Between 1938 and 1940, during the three to four weeks
it took European Jewish refugees aboard Shanghai-bound ships to reach
their destination, weary and traumatized passengers fleeing Nazi
persecution in Europe experienced what researcher Ryan
Cheuk Him Sun calls a “space of possibilities.” On luxury
ocean liners and in ports of call along the way, refugees tried to
make sense of their displacement and contemplate their uncertain
futures.
In this lecture, Ryan
Sun discusses what Jewish refugees did onboard these
passenger liners and how their interactions with non-Europeans in
colonial ports of call mediated and shaped their understandings of
displacement and self. He examines the place of these experiences in
oral history testimonies and other sources and reflects on why they
have been largely overlooked. Bringing together oral and textual
materials, he offers a refugee-centered snapshot of the human
experience behind the journeys to Shanghai.
Ryan
Cheuk Him Sun is the Center for
Advanced Genocide Research’s 2022-2023 Breslauer, Rutman, and
Anderson Research Fellow.
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