Review

How did Shanghai become "The Paris of the Orient "in the 1930s and harbor 18,000 Jewish refugees from Nazism? How did Hong Kong become and remain a thriving colony independent from China from 1858 until China's recent takeover? The Last Kings of Shanghai is a brilliant history of Shanghai and Hong Kong and two dynastic Jewish families which had major roles in their development in the 19th and 20th centuries. This meticulously researched history reads like an epic multi-generational novel. It is no surprise, then, that author Jonathan Kaufman is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and former Chief of the Beijing Bureau of the Wall Street Journal. Two families, both with roots in Baghdad when it was part of the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century, the Sassoon family and the Kadoorie family, were powers behind the rise of Shanghai and Hong Kong. The two families were very different, but both included visionary and creative entrepreneurs, both men and women, who understood business, practiced philanthropy in different ways, and knew, with one drastic miscalculation, how to get along with China. Both families became billionaires and their success was not limited to business. Rachel Sassoon, to cite one example, was the editor of two manor London newspapers. This extraordinary story began in Baghdad in the mid-19th century when David Sassoon, a wealthy father of eight sons, dispersed them across Asia and became the first globalist. One son, Elias, settled in Bombay but after some success there he moved on to Shanghai. Later, after the Sassoons were thriving in Shanghai, a young employee of the Sassoon business, Elly Kadoorie, was unfairly treated by a superior and left the Sassoon business and struck out on his own. A second family dynasty was born. The two families and other foreign businessmen lived and worked in an international settlement in Shanghai which became increasingly independent of the local government. The opium trade brought riches. It was illegal in China but supported by the British Empire and led to the Opium Wars in which Britain prevailed. A defeated China surrendered Hong Kong and in 1858 it became a British Colony as Shanghai continued to grow. The families diversified into banking, real estate, and other ventures and Shanghai and Hong Kong became major centers of trade and finance. The families spread out and their influence extended, first across Asia and then to London and other western capitals, all originating from the opium trade. Balzac's adage, "Behind every great fortune lies a crime" comes to mind. Kaufman relates the rise of both families in engaging detail and with masterful character descriptions, creating a lively narrative which can make the reader forget this is all true until people like Sun Yat-sen, the Prince of Wales, and Chang Kai-shek appear. During the 1920s and 1930s, the international settlement in Shanghai was an exciting, glamorous destination for people from many countries who socialized in elegant Art Deco hotel ballrooms, lavish clubs and parties, and at the Shanghai racetrack. Stunning architecture graced the Bund, the famous waterfront Boulevard where the best hotels, largest banks, consular offices, and major businesses were located. This was "The Paris of the Orient." Kaufman recounts how 18,000 Jewish refugees from Nazism found safety in Shanghai with the help of Chinese Consular officials in Europe who issued thousands of Visas for them. Brothers Lawrence and Horace Kadoorie provided for them in Shanghai where a large section of the city was transformed into a Jewish community. Later, Victor Sassoon, a playboy businessman, protected these refugees during the Japanese Occupation of China during World War II. Victor Sassoon engaged with an anti-Semitic Japanese Army Captain who intended grave harm for the Jews. Victor Sassoon outfoxed this official and saved the refugees for the duration of the War. Many of them moved on to the United States after the War, including, among other notables, a young Michael Blumenthal who became Secretary of the Treasury. After WW II, the Kadoories continued to thrive but the Sassoon fortunes declined. Victor Sassoon, unlike his longtime female partner, failed to grasp the threat of the Communist Revolution led by Mao Tse Tung, who hated the capitalism of Shanghai. When the revolution succeeded in 1950, the Sassoons, who had supported Chang and the Nationalists, fled Shanghai but the Kadoories, who helped 360,000 Chinese escape the Communists and settle in Hong Kong, accommodated to and eventually worked with the new regime. After having long controlled the supply of electric power to all of Hong Kong, the Kadoories built nuclear power plants in mainland China for the Communist government. They worked with the Chinese Communist Party just as the tech giants like Apple and Google work with the CCP today to their mutual benefit. Notably, Lawrence Kadoorie did not criticize the Communist regime after the Tianamen Square massacre. Among its billions in assets, the Kadoorie family owns the Peninsula hotels. Kaufman makes clear that the development of Shanghai and Hong Kong by the Sassoons, the Kadoories and others did not come without cost to the people of China. Millions of Chinese were addicted to opium. Ironically, China now illegally exports the deadly drug fentanyl to the U.S. Colonialism brought both advances and massive exploitation of Chinese workers. Kaufman does not gloss over such facts while presenting a fascinating and very readable history of two great cities and two great families.

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