Jews in Modern Tientsin exhibit opens in Tianjin from July to August
By YANG CHENG | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-07-26 18:32
A photo exhibition themed as Jews in Modern Tientsin opened in mid-July in Tianjin and will run till the end of August.
The exhibition features the lives of Jewish people in the city during the first half of the 20th century, when their peak population hit 3,500.
The curator and host of the show is 70-year-old Song Anna, who has been collecting photos and interviewing Jewish people throughout the world since 2001.
Song, who is a retired reporter from Tianjin Daily, said the exhibition was only a "minimal" part of a previous show and her research on the lives of Jewish people in Tianjin.
"Among the people in the show, two are still alive in their 90s," she said.
The photo show was part of an exhibition in Jerusalem in 2010.
The current Israel president Isaac Herzog, who was a senior minister-level official in the country in 2010, cut the ribbon for the show.
The show was also exhibited in Tel Avi in 2011.
All of the exhibitions were presented as gifts from the Tianjin people to Israel and have since been collected by the The Diaspora Museum at the Tel Aviv University.
"When I began to search for the photos in local Tianjin's archives and libraries, I could hardly find any information ... I was fortunate to have many Jewish associations around the world to support my project to trace the Jewish people's steps in Tianjin," she said.
Irit Ben-Abba, Israel ambassador in China, said: "I'm very surprised and emotional at the photo show -- the Jewish community in Tianjin and I would like to express our sincere thanks to all the Chinese people again for their hospitality."
Luan Jianzhang, director general of the Foreign Affairs Office in Tianjin, said: "The photos reflect the friendship between Tianjiners and Jewish people and the outlook of the Community with a Shared Future for Mankind."
The ambassador noted the Jewish people's lives in China could date back to the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, when they conducted business and trade in Kaifeng, Henan province and led their lifestyle and formed communities.
In the 1920s, the Jewish people lived in Qingdao, Harbin, Tianjin and Shanghai.
