On 16th April 2026, I had the pleasure to give my presentation about Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa / Horose at the Qingpu Campus the Shanghai French School. A similar conference took place in 2025 for the French people in China’s historic society. This presentation was part of a series of conferences for high school students and parents.
The story and live of Stéphanie Rosen-Hoa (aka Horose, aka 罗琛华) and her husband Hua Nangui / 华南圭, one of the early French-Chinese family was highly relevant for students. Many of them being from French-chinese families themselves, they could easily relate to the topic.
The success of Horose book “Love and duty” / 恋爱与义务 published in Chinese, then in English and becoming a bestseller and turned into a movie was an inspiration for students.
The presentation taking place in Shanghai, participants were particularly interested in film sets locations in the Former French Concession.
The conference took place at the Shanghai French School Qingpu campus. The same conference is planned at the Shanghai French School Yangpu on 14th May.
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I’d be interested to know if the Jewish ancestry of Stephanie Rosen-Hoa is mentioned in the lectures, and the fact that she was not ‘just’
French, but ‘Polish-Jewish’ in France and navigating French Culture, and whether this contributed to her relating to others in the way that she did.
Best from Jerusalem Israel
Stephanie Rosen-Hoa was born in Poland from a Jewish family. This is clearly mentioned in the presentation. The title of the presentation “Une écrivaine Francophone dans la Chine des années 20” does not imply French nationality, but rather that she wrote in French, while not necessarily being French. She kept a relationship with her family in Poland, although it’s not clear if she went back there at any point.
The Jewish connection does not seem to be of particularly interest to her as there was no reference to it in any of her text until after WW2 when she became more interested in it and wrote a poem about Israel.