Strangers on the Praia – Jewish Refugees, Macao & WW2 – Cha Literary Journal September 2016, Issue 33

While working on my next book (out next year) I got sidetracked somewhat in researching and following the lives and journeys of a number of Shanghai-based Jewish refugees in the late 1930s and during World War Two who moved on to “neutral” Macao hoping that from there they could get to some form of sanctuary – preferably a boat to neutral Portugal and from there to America or Britain. There were ways to Macao from the “Solitary Island” of Shanghai in WW2 while the British retained a Consulate in Macao (the only one between India and Australia) throughout the war. There were some desperate stories and some daring escapes, including back into “Free” China via remote and now mostly forgotten the French treaty port of Kwangchowan (now Guangzhouwan) and its tiny capital Fort Bayard. I think the whole Jewish refugee experience in Macao has been forgotten largely, certainly against the larger tales of defeat and internment in Hong Kong and the recollections of the Shanghai Ghetto in the war, so I hope this resurrects some interest in this footnote to the refugee experience in the conflict.

Anyway, never wishing to waste anything, I’ve put a lot of this research and anecote together in a piece of creative non-fiction – Strangers on the Praia – for the current September 2016 issues (no.33) of the Hong Kong-based Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. You can read it online – Strangers on the Praia is here and the entire issue here.

The issues great cover – “Do Mong Kok Dream of Neon Sheep? AKA Blade Running in Mong Kok” by Holden Liang