The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel

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My new novel: A WWII-novel of love and redemption between a Chinese nightclub owner and a Jewish refugee set in Shanghai, to be released on November 1st, 2021. Even if I could completely suspend my disbelief and ignore all these inaccuracies, I would still have one major problem with this book: I didn't like the characters or find them to be at all believable. They seem hyper-focused on making money, even in the midst of a world war and an enemy occupation. They are super wishy-washy about their feelings for each other. And the resolution of the story is predictable and frankly unrealistic. I think this book was really meant to be a romance novel, but even taking away the war and the historical setting, it's not a particularly convincing one. This book is my favorite kind of historical fiction – an engrossing story that also opens my eyes to a piece of history I wasn’t familiar with. The story is set in Shanghai under Japanese occupation during WWII and is told from the alternating points of view of Aiyi and Ernest. Aiyi is a young Chinese heiress with a love for jazz who owns one of Shanghai’s most popular nightclubs (she is quite the entrepreneur for her day!). Ernest is a penniless Jewish refugee from Germany searching for shelter in Shanghai. The two are brought together through music, and a great story of love, survival, and redemption unfolds.

The Last Rose of Shanghai, by Weina Dai Randel Review | The Last Rose of Shanghai, by Weina Dai Randel

I listened to the audio CD of The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel and learned so much about Shanghai’s history during World War II. The audio CD was pleasantly performed by Josh Bloomberg and Emily Woo Zeller. Most of the books that I had previously read about World War II and the Holocaust took place primarily in Nazi occupied countries in Europe. Little had been written about Shanghai’s fate during World War II. The Last Rose of Shanghai captured the little known history of the more than twenty thousand Jewish refugees that escaped the throes of the Nazis and found safety in Shanghai. It also focused on the effects Japanese-occupied Shanghai had on the Chinese inhabitants, foreigners that had made Shanghai their home and on the Jewish refugees. The Last Rose of Shanghai was well written and impeccably well researched. Weina Dai Randel proved that she was a gifted storyteller with this book. The Last Rose of Shanghai was engrossing, rich in details about the time period and an unforgettable love story. The chapters alternated between the POV’S of Aiyi and Ernest during the war and occupation and then by Aiyi in present time.This is a work of fiction but many of the characters such as Emily Hahn, an American journalist, Laura Margolis who led the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s efforts to support refugees in Shanghai, and Sir Victor Sassoon who built The Peace Hotel, are real and their life stories are also fascinating. One of the chapters contains a few paragraphs in excruciating detail about Japanese torture of prisoners; this is very gruesome to read. What bugs me is that this sequence has absolutely no bearing on the main plot. It's just that one character goes to that location, we get a few paragraphs of horrifying information, and the character is out. What was the point of that segment? Just to create some kind of impact of the brutality? It felt so out of place! Aiyi and Ernest met by chance. She was immediately drawn to his beautiful and expressive blue eyes. It was frowned upon for Chinese to socialize with refugees. Ernest found himself in the same club Aiyi was in one night. He somehow found himself playing the piano. Ernest and Aiyi were attracted to each other immediately. Aiyi ended up hiring Ernest to play the piano at her club. He was a talented pianist and he helped restore the popularity and success of her club with his playing. Ernest often played Aiyi’s favorite jazz song, The Last Rose of Shanghai, for her. The two fell in love and began an impossible doomed affair. Aiyi and Ernest had to keep their love a secret. After all, Aiyi was engaged to be married and their affair could ruin her family’s reputation. Through heartbreak, tragedies, danger and prejudice Aiyi and Ernest never lost sight of the love they felt for each other, though.

The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel | Goodreads The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel | Goodreads

In recreating the bloody events of the suppression of the Communist party in Shanghai in 1927, Malraux wrote the best novel about interwar Shanghai. His cast of characters – both Chinese and foreign – reflect the city’s cosmopolitan population and its Jekyll and Hyde politics of being both a centre of rightwing bootstraps capitalism and the birthplace of the Chinese Communist party.

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This was a beautifully written novel and it was apparent that the author did significant research. The two main characters were so well written that I felt their pain during the war and their happiness at being together. I learned a lot about the war in China and the treatment of the Chinese by the Japanese soldiers. This is a beautiful story about the pain and sorrow of the war but the overall feeling is one of love and redemption. stars. (4 stars for the first quarter, 3.5 for the second quarter, 2 stars for the rest. Hence averaged to 2.8 stars.) In a Nutshell: First half pretty good, second half is a cheesy, corny mash. Offers a decent look at Shanghai during WWII, but the romantic relationship overshadows the war story.

The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel ~ a Review The Last Rose of Shanghai by Weina Dai Randel ~ a Review

Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany, an outsider searching for shelter in a city wary of strangers. He loses nearly all hope until he crosses paths with Aiyi. When she hires Ernest to play piano at her club, her defiance of custom causes a sensation. His instant fame makes Aiyi's club once again the hottest spot in Shanghai. Soon they realize they share more than a passion for jazz—but their differences seem insurmountable, and Aiyi is engaged to another man. In contrast, Aiyi and Ernest’s respective story arcs are really strong. I loved watching Aiyi fight to maintain her power and financial independence at a time when women still dealt with bound feet and social expectations about their role being limited to the home. I enjoyed watching her negotiate with the powerful Jewish magnate Sassoon, and seeing her outwit Japanese soldiers and her domineering oldest brother, all to hold on to the business she’d worked so hard to build. I was especially captivated by the tension between how much she was willing to sacrifice for Ernest’s sake, because of her love for him, and how much she’d refuse to give up to ensure her own future. I found Aiyi to be a complex, compelling heroine, and I was totally into seeing her story unfold. There are many more grouses I have but all of those would require leaking of spoilers. So just know, quite a lot of silly things happen in the second half, events that make no sense at all! Too many ad hoc alterations and exaggerations. The second half messed up all the good feelings created in the first 50%. Three years later, and now that The Last Rose of Shanghai is officially released, I will say, The Last Rose of Shanghai is a story of race, of love, of war's horrors, of forgotten-history of WWII, of choices, of destiny, of cultures, of rebuilding your life in a strange land, of finding a home, of losing the home, of family, of self-discovery, of religion, of losing faith, of parenthood.Born and raised in China, Weina came to the United States in her early twenties. She holds an M.A. in English from Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. Does all this add up to a good story? In some ways, yes. Certainly, living in an occupied city is awful. Both Aiyi and Ernest experience their share of tragedy. But Randel avoids making the story an atrocity Olympics. The reader finds suffering, but the suffering alone doesn’t take over the story. It felt authentic to me, at least. i so desperately wish this was based on a real story. the japanese occupation of china and the influx of refugees to the area is definitely not an aspect of WWII that is commonly told, so the memories of those people who suffered in that part of the world during the war deserve to be shared.

The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel by Weina Dai Randel The Last Rose of Shanghai: A Novel by Weina Dai Randel

Often, stories of struggle are written from the point of view of middle class or impoverished characters. Aiyi being rich gives us an angle not often seen in historical fiction: that of a wealthy young heiress who does her best to be independent despite the constraints of her time and location, and at the same time, being proud of her financial status and beauty.

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There's only one Japanese guy who keeps harassing them almost throughout the book. Seriously, only one. Every time. No matter what the scene or location. Another major issue for me was what I saw as a series of historical inaccuracies. The characters can all conveniently talk to one another, often in fluent English, though they all are from different countries. They talk like modern-day people, too, despite the fact that they're supposed to be living 80 years ago and be from different cultures with different levels of formality and ways of speaking. On at least two occasions, a character is said to be eating a bagel with peanut butter. Peanut butter is hard to find in China today, so I can't imagine it was a common thing in 1940s Shanghai. There is a bit at one part near the end of the book where a character is living in a slum with no running water yet has a plastic stool, and plastics weren't really produced until the 1950s. The Last Rose of Shanghai" is a beautifully written and engaging novel that combines historical accuracy with a compelling narrative. It is a must-read for anyone interested in Chinese history or anyone who enjoys a good story of love, loss, and redemption. Aiyi Shao is a young heiress and the owner of a formerly popular and glamorous Shanghai nightclub. Ernest Reismann is a penniless Jewish refugee driven out of Germany, an outsider searching for shelter in a city wary of strangers. He loses nearly all hope until he crosses paths with Aiyi. When she hires Ernest to play piano at her club, her defiance of custom causes a sensation. His instant fame makes Aiyi's club once again the hottest spot in Shanghai. Soon they realize they share more than a passion for jazz--but their differences seem insurmountable, and Aiyi is engaged to another man.