ABSTRACT
This chapter explores that musical activities, including the secular songs, cabaret numbers and operettas of Shanghais Austro-German Jewish community were predicated on activism to fulfill social, economic, and spiritual needs. Adopting a sociological approach to examine music's vital role in the expressions of irony in the Austro-German Jewish community, four broad contextual areas will be explored: Jewish Politics: Music for the Sacred and the Profane, Jewish Secular Music and the Politics of Environment, Operettas and the Politics of Social Status, and The Concept of Politicizing the Apolitical. Austro-German Jews felt an affinity towards operetta because it rekindled the feeling of nostalgia connected to a familiar middle-class lifestyle that was still very much a part of their emotional and intellectual self-identity. The Politics of Environment created ironic contexts in which Austro-German and Eastern European Jews honored life in Shanghai through the performances of different secular musical genres.
