Scholar-in-Residence Chinese Dinner and Lecture: The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Shaped China

Dinner and Lecture 6:30 PM Dinner, 7:30 PM Lecture Chinese Food Dinner: $25 per member, $35 per nonmember
The Rival Jewish Dynasties that Shaped China
The Sassoons and the Kadoories stood astride Chinese business and politics for more than one hundred seventy-five years, profiting from the Opium Wars; surviving Japanese occupation; courting Chiang Kai-shek; and nearly losing everything as the Communists swept into power. In his widely praised book, The Last Kings of Shanghai, Jonathan Kaufman tells the remarkable history of how these families ignited an economic boom and opened China to the world but remained blind to the country’s deep inequality and to the political turmoil on their doorsteps. It’s a story stretching from Baghdad to Hong Kong to Shanghai to London, a tale of opium smuggling, family rivalry, political intrigue, and survival. The Boston Globe raves: “In vivid detail… examines the little-known history of two extraordinary dynasties”
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