The Last Rose of Shanghai

After months of performing, Ernest’s hand is worse. He visits the Catholic nun hospital, and they give him morphine, allowing him to continue performing. Club guests adore him. He feels “loved, valued, and accepted for being a jazz pianist” (89). Aiyi has quadrupled his pay, and Ernest can save money.

In June, Ernest comes home at dawn to find the apartment empty. He realizes that he has neglected Miriam so much that she may have run away. He searches for her but cannot communicate with the locals. Ernest returns home and sits outside the building. His hand and arm hurt, and he sobs, thinking of his dead sister, Leah. Miriam finds him, but she is naked except for her underwear; someone stole her clothes and shoes. She tried to find work and was shocked at the cruelty of everyone in Shanghai. She asks Ernest to enroll her in a Jewish school that she saw, and he agrees. It is several miles from the International Settlement, so Miriam must live with a host family come fall due to the risk associated with a girl traveling on her own. The school will cost all of Ernest’s savings.

In the lobby of Sassoon’s hotel, Aiyi finds Emily. Aiyi remembers that she tried to make friends with Emily but was rebuffed. Emily begins to cry, and Aiyi asks why she’s upset. Emily is hostile. Aiyi suggests that Emily interview Ernest due to his popularity as a pianist. Emily thinks that Aiyi is foolish for coming to the hotel to tell her such a thing when she was attacked on a previous visit. Aiyi mentions Sinmay in an attempt to charm Emily, but Emily says that since she’s taken up with Sinmay, Sassoon has cut her off from all her social circles. Emily leaves.

The nightclub is booming. Aiyi feels distracted by Ernest. She wants to take him out to dinner and considers kissing him. However, his bandages are on again for the first time in months. Aiyi makes him remove them, and she sees that his hand has not healed. She tells him to take the next day off. Backstage, she asks about the other scar on his hand. He explains that Hitler Youth carved it into his hand before hunting down and murdering his sister, Leah, who had attempted to defend him. Aiyi is stunned that this would happen because of Ernest’s Jewishness. He brings up the saying that “love is stronger than death” (96), and Aiyi kisses his scar, shocking herself.

On Ernest’s day off, Aiyi sits on the piano bench before the club opens. She realizes that if Ernest propositioned her, she would go to bed with him no matter the consequences. Cheng appears, and Aiyi compares him to Ernest. Cheng asks if she is sick, and she asks him if he has ever thought about learning piano. He tells her that she is sick.

On his day off, Ernest takes Miriam to the Jewish school on the western edge of the International Settlement. He holds her hand for the entire journey. They meet the school’s headmaster, Ernest pays, and they go to visit Miriam’s host family, the Blackstones. Ernest is reluctant to let his sister, “no longer a child but not yet a woman” (98), stay with Americans he’s never met. Miriam asks her brother to visit her, and he gets emotional. He promises to come to her bat mitzvah, which the Jewish school founder holds for the students, and tells her their parents would be proud. Ernest watches as Mr. Blackstone drives Miriam away. His hands feel empty, but he is glad to have provided for his sister.

Ernest swings by the foreign movie theater to get Aiyi a magazine. On the rack, he sees a picture of him alongside an article calling him “Shanghai’s Newest Sensation” (100). Joy and optimism fill Ernest. The following evening, he goes to Aiyi’s office and shows her the magazine. She was unaware that Emily followed her tip. Ernest asks if she’ll go to the cinema with him to see Gone with the Wind, and she explains that it would be too scandalous. She is referring to the fact that the film's heroine is twice married when Chinese films would never show such a woman. Ernest plays the piano fingering of “The Last Rose of Shanghai” on Aiyi’s arm. They begin to kiss, and he pulls up her dress. They hear men talking outside the door.

Ernest and Aiyi separate as Ying and Cheng come into the office. Cheng senses something, and Aiyi fears his temper. Ernest leaves, and Ying asks why “the foreigner” was in the office. Aiyi shows them the magazine. Although Aiyi is at work, Cheng makes her leave with him. He’s angry that she isn’t wearing the traditional bra that flattens her chest. He pulls her onto his lap and begins to touch her sexually, saying that they will soon be married. She refuses Cheng’s advances, and he asks if she “let[s] the foreigner touch” her (106). She acts confused, and once more, he tells her to fire Ernest. She protests, and he throws a physical tantrum that frightens Aiyi. He takes her home. In her room, she reflects that she and Cheng were engaged by their mothers when they were babies, and she’s never been free to do things without his approval. The pair look good together but have very different temperaments. Nonetheless, Aiyi accepts her mother’s wishes and can’t believe that she’s jeopardizing the marriage because of a white man.

Ernest is ecstatic as he goes to the stage after kissing Aiyi. He worries about her having to justify herself to Cheng. To express his love, he plays “The Last Rose of Shanghai.”

Ernest sends money to his parents and gives them his Shanghai address. He thinks of his quiet, intellectual father and his talkative, energetic mother, Chava. Chava lost some of that energy after his father was imprisoned for three months after Kristallnacht (the pogrom carried out by the Nazis against Jewish people in 1938). He hopes that she will reclaim it once his parents make it to Shanghai. He knows that his mother wouldn’t approve of his involvement with a non-Jewish Chinese girl, but he isn’t strongly religious and thinks that Aiyi is “truer than any woman he had ever met” (110).

Aiyi tells Peiyu about Cheng’s sexual behavior in the car. Peiyu doesn’t see the issue as Cheng stopped when Aiyi told him to, and she feels that lust is normal for a young man. Peiyu gives Aiyi her wedding invitations to send out.

Emily appears. Aiyi thinks of how Emily saved Sinmay’s printing business from the Japanese by faking a marriage certificate between her and Sinmay. Emily is impressed with Aiyi’s courage and business acumen in hiring Ernest. Aiyi calls Ernest brilliant, and Emily sees that Aiyi is in love. Emily offers to tell Aiyi a secret in return, and Aiyi suggests that Emily is pregnant. Emily is upset, asking why Chinese people love children so much. Aiyi says that she does not. The secret is that Emily has now lost her job. Sinmay appears and suggests that they smoke opium. Expressing her misery in Shanghai, Emily begs Sinmay to leave with her to Hong Kong. Aiyi sees that her brother loves Emily but is bound by his responsibilities. She burns her wedding invitations.

Cheng fires Ernest while Aiyi is away from work, explaining her absence as illness. Cheng also threatens to kill Ernest if he tries to see Aiyi anymore. The two fight. Ernest seems to have won, but Cheng takes advantage of the pause to pound Ernest’s injured hand with his elbow. Ernest leaves and wonders what he’ll do. He runs into the Sikh policeman who tried to arrest him, named Jyo. They share a cigarette and Jyo helps bloodied Ernest avoid attention from the Japanese, who are on high alert due to a skirmish between their forces and the Settlement Council.

The next morning, Ernest goes to Miriam’s bat mitzvah, but he has missed it by a day. Miriam is miserable because the ceremony was a sham and because “[n]obody cares about” her (118). She flatly tells Ernest that she is working on English so that she can go to college in America, encouraged by Mr. Blackstone. She won’t hug Ernest when he leaves.

Ernest tries to enter the nightclub but is rebuffed by a rueful Manager Wang, under Cheng’s orders. Wang does not know if Aiyi is any better.

When Aiyi returns to work after two days, she learns that Cheng fired Ernest. She angrily says that she’ll rehire him. Cheng is unmoved and says that he’ll simply let Ernest go again. Aiyi takes her car to Ernest’s apartment and invites him to the cinema. Instead, she takes him to a low-profile inn and they have sex. Ernest professes his love. Aiyi tells him to stay in the apartment that she gave him and not get another job until his hand is healed. After Ernest half-jokingly asks Aiyi to marry him, she realizes that she has “committed an unforgivable sin” against Cheng (122).

At the club, Aiyi tells customers that Ernest is on a temporary break. They are unhappy but continue to patronize the business. Aiyi is more submissive to Cheng and doesn’t think that he suspects anything. She is happy despite everything: The nightclub is still doing well, and she’s in love.

It is November. Ernest and Aiyi continue to tryst at the inn. After more hospital visits, Ernest’s hand is healing well. Unemployed, Ernest wanders Shanghai with his camera. He reflects that he prefers his life in Shanghai, as a pianist in love, to his life in Berlin where he could not perform and was always afraid. He has learned a little Shanghai dialect.

Ernest often visits the wharf where the ocean liners arrive. He is there when a group of refugees disembark and thinks that he sees his mother. It is not her, and he wonders where his parents are. He notices a Japanese gunboat; further down the river are American and British warships.

At her club, Aiyi hears people having sex, which she forbids. When Lanyu emerges, Aiyi considers firing her but doesn’t due to the woman’s hard family situation. At the bar, Yamazaki approaches Aiyi. She is very afraid of him. He dislikes the jazz being played. He wants to know where Ernest is and threatens Aiyi with his gun. This spooks the clubgoers, who leave. Yamazaki elaborates that Ernest is wanted for the murder of a Japanese soldier, as he was seen bloodied and with a Sikh policeman after the International Settlement skirmish. Aiyi doesn’t believe that Ernest killed the soldier. She tells Yamazaki that Ernest left and she doesn’t know his location; he demands that she produce Ernest or he’ll take the nightclub. Yamazaki leaves. Cheng tells Aiyi to surrender Ernest, but Aiyi repeats that she doesn’t know where he is. She feels that “[t]here [is] no solution” (131).

At Ernest’s apartment, Aiyi asks him about Jyo and the murder. Ernest knows nothing about it. Aiyi initiates sex.

The club remains empty, its patrons still afraid. Aiyi goes to the roof and looks out across Shanghai in an unusually peaceful moment.

Ernest returns to Sassoon’s hotel to ask for a job, as it isn’t safe for him to work at Aiyi’s nightclub. He sees Sassoon in the lobby, holding a Leica camera. Sassoon recognizes Ernest and gives him a very well-paid job playing at the Jazz Bar, where Ernest can perform whatever he likes. Getting news from the international clientele, Ernest is horrified to learn that Britain is recalling its Shanghai battalion to the Mediterranean. The British and Americans in Shanghai will no longer have strong defenses. Sassoon visits the Jazz Bar accompanied by beautiful Russian dancers. Guests murmur about Sassoon’s darkroom and Ernest later asks Sassoon about his photography. Though Ernest is not drawn to nudes, he enjoys talking about photography with the Briton and shows Sassoon his Leica. Sassoon admires it, and Ernest feels like they are somewhat friends.

Sassoon calls Aiyi. She’s heard from Sinmay that Sassoon has turned down a business collaboration with the Japanese and that his blatant dislike of the occupiers is troubling other international businessmen. Sassoon asks about the stride piano and she says that Ernest has left. Sassoon invites her to dinner. Word has reached Sassoon of Aiyi’s situation with Yamazaki, and his solution is that she marry him, rendering the club a British business and thereby protecting it. Aiyi thinks that the flirtatious old man is teasing, but Sassoon is serious, stating that he will split his wealth and properties with Aiyi. He praises her business mind and suggests that she could travel to America. This is “a tempting path that was worth risking Cheng’s and [her] family’s wrath” to Aiyi (139), and she asks for time to consider the proposal. The marriage might save Aiyi, but it wouldn’t save Ernest from the Japanese.

Ernest walks the many miles to visit Miriam at school, only to find that she’s on a field trip. Back at the Jazz Bar, Ernest sees a tense moment between Japanese soldiers and Sassoon and his guards, but the Japanese back down and leave. Sassoon explains that Yamazaki is searching for Ernest, who is now worried for his safety. Sassoon seems to think that the Japanese may attack the International Settlement. Ernest can’t imagine that they would take the risk of going up against America and Britain, until several days afterwards, he sees a magazine with an article about the Tripartite Pact (an alliance created between Italy, Germany, and Japan).

Aiyi visits Emily to ask for advice about Sassoon’s proposal. Emily’s apartment is full of opium smoke and Aiyi is concerned. Emily is upset that Sinmay doesn’t love her enough to leave Shanghai, and she has writer’s block. Emily thinks that Sassoon’s wealth and protection would make marrying him worth it. She suggests that Aiyi continue seeing Ernest on the side, which scandalizes Aiyi. Emily changes her clothes without self-consciousness, which bewilders Aiyi. Emily sees that Aiyi doesn’t want to marry Sassoon and tells Aiyi to find a business proposal to gain the nightclub similar protections. Aiyi likes that idea but knows that Sassoon won’t take rejection well. Emily agrees. Aiyi realizes that her concession would have to be nude photos, and she is shocked to hear that Sassoon has nudes of Emily. She wishes that she were as autonomous as Emily. Emily mourns the loss of her youthful attractiveness, and Aiyi says that the opium is destroying her. Emily is unreceptive, but Aiyi leaves the information of her father’s doctor who helped with her father’s addiction. Aiyi hugs Emily.

At home, Peiyu nurses her new baby and asks Aiyi if she mailed her wedding invitations, as no guests have received one. Aiyi lies that she did; Sinmay thinks that Japanese mail interference is the culprit. He’ll print more, but the wedding may need to be postponed.

By the river, Ernest sees a Japanese warplane flying over the building that houses the Settlement’s municipal council. Outside, Japanese soldiers are holding Sikh policemen, including Jyo, at gunpoint. Another troop forces the foreign businessmen from the building. Ernest is afraid. Without the council, the Settlement will be ungoverned and unprotected. Angry men including Sassoon drink at the bar that night, but the next night, there are only three guests. Ernest worries for his job. On his way home, Ernest photographs a motorboat filled with steak and beer pulling up to a Japanese warship.

In her room, Aiyi evaluates her reflection. Her upbringing taught her that showing her body was wrong, and nude photos would ruin her in Shanghai. She looks at her collection of dresses and thinks of the $500 in American money that she has hidden.

Ernest and Aiyi meet in her car. He explains the situation about the Settlement and Yamazaki’s visit to the hotel. Looking at Ernest’s blue eyes, Aiyi decides to offer Sassoon a business partnership and nudes instead of marriage. She asks her mother and Buddha for forgiveness before calling Sassoon.

At dinner at the Cathay Room, the most expensive restaurant in the city, Aiyi suggests that Sassoon buy 40% of her club. He seems offended that she's denying his proposal, but she then offers the photos. She makes Sassoon promise not to show them to anyone. Sassoon agrees to draw up a contract for the club sale.

Outside the hotel, Ernest sees Jyo, who still has his gun and is watching a pair of Japanese soldiers. Ernest wonders how Jyo still has a weapon and is glad that Jyo is alright. In the lobby, Ernest sees Aiyi and Sassoon in front of the elevator. He catches the word “studio” and notices Aiyi’s nerves. He realizes what is going on and wants to stop it, but he misses the elevator.

Aiyi is glad that the elevator cut Ernest off. She considered telling him about the photos but knew that he wouldn’t like it. Sassoon says that Ernest will be “a great businessman” someday (158). Inside the studio, Aiyi is overwhelmed by a wall of naked women. Sassoon tells Aiyi not to “consider [him] a rotten man” and gives her the club contract (159). She clarifies that she’s there only for photos, not sex. Aiyi gets undressed and Sassoon begins taking photos, discomforting Aiyi.

Aiyi hears Ernest’s angry playing in the bar and runs back to her club. The contract keeps her business out of Yamazaki’s hands without giving up Ernest, but Aiyi feels nauseated, envisioning her photographs all over Shanghai.

Fueled by jealousy, Ernest plays furiously. When he stops, Sassoon is there. He calls the photos his finest work. Noticing that Ernest is upset, Sassoon deduces that he cares for Aiyi. Sassoon tells Ernest that most women only want him for his money, but Aiyi is different. He expresses that in a cruel world, he can only find happiness taking photos. Ernest is unmoved and goes back to playing. Eventually he forgives Aiyi, expressing this through a tender piece.

Heading home at midnight, Ernest sees guns being transferred from the large Japanese cruiser to a smaller gunboat. Despite knowing that his flash will give him away, he takes a photograph in order to warn Jyo and the Settlement. The Japanese shoot at him, wounding his arm. He makes it back home and bandages the graze, thinking that his right arm and hand are cursed.

Aiyi didn’t mean to tell Sorebi about the nude photos and asks Sorebi not to include them. Sorebi tells her not to worry, as Sassoon’s archive contains no nudes. Sorebi asks how Ernest went from poor pianist to rich advocate for refugees. Aiyi states that she’s too tired to explain and asks why Sorebi created the Shanghai Jews exhibit. Sorebi explains that she’s “always been interested in Shanghai” and even visited in the 1950s (169), when she stumbled into a Communist Party meeting and was nearly arrested. The two and Phoenix agree to have lunch tomorrow in the Cathay Room. Before leaving, Sorebi asks again about the reason for Aiyi’s donation. Aiyi says that she “did something most unforgivable” (170).

Though Ernest looks for both Jyo and Sassoon to show them the photographs of the guns, he is unsuccessful. Ernest visits Miriam at her school, bringing gifts. Her elegant and grown-up appearance surprises Ernest. Miriam is cold to him. Her host, Mr. Blackstone, has told her that the Germans are overtaking the British in Europe. More refugees have arrived, despite the new Japanese council placing restrictions on entry to Shanghai. Miriam reports that Mr. Blackstone thinks that Americans are still safe, and Ernest is annoyed to hear “a note of trust and deference” in his sister’s voice regarding Blackstone (174). Miriam leaves without embracing her brother.

On the way back, Ernest sees a farewell parade of American soldiers leaving Shanghai. Ernest thinks that war is coming to the city and he ought to get out, but he doesn’t know if Aiyi would go with him.

Sinmay is in a bad mood because Sassoon has been bragging that he persuaded an aristocratic Shanghai woman to be his photography subject. Although Sassoon didn’t give a name, Aiyi is apprehensive and fears that she made a mistake. She assumes that Ernest is angry, given his furious playing that day, and she hasn’t seen him for months. Her wedding is postponed, but that’s no relief. The club’s clientele has not recovered after Yamazaki’s visit, and Sassoon hasn’t paid for his share, as the Japanese have frozen his bank account.

Emily phones and asks Aiyi to meet her at the docks to say goodbye. Aiyi is upset that the one person to whom she can talk openly is leaving. Emily went to the doctor that Aiyi suggested and is clean, looking much better. She’s leaving for Hong Kong without telling Sinmay. Emily is sorry that she never wrote about Aiyi, “the first woman entrepreneur in China” (178). She tells Aiyi that the relationship with Ernest is doomed, blaming oppressive Chinese social strictures. Emily now considers Aiyi a friend and is sorry to leave her. Watching Emily’s ship, Aiyi realizes that “people [come] and [go] like boats” (179). This spurs her to go find Ernest at the Jazz Bar. She listens to his music and feels that she would do anything for him.

Ernest senses Aiyi’s presence and goes to her table. He tells her about the violence coming for the International Settlement and asks her to go away with him. Aiyi cries, saying that Shanghai is her home. Ernest promises her a new start and swears his love. She tells him that she just realized he’s the most important thing, so she’ll go. The two get a suite, have sex, and decide to go to Hong Kong.

Aiyi leaves and Ernest gets one of Sassoon’s guards to take him to Sassoon’s penthouse. Sassoon is wearing his old pilot uniform. A doctor tends to his leg. Ernest shows Sassoon the gun transfer photos and Sassoon is furious at the news. Ernest leaves the lifeless hotel. He sees Jyo in an armed standoff with a Japanese soldier and realizes that he never told Jyo about the guns. A shot goes off. Ernest tries to reach Jyo, but Jyo is dead. Ernest goes to the pier and buys passage on the next ship to Hong Kong, in three days.