Love/Hate
Inside China’s Bizarre Obsession With Jews
How ‘Jewish’ became Chinese shorthand for success
On a muggy summer day, I happened upon two twentysomething Chinese men bickering over the best angle for a selfie in front of the memorial wall at the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. After they declined my offer to help with the photo, I asked why they had come to the museum. They said they were aspiring entrepreneurs, and they had come to learn how to be like the Jews.
“Jews are rich and good at business,” one said.
“And very clever,” the other added.
I told them I was Jewish.
“Jews are great!” said the first. “But you don’t look Jewish.”
“What do Jews look like?” I asked.
“They wear suits and hats and have big beards.”
I pulled up a picture of a Hasidic Jew on my phone.
“Yes, like that,” one said.
As it turns out, Jews have become something of an obsession over the past two decades in China. Stores carry how-to books teaching the business secrets of the Talmud, classes in Shanghai claim to provide a Jewish education, and chatty taxi drivers make the money gesture when they find out their fare is Jewish. In 2014…
