A World In Pictures - Emily Salamanca

This photo shows to Chinese girls and a little Jewish girl. During the Holocaust, it is a little known fact, but many Jewish Europeans fled to China where their religion was tolerated. Between 1933 and 1941, it is estimated that 20,000 Jews escaped persecution by fleeing to the Chinese port of Shanghai. Shanghai was one of the few places in the world that would accept Jewish refugees at this time, Japan being another. I think this photo is important because it shows how unlikely cultures can blend together in the face of danger. The Chinese, like many other groups were doing at the time, could have shut its border to the Jewish, but instead invited and protected them. I like this picture because it displays how happy and sweet cultural diffusion can be. Those girls probably don't speak the same language and can barely understand one another, which makes the laughing, done by the girl on the right, to be even more incredible. Today, we could learn a lot form this picture about how we should accept every culture that comes into our nation with dignity and respect because we can learn a lot and also, have fun! The Jewish girl was lucky enough to grow up in the midst of this depressing time and the Chinese girls received an unparalleled cultural exchange.