The Last Rose Of Shanghai / Weina Dai Randel
1,001 Days of Awesome Reads - Day 37
Women’s History Month - Celebrating HerStory
My husband and I watched the movie Midway the other night (interesting, and I’d recommend it for anyone with an interest in WWII), and there’s a small story-within-a-story about The Doolittle Raid on Tokyo. After Doolittle crashed into China, Chinese citizens (who were under Japanese occupation) helped him (and others in the mission) escape to safety. At the end of the movie, in its historical notes, it mentions that the Chinese paid for their insubordination. It’s estimated that the Japanese executed 250,000 Chinese citizens in retaliation.
When I saw this, I remembered just how brutal the Japanese were to their enemies during WWII, and it brought to mind a recent read that I hope everyone will pick up if they haven’t already: The Last Rose Of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel.
There’s a lot going on in this powerful, evocative novel. Main female character Aiyi is a young nightclub owner who is an effective businesswoman, but gets no support or credit from her family.
As wealthy Chinese business owners, she and her family are also targeted by the oppressive Japanese officials who take over Shanghai.
And then she falls in love with a Jewish German refugee and piano player who she hires to play in her club.
When we (and by using “we” I’m loosely representing white Americans) talk about the horrors of WWII, we’re pretty much referring to the Nazis. But the Japanese were even worse, especially in the occupation of China.
It’s estimated that as many as 4 million military personnel and 18 million civilians were murdered by the Japanese.
Weina Dai Randel shines a spotlight on the horrors of the Japanese occupation, and adds details that remind us how excruciating their treatment of the Chinese people was. But she also tells a story of defiance, hope and courage in the midst of bitter circumstances, and how families managed to survive, thrive and even rebuild in the aftermath.
It’s a good reminder of a brutal national experience that we hear much too little of, so thank you Weina for your vibrant, compelling, beautiful story.
(A little side note: I definitely also recommend Weina’s first two books/duology, THE MOON IN THE PALACE and THE EMPRESS OF BRIGHT MOON, breathing life into the life of legendary Empress Wu. If you’d like to read another fictionalized account of the Japanese occupation, I also loved Hazel Gaynor’s WHEN WE WERE YOUNG AND BRAVE, about an English school in Northern China that is taken over by Japanese forces. All beautiful, powerful books.)
Happy reading! xo
Explore more about Weina and her books at Amazon:
Weina Dai Randel | The Last Rose of Shanghai
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instagram.com/bobbidumas | facebook.com/BobbiWrites
You can see all the books I’ve written about so far in my 1,001 Days of Awesome Reads project, which I started on 2/14/22:
booksandfriends.substack.com/archive
from the cover of The Last Rose Of Shanghai:
In Japanese-occupied Shanghai, two people from different cultures are drawn together by fate and the freedom of music...
1940. Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany, an outsider searching for shelter in a city wary of strangers. He loses nearly all hope until he crosses paths with Aiyi. When she hires Ernest to play piano at her club, her defiance of custom causes a sensation. His instant fame makes Aiyi's club once again the hottest spot in Shanghai. Soon they realize they share more than a passion for jazz—but their differences seem insurmountable, and Aiyi is engaged to another man.
As the war escalates, Aiyi and Ernest find themselves torn apart, and their choices between love and survival grow more desperate. In the face of overwhelming odds, a chain of events is set in motion that will change both their lives forever.
From the electrifying jazz clubs to the impoverished streets of a city under siege, The Last Rose of Shanghai is a timeless, sweeping story of love and redemption.
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