The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel

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Aiyi and Ernest met by chance. She was immediately drawn to his beautiful and expressive blue eyes. It was frowned upon for Chinese to socialize with refugees. Ernest found himself in the same club Aiyi was in one night. He somehow found himself playing the piano. Ernest and Aiyi were attracted to each other immediately. Aiyi ended up hiring Ernest to play the piano at her club. He was a talented pianist and he helped restore the popularity and success of her club with his playing. Ernest often played Aiyi’s favorite jazz song, The Last Rose of Shanghai, for her. The two fell in love and began an impossible doomed affair. Aiyi and Ernest had to keep their love a secret. After all, Aiyi was engaged to be married and their affair could ruin her family’s reputation. Through heartbreak, tragedies, danger and prejudice Aiyi and Ernest never lost sight of the love they felt for each other, though. Often, stories of struggle are written from the point of view of middle class or impoverished characters. Aiyi being rich gives us an ang This was a beautifully written novel and it was apparent that the author did significant research. The two main characters were so well written that I felt their pain during the war and their happiness at being together. I learned a lot about the war in China and the treatment of the Chinese by the Japanese soldiers. This is a beautiful story about the pain and sorrow of the war but the overall feeling is one of love and redemption. I'd have loved less focus on the romantic angle and more on the social angle. The romance was too instant to be believable. The book is an alternating narrative. Half of it is first person, half third person. The first person narration comes from Aiyi Shao, a young woman who owns a jazz club in Shanghai. The third person parts involve Ernest Riesmann, a Jewish refugee who’s come to Shanghai with his younger sister to escape persecution in Nazi Germany.

I did greatly enjoy the unique historical setting and learning about the events in Shanghai in WWII. I knew that the Japanese had invaded Shanghai but wasn't aware of all the other international pressures in Shanghai at the time. I also had not realized that Shanghai was such a huge refuge for Jews fleeing Europe. I really enjoyed getting a look into the effects of WWII on a region of the world that you don't often get to read about during that time frame. Weina Dai Randel is the Wall Street Journal bestselling, award-winning author of four historical novels, Night Angels, The Last Rose of Shanghai, The Moon in the Palace, and The Empress of Bright Moon, historical novel series about Empress Wu (Wu Zetian), China's only female emperor. This book is my favorite kind of historical fiction – an engrossing story that also opens my eyes to a piece of history I wasn’t familiar with. The story is set in Shanghai under Japanese occupation during WWII and is told from the alternating points of view of Aiyi and Ernest. Aiyi is a young Chinese heiress with a love for jazz who owns one of Shanghai’s most popular nightclubs (she is quite the entrepreneur for her day!). Ernest is a penniless Jewish refugee from Germany searching for shelter in Shanghai. The two are brought together through music, and a great story of love, survival, and redemption unfolds. So here are 10 books – fiction and non-fiction – that reveal the unique cosmopolitan hybridity of Shanghai between the wars: Weina Dai Randel's poignant, sweeping love story paints a vibrant portrait of a little-known slice of World War II history. Not to be missed!" - Kate QuinnWhen I took a friend's advice to write a story of Jews in Shanghai, I didn't know what I was getting into. Chang recalls her own traumatic and adventurous wartime years in this novella that, because it is so personal and revelatory, took her more than 35 years to write. The long Japanese occupation of the city, the relationships that formed in those desperate times, and the terrible choices the Shanghainese were forced to make are at the heart of a book that became a fantastic movie directed by Ang Lee. Chang remains the pre-eminent bard of Shanghai. The book is beautifully written. I wasn’t aware that Shanghai was a safe harbor for European Jews early in the war. About 20,000 Jews settled in Shanghai from 1938 to 1941, but the living conditions for the Jewish refugees in Shanghai deteriorated over the course of the war due to pressure on the Japanese from their German allies. The descriptions of life in Shanghai, including the luxury living of jazz clubs and fancy hotels as well as the settlements and ghettos, were captivating and allowed me to visualize the time and place. The book is also well-researched, and the author does a great job of exploring the relationships and distrust among the Chinese, Japanese, and foreigners who are all co-existing and trying to survive in the war-torn city. I did think the love story between Aiyi and Ernest got quite dramatic at times (blindly running into battle zones more than once to find each other!), but I found them to be really enjoyable characters and I cared for them from beginning to end. As the war escalates, Aiyi and Ernest find themselves torn apart, and their choices between love and survival grow more desperate. In the face of overwhelming odds, a chain of events is set in motion that will change both their lives forever. In Japanese-occupied Shanghai, two people from different cultures are drawn together by fate and the freedom of music…

A powerful story of the relationship between a Shanghai heiress and a Jewish refugee... one readers will never forget." ―Pam Jenoff, New York Times bestselling author of The Woman with the Blue StarA classic study detailing Shanghai’s interwar cosmopolitanism, modernity and urban style. Ou-fan Lee looks at the work of six writers of the time, including Shi Zhecun, Mu Shiying and Eileen Chang, as well as commenting on Shanghai’s vibrant movie studios and publishing industry. He shows that Shanghai’s modernity, while intrinsically Chinese and profoundly anomalous, mixed easily with new ideas into the “treaty port” from the west to create the unique haipai avant garde culture of Shanghai. During WW2, a Jewish refugee Earnest seeks a new life in Shanghai where he meets Aiyi, a nightclub owner who hires him as a pianist. But as WW2 progresses their lives are changed forever.

One of the chapters contains a few paragraphs in excruciating detail about Japanese torture of prisoners; this is very gruesome to read. What bugs me is that this sequence has absolutely no bearing on the main plot. It's just that one character goes to that location, we get a few paragraphs of horrifying information, and the character is out. What was the point of that segment? Just to create some kind of impact of the brutality? It felt so out of place! There's a secret in the book. You can guess the big reveal at least 30-40 chapters before it happens. (The book has 92 chapters!) Ernest, a gifted Jewish pianist fleeing Europe and other protagonist of the novel, provides readers with a perspective into the world of Jewish refugees in Shanghai. Could you share how you conceived of the character and some of the research you did to ensure his experiences fit the historical reality of refugees in the city? I loved, loved, loved this book. I have been completely immersed in wartime Shanghai. It has been an educational, emotional, rollercoaster of a read.In the midst of shelves full of World War II stories about white people in Europe and North America, finally, here’s one set in China. Finally, here’s one that stars a Chinese woman instead of a white one with blond hair and blue eyes. Finally, here’s one that talks about the Japanese occupation of China, and the intra-Asian racism and cruelty during the war, alongside the horrors of the Nazi regime. Weina's latest novel, Night Angels, features an introverted biracial American woman from Boston and a compassionate diplomat who saved thousands of Jews by issuing them visas to Shanghai. The novel is based on Dr. Ho Fengshan, hailed as the Chinese Schindler. This should have felt like a rollercoaster but because I never connected with the characters, the exciting and tragic moments didn’t have any impact on me. It felt very long and I started to skim about half way through.