Join us for our virtual FL JCC Author Series. Bernadine's Shanghai Salon by Susan Blumberg-Kason.
Bernardine Szold Fritz arrived in Shanghai in 1929 to marry her fourth husband. Like other Jewish women before her, she started a salon in her home, introducing Emily Hahn, the charismatic writer for The New Yorker, to hotelier Sir Victor Sassoon and legendary poet Sinmay Zau. And when Hollywood stars Anna May Wong and Charlie Chaplin passed through Shanghai, Bernardine organized gatherings to introduce them to their Shanghai contemporaries. When Bernardine’s salon could not accommodate all who wished to attend, she founded the International Arts Theater to produce avant- garde plays, ballets, and lectures, often pushing audiences beyond their comfort zones. As WWII loomed, Bernardine’s devotion to the arts and the people of Shanghai brought joy to the city just before it would change forever.
Susan Blumberg-Kason is a mem- oirist and biographer and co-editor of an anthology set in Hong Kong. She is a regular contributor to the Asian Review of Books and World Literature Today. She became interested in 1930s Shanghai when she was in the city in the mid-1990s for her thesis research. Susan now lives with her family in the Chicago suburbs.