Wo Shi You Tai Ren (I am Jewish)

Occasionally it comes up in conversation, and I say that I am Jewish. I don't know what collective education the Chinese have about Jews, but I always get a thumbs up and the same reply. "You are Jewish? You are supposed to be very clever and good at business, and you can make a lot of money" and sometimes they throw in ," Einstein is the smartest man that ever lived and he is Jewish." When I told one of my translators about it, he said " Oh wow, this is a surprising and wonderful thing. Jewish people are suppose to be the smartest race in the entire world, they are also very good at business." Interestingly, everyone knows what Judaism is, but I may be the first Jew they ever met, at least in Changsha. It's interesting they know something about Jews, but also ask me if I am from Israel and immigrated to the USA, which is such a common question for people who really don't know anything about Jews.

Often people then ask me about my feelings towards Germany and the holocaust, and may throw in some information about how Germans identified Jews by the size of their nose or something else they saw in a movie. A few times the Jews of Shanghai, who were saved during the Holocaust are brought up. Occasionally this will lead to a discussion about the connection between Jews and Chinese, because of experiences during the second world war. But I bring up the overfeeding by grandmothers, overprotective mothers, guilt, strong families, stressing of education, and mutual love of Chinese food.

Being Jewish is popular here, although I haven't figured out if being "clever" is negative or just the word they use for intelligence. Probably both. Some of the more educated people also feel a connection because Jewish culture is very old and we have kept our traditions alive, even in the modern era and diaspora. Sometimes I say " hey we don't think you're that bad either" or I add " you know there is a tradition for American Jews to eat Chinese food on Christmas." That throws them to a loop and opens up request for singing Christmas song.

One of my teachers one day said "you know Joe, we are cousins. I am Jewish to, in my hometown of yue yang (this is not Kai Feng, a place famous for Jewish Chinese is in the North), there is a plaque with the story of Jews who were fleeing oppression and came to our town. They stayed, so everyone in my town is a little bit Jewish and that is why we have brown eyes not the black eyes most Chinese people have."

Today, after lunch, one of my Hong Kong friends asked if I was Christian, and I told him I was Jewish. He said, " Oh, you are supposed to be very smart and good at business. You are only 3% of the world population but have won 30% of the Nobel Prizes, and own 30% of the world's property and money." (I corrected him about the 3% part, we're much smaller, and voiced my skepticism about the money, seems like an articles of the protocol of Zion-esk thing.) I had to know if there was a book or movie that said this, because every Chinese person says the same thing, and he said there was recently a book called "The Intelligence of the Jews" and the cover has a the statistic he talked about. I will have to find this book, I'm not sure if it is just in Chinese or a translation.

In any case, I figure this will help my changes to get onto Chinese television, maybe with a reality show the "Secret lives of the Jews." Cameras can follow me around to classes, the hospital, and studying Chinese, as well as a trip to the bank for good measure. Maybe that's asking too much, but perhaps it could land me a spot on a CCTV9, the English language Chinese television station, "it is said that the Jews are the most intelligent race in the entire world and you are very good at business. Is this true and can you tell us your secret? I would reply " That is a very good question, the secret is two simple words- chopped liver."