Chinese Judeophilia & The Secrets of Jewish Success

The yellow peril! It is not racial, it is spiritual. It does not involve inferior values; it involves a radical strangeness, a stranger to the weight of its past, from where there does not filter any familiar voice or inflection, a lunar or Martian past.
- Emmanuel Levinas

Levinas may have been overly pessimistic. An article in the Forward affirms Chinese Judeophilia:

According to Song Lihong, deputy director of the Glazer Institute of Jewish Studies at Nanjing University, a glance at the shelves of Jewish-interest books in Chinese bookstores provides a clue as to why Judaism fascinates. Popular titles include “The Talmudic Wisdom in Conducting Business,” “Talmud: The Greatest Jewish Bible for Making Money” and “Unveiling the Secrets of Jewish Success in World Economy: What’s Behind Jewish Excellence?”

While Song acknowledges that the nature of this interest may seem “ominous” to Westerners, he insists that there is nothing sinister about it. Divorced from the Christian context that bred conspiracy theories about Jews in finance and the Muslim context that perpetuated them, it is simply driven by a natural curiosity about a group that appears to play a significant role in world affairs.

In Song’s telling, the curiosity reflects “Judeophilia” rather than “Judeophobia.” As the Chinese nation has embarked on a process of economic and technological advancement, it looks upon Jews, another ancient people that seems to have excelled in this area while maintaining a distinctive identity, as a “model it can employ to modernize itself,” he explained.

Song said that Judaism is perceived by Chinese people as being part of the foundation of Western civilization. As a result, they see Judaism as synonymous with “Western,” and many take the view that to learn about the West, one should become familiar with Judaism.

Indeed, Song observed that Judaism is not just seen as Western, it is seen as the best of the West. In China, he said, many erroneously believe that John Rockefeller and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart were Jewish. “Everything that is successful, smart and rich is regarded as Jewish,” he said.

Jews, by virtue of our outsized historical influence, are always going to fascinate - despite Levinas's warning of "the rise of countless masses of Asiatic and underdeveloped peoples . . . peoples and civilisations who no longer refer to our holy history, for whom Abraham, Isaac and Jacob no longer mean anything." Let's face facts, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are much less historically significant than their theologically insignificant descendants, i.e. Einstein, Rothschild, Montefiore. Such theologically insignificant descendants will always keep Jews alive in the secular mind.

Jews should be writing and promoting books like The Talmudic Wisdom in Conducting Business, Talmud: The Greatest Jewish Bible for Making Money and Unveiling the Secrets of Jewish Success in World Economy: What’s Behind Jewish Excellence? Anti-Semitism is based in large part on the belief that we are hiding our secrets to success, so let's announce them to the world. Are we not to be a light unto the nations? Herewith, the secrets of Jewish success are:

1. A strong sense of familial obligation, from Abraham down. Even Jewish atheists believe in the fifth commandment - and we honour our parents by bringing honour to their name.
2. The valuation of education as a means of social advancement (and scoring a bride). The Talmudic scholar, not the warrior, was long the source of communal pride.
3. Support from overbearing mothers with great expectations and zero tolerance for failure. (A corollary of 1. that deserves special mention.)
4. A religion that does not look down on worldly success in favour of some non-existent other world. Even the messianic era is something that must be worked towards, not patiently awaited.
5. A sense of "success is the best revenge" aimed at our historical persecutors. (Possibly originating in a vestigal "slave complex" from the Egyptian days.)
6. Higher average intelligence quotient. A result of interbreeding among a population disproportionately made up of traders and financiers who got by on their wits. (Only applicable to Ashkenazim, and average does not mean without exception.)

See also: Parsis.