The End of Jews in China

When Jesuit missionaries first discovered Chinese Jews in the 19th Century they were shocked to find out that Jewish communities had existed in China for over a millennium- the largest and longest lasting community being the Kaifeng Jews. Known as the "Seven Surnames and Eight Families," or simply foreigners, Jews had entered Kaifeng fleeing persecution and asked for protection from the governor of the province, at which point they were given Chinese surnames (Buck 3). From this point on, the Jews had no reason to fear persecution in polytheistic China, where their religion was not offensive or even understood by the Chinese. Instead, the Jews of Kaifeng were at risk of disappearing through assimilation, a possibility basically non-existent in Europe and the Near East.

The story of Peony deals with the end of the Kaifeng Jewish community- the point at which they stopped being a separate people and become fully Chinese. Indeed, by the end of the novel the last Rabbi had died, no one in the community is able to read Hebrew, the the synagogue is falling into disrepair, with the holy stones being sold to foreigners. The Jews of China simultaneously achieve what European Jews were hoping for and avoiding: a lack of discrimination and complete assimilation.

In the novel the character David is trying to understand why his people faced persecution in other lands. An old trader of Jewish origin, who regularly took caravan journeys West tried to answer this question by explaining a story from his childhood, "They were hated because they seperated themselves from the rest of mankind. They called themselves chosen of God...I come of a large family, and there was one among us, my third brother, who declared himself the favorite of my parents. He boasted of it to the rest of us--'I am the chosen one,'...And we hated him...I hate him to this day. I would gladly see him dead...I kill nothing. But if he died I would not mourn" (Buck 163). For a people who have undergone seemingly inexplicably oppression for all of history. This would also explain why this did not create a issue in China, where the people thought of the Jews as having their own god, not being the chosen people of the one true God. To Kao Lien, the Jewish trader, this has not been worth it, and he sees the time for this separation as being over. "Are we to forget all that we are? No...But we are to forget the past and separate ourselves no more. We are to live now, wherever we are, and we are to pour the strength of our souls into the peoples of the world" (Buck 164). The Chinese Jews ultimately followed this strategy, though they had little choice as their culture faded. By the time of the Revolution the Chinese Jews suffered like everyone else in China, but no differently.

It is easy to understand why the Jews would want to maintain their culture. It is also easy to understand why their success at business and trade would make them feel like they had a separate society worth holding onto. However, it is difficult to determine if maintaining a separate culture has really been worth it given the horrific oppression that Jews have faced. Peony creates a very interesting social structure by looking at an unoppressed minority trying to determine if there is any reason to not be Chinese.