right foot out
You put your right foot in
And you shake it all about
You do the hokey pokey
And you turn yourself around
That’s what it’s all about.
So, Liliane, how’s by you? I just finished your memoir. Thank you.
I, david, knight errant and occasional shoe shiner, confess to know almost nothing about most things. A scholar I am not. When I started this book, I knew close to nothing about the history of China from the 1900’s to the 1950’s. And to think that in a month I will have forgotten all that I learned. And so it goes.
It is an incredible story. This young girl, one parent from the Ukraine and the other from that large city in Siberia, found it necessary to leave an oppressive Russia. They ventured to Shanghai, a virtual Babel in those days, to start a new life.
They endured all the nutty things that each new government brings with it. They were witnesses to vicious attacks from within their ranks and from outside hostile forces, like the Japanese during this period. And the war in Europe was raging. Pearl Harbor. Nagasaki. Hiroshima. Korea. And when Mao was in control, well, it was time for foreigners to leave again.
Liliane was born in 1909 and it appears that she is still alive and active. She taught me a lot. And I enjoyed seeing her world through her eyes. I would recommend this book about the life of a young lady, her sisters and her parents to anyone.
Surely, this is one of the few accounts of that period that has been written and shared by someone who actually experienced it.
May you live another healthy hundred years and write to us again.
Displaying 1 of 1 review