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Susan Blumberg-Kason, Bernardineโs Shanghai Salon: The Story of The Doyenne of Old China, Post Hill Press, 2023. 275 pgs.
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โAcknowledgements are also due toโฆ Bernardine Szold Fritzโฆ who, sometimes singly and sometimes in chorus, nagged me into writing this book.โ Readers of My Country and My People, Lin Yutangโs famous book about China and its people, first published in 1935, would have read the above passage in the Authorโs Preface where Bernadineโs name was mentioned. But perhaps for many, the name did not mean much. โShe was not a household name in the US, and most of her famous friends did not think to repay her many kindnesses with public recognition[.]โ Few people have heard about Bernadineโs connection with Lin and other preeminent Chinese writers and artists in Shanghai in the 1930s, just before the Japanese invasion.
Bernadine lived an extraordinary life, starting in 1896 in Peoria, Illinois, ending in 1982 in Los Angeles, with journeys to Chicago, New York, Paris, and of course, Shanghai, in between. She was an influential figure in the world of literature and arts, but other than appearing occasionally in the background of the writings and correspondences of her more well-known friends, she was rarely in the limelight. Until now. Susan Blumberg-Kasonโs illuminating and thoroughly researched biography of Bernadine Szold Fritz presents a dazzling portrait of this intriguing, fascinating woman, and hopefully, reclaims her rightful place in history.
Bernadineโs journey to China started in 1929 when she travelled by train from Paris to Manchuria to marry Chester Fritz, a silver broker from North Dakota, who had arrived in China as early as 1917, and who would become Bernardineโs fourth husband. They had only met once before, more than six months earlier, in Shanghai, when Bernardine and her friend the American heiress Barbara Harrison embarked on a fourteen-month trip through Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Chester had courted Bernadine with a stream of telegrams, imploring Bernadine to return to Shanghai and marry him. This sounds almost like modern-day online dating. Sometimes, it does work out. In the case of Bernadine and Chester:
โThey both stared at one another with no clue as to what came next, Chester with a tight-lipped smile and Bernadine speechless, perhaps for the first time in her life.โ
Bernadine was a romantic at heart, and she was brave to continue to believe in and search for love after three failed marriages. It took real courage to leave Paris and start a new life in Shanghai.
Her marriage to Chester soon proved to be trying, if not an outright mistake. Chester had no tolerance for Rosemary, Bernadineโs daughter from her first marriage. During Rosemaryโs one and only visit to Shanghai, Chester refused to talk to the girl. In addition, self-centred to the extreme like a very young child, Chester was not a supportive husband during Bernadineโs health crises, one of which resulting in a hasty mastectomy. How sad it was for Bernadine, or for any woman, to not be able to talk to her husband about her health problems, for fear he would weep and throw a tantrum like a baby. As Blumberg-Kason writes,
โBernadine may have held progressive ideas when it came to politics and equality, but she was still subject to the same social and cultural constraints and expectation of her time, whether she realized it or not.โ
Although Bernardine might have failed in her many efforts trying to please and appease Chester and save their marriage, she succeeded in what she did the best: bringing people together. Having written for the New Yorker, the Chicago Evening Post, the New York Daily News, and the China Critic in Shanghai, Bernadine was a seasoned writer and journalist in her own right. Having studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and being a part of Chicagoโs Little Theatre, she had also been an artist. But in her own words, she had โan enthusiasm, a vitalityโฆ an exotic kind of personality that appealed to peopleโ, and this was what she did in Shanghai. In the style of salons organised by other Jewish women of her time in Europe, most notably Gertrude Steinโs in Paris, Bernadine transformed the living room of her and Chesterโs residence in the French Concession into a gathering place for domestic and international writers and artists. The salon was called the Red and Black Apartment by its regular guests, including Hu Shih (โher first Chinese friend in Shanghaiโ), Lin Yutang and his wife Liao Tsui-fen, the poet and publisher Sinmay Zau, members of the Soong family, Mei Lanfang, the actresses Tong (Tang) Ying and Butterfly Wu, and Daisy โthe Shanghai Princessโ Kwok. Her international guests included Sir Victor Sassoon, Charlie Chaplin, Claudette Colbert, Emily Hahn, the Russian Jewish composer Aaron Avshalomoff, the Mexican artists Miguel Covarrubias and his wife Rosa, and Anna May Wong. Reading this biography of Bernadine is like taking a refresher course of a Whoโs Who in the 1930โs literary and art world in Shanghai. As reported in the North China Herald in October 1933, โIt would have been difficult to name a nationality which was not represented at Mrs. Chester Fritzโs cocktail party[.]โ Bernadineโs salon was international and inclusive.
Bernadineโs other great achievement in Shanghai was founding the International Arts Theater in 1933. Through the four years of IAT (it was forced to be closed in 1937 due to the Japanese invasion), with a mission of โpromoting and encouraging a fuller knowledge of the life and arts of each other by the various nationalities to be found in Shanghai,โ she produced ballets, plays, lectures (including in 1935, a โcontroversial debate around birth control in Shanghai, newly available over the past five yearsโ and a โRussia nightโ to celebrate Soviet culture), and fine arts exhibitions. The most famous production was Lady Precious Stream. Unlike productions in the West where white actors wore yellow face to play Chinese characters, the IAT productionโs entire cast were Chinese. Later Bernadine advised the Broadway production to hire Chinese actors, and Anna May Wong campaigned to play the lead role, but they both failed in their attempt.
Blumberg-Kason combines her extensive historical research and fine story-telling skills to present to the readers a woman of extreme complexity. Bernadine was limited in certain ways by her time. Her life was part of โtransnational colonialismโ, a term coined by the scholar Isabella Jackson, and refers to a type of authority exercised not by big, national powers but by residentsโWesterners and prosperous Chinese and Japanese, in Shanghai. Because of Chesterโs wealth, she lived in the French Concession, away from the Chinese cityโa privileged life with many Chinese servants, and she only realised years later that โwe got very spoiled in a certain wayโ, and โwhat a cruel life it was for the poor peopleโ. She went on to say that โevery decent person rejoiced when the system changedโ, referring to the arrival of Communism in 1949.
Bernardine was ambivalent about her Judaism and Jewish identity. Growing up in Peoria, she felt like an outsider. Her parents sent their children to Methodist schools, hoping to impart in them good discipline. She most certainly encountered anti-Semitism in Europe of the mid-1930s, mentioning a โcruel episodeโ in a letter to a friend. She lamented that โwhen people find out youโre a Jew, they resent not having knownโ, whereas there was never such a requirement to declare oneโs identity for being โa Catholic or Spaniardโ. In Shanghai, she worked and befriended many Jews, like Aaron Avshalomoff, Dr Max Mohrโa physician and friend of D.H. Lawrence, who fled Germany to Shanghai in 1933, Sir Victor Sassoon, and Emily Hahn. On the other hand, Bernardine also worked with Nazi sympathisers and collaborators with the Japanese, perhaps because she was โpolitically naรฏveโ, or โuninterested, uninformed, or knowingly turning a blind eyeโ. After returning to the US, Bernadine was actively involved in anti-Nazi causes, and also donated to the American League for a Free Palestine, an organisation with goals such as a โJewish stateโ and โto rebuild Palestine in its historical boundaries, with the Arab population as equal partnerโ. Iโd like to think that Bernadine was a true believer of the shared human experience, regardless of oneโs nationality, background, or creed. In her words, โโฆif people can come together in groups, through altruistic motivesโI think there is no more fascinating experiment, and if I may say so, no more exacting social disciplineโ.
Perhaps for readers and Bernardine herself, the biggest โcontroversyโ in her life was her relationship with her only daughter Rosemary, and what could have become of Rosemary and her daughter and grandson, had Bernardine kept her daughter by her side instead of shuffling the girl between boarding schools and enlisting her friends as surrogate mothers. What if Bernardine had been a mother to Rosemary, which was what Rosemary needed, instead of being a friend, as Bernadine had made herself to believe? If Chester had been more tolerant of Rosemary, could Rosemaryโs tragic life have been avoided? Is it fair to blame Bernardine for everything that went wrong with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson? The answer is we donโt know. Blumberg-Kason had this pungent comment about Bernardineโs achievement and being a mother:
โBernardineโs achievements, had they been accomplished by a man, would never have been diminished by her parenting style.โ
Blumberg-Kason concludes the book with this insight about Bernardine:
โShe broke into acting and journalism at a time when women couldnโt vote. She had the courage to divorce when her marriage fell apart, even if it means living without financial security. She was a romantic and an arts aficionado, and adventurer and a loyal friend. She felt more content bringing talented and extraordinary people together during a time of incredible innovation and accomplishment in the arts.โ
I couldnโt agree more. And for me, I will also cherish this image of this amazing woman:
โBernadine brings her rice bowl to her mouth with one hand and her chopsticks with the other. With her signature turban and chucky earrings and necklaces, Bernadineโs wide eyes appear as hypnotic spirals.โ
How to cite: Collins, X. H. โThe Extraordinary Story of Bernardine Szold FritzโA Review of Susan Blumberg-Kasonโs Bernardineโs Shanghai Salon: The Story of The Doyenne of Old China.โ Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, 28 Nov. 2023, chajournal.blog/2023/11/28/bernardine.
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X. H. Collins was born in Hechuan, Sichuan Province, China, and grew up in Kangding on the East Tibet Plateau. She has a PhD in nutrition and is a retired biology professor. She is the author of the novel Flowing Water, Falling Flowers (MWC Press, 2020), and has published short stories and essays. She now lives in Iowa with her family. For more information, visit her website and follow her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. [All contributions by X. H. Collins.]