Cultural accommodation and exchange in the refugee experience: a german–jewish musician in shanghai

Abstract

This article uses biography as a means of penetrating the musical culture of Shanghai at a particular historical moment. The multi-faceted interaction of the German-Jewish refugee composer Wolfgang Fraenkel with his Chinese host environment between 1939 and 1947 affords a rare opportunity to observe the processes by which musical influence takes place – an influence flowing both from Fraenkel to his Chinese students and from Chinese culture into Fraenkel's own music and thinking, however tentatively. Although in his public and semi-public musical life, Fraenkel was pragmatic rather than idealistic, he was one of the few who were willing to confront ethnic separation and prejudice.