"China, Japan, and the Flight of European Jewish Refugees to Shanghai, 1938-1945"
Professional Background
Ms. Gao Bei, a native of Beijing China, earned a Master of Law and a B.A. in international relations from the University of Kitakyushu, Japan, and has also studied at the University of Kyushu, Fukuoka, Japan. During her fellowship at the Museum, she was a Ph.D. candidate in East Asian history at the University of Virginia. For her Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship for Archival Research, she conducted research for her dissertation project “China, Japan, and the Flight of European Jewish Refugees to Shanghai, 1938-1945.”
Ms. Gao is the recipient of several prestigious grants and fellowships from institutions such as the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; the Japan Ministry of Education, Science and Culture; and the Japan Scholarship Society. At the University of Virginia, Ms. Gao assisted in teaching the courses War, Justice, and Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century; the Cold War; and the Chinese Revolution.
Fellowship Research
During her tenure at the Center, Ms. Gao advanced her doctoral research by exploring the Museum’s archival holdings and making extensive use of the Registry of Holocaust Survivors. In her study she contextualized the complex political and diplomatic realities of the era and examined the ways in which 18,000 European Jewish refugees arrived in Shanghai; the attitudes of the Chinese and Japanese governments toward the refugees; and the interaction between the refugees and the local communities in Shanghai during and after World War II.
Ms. Gao was in residence at the Mandel Center from September 1 to December 31, 2004.