Introduction

In a statement of the early 1990s, Jing Yingzhong, the Secretary-General of the Shanghai Judaica Studies Association and Deputy Director of the Centre of Israel and Jewish Studies of Peace and Development, together with Zu Weilei – Jing’s co-editor of the book A major review of the field of Jewish studies in China in the 1990s – claimed that ‘China is at a time of reform and opening to the world; Jewish studies amongst the Chinese academic community are also blossoming and becoming mature.’ ¹ Another of Jing’s colleagues and the Director of the Centre of Israel and Jewish Studies of Peace and Development, Hu Gang, wrote in the spring of 1991 that Jewish studies in China had long been a ‘forbidden territory’ and Chinese scholars in such a field were like the Israeli pioneers determined to make the desert bloom’. ² Ironic and problematic as these statements might seem to be, and one might be puzzled by the connection between China’s reforms and Jewish studies in China, this ‘Jewish study phenomenon’ in China however challenged the predominant position that Jewish studies are exclusively of Western/Christian and of Jewish interests. In Eastern countries, such as China, people have traditionally been regarded as not only being tolerant towards, but also ignorant about the Jews.