​Heroism and Survival: Women’s Daily Lives in Japanese-occupied Shanghai (1937-1945)
Susan Glosser, PhD
2 November, 2024
9:30 - 11 am 
Join First Saturday PDX for a presentation by Dr. Susan Glosser on the daily lives of women in China during the Japanese Occupation (1937-1945). Japan began its attack on Shanghai with aerial bombings that intentionally targeted civilians living north of the Songpu River. Over 300,000 people grabbed what they could carry and fled over the Garden Bridge and into the relative safety of the Concessions – the sections of the city run by foreigners. Over the next few months an additional 700,000 refugees flooded the city.  Shanghai’s notoriously crowded housing market filled beyond capacity and rents skyrocketed. The cost of food and daily necessities followed suit. Soon all but the affluent -- both Chinese and foreigners – struggled to keep body and soul together. The occupation ground on for eight years. How did the Shanghainese make it through? Although we have very little direct testimony from those who survived the war, newspapers, memoirs, municipal surveys, propaganda, journals, and photos provide glimpses of their strategies for survival. Moreover, these sources tell us more about women’s lives than they do men’s; in times of scarcity, the mundane becomes news – and women were central to the essentials of survival. 
REGISTER HERE
About the speaker:  
Susan Glosser completed her doctorate in Chinese history at UC Berkeley in the spring of 1995. That fall, she joined the history department at Lewis & Clark College as an assistant professor. She taught there for 29 years before retiring this past spring. Prof. Glosser taught classes on Chinese, Asian American, Korean, and food history as well as specialized classes for history majors on research skills and historiography. Her general research interests include family, gender, and political culture in 19th and 20th century urban China. Her book Chinese Visions of Family and State, 1915-1953, examined family reform ideals in the first half of the 20th century and what they reveal about Chinese nation building. Prof. Glosser is currently working on two research projects: daily life in Shanghai under Japanese invasion and occupation (1937-1945) and Americans’ changing perceptions of China during the first half of the 20th century. She also runs a desk-top press, Opal Mogus Books. Her press specializes in translating and annotating PRC propaganda pamphlets for use in the college classroom. Like most scholars who study Chinese, she is also deeply interested in contemporary China and its place in the world.  
​​
​For those interested in continuing the conversation, there will be a no host lunch family style with the speaker at a Chinese restaurant afterwards
​**This is an on-site presentation.  Legends  is a tan brick high rise building located across from Lincoln High School (NW 18th Ave) and a block from the MAC Club and PGE Park:
1132 SW 19th Ave (between Main & Madison Streets)
Portland, OR 97205

Check-in begins promptly at 9:15am. Registration required here by 31 October.  

​We recommend that attendees be vaccinated and boosted, and follow CDC guidelines regarding masking.
Our program series is supported by Reed College, Northwest China Council, Lan Su Chinese Garden,  Portland Chinatown Museum and Portland State University's Institute for Asian Studies.   
​All our programs are free and open to the public.   ​