ShanghailandersSometimes "Shanghighlanders" in punning reference to the Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 highlander

Highlander

-In regional cultures:* Highlander, a person from the Scottish Highlands* Highlander, person from the Scottish Gaelic culture of Gàidhealtachd in the Scottish highlands and islands* The Górale, lit. "Highlanders", a culture in southern Poland and northern Slovakia...

s. were foreignprincipally European and Americansettlers in the extraterritorial areas of Shanghai

Shanghai

Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

, China

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

, between the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing and the mid-20th century.

Originally privileged by the "Unequal Treaties

Unequal Treaties

“Unequal treaty” is a term used in specific reference to a number of treaties imposed by Western powers, during the 19th and early 20th centuries, on Qing Dynasty China and late Tokugawa Japan...

" and housed in the International Settlement

Shanghai International Settlement

The Shanghai International Settlement began originally as a purely British settlement. It was one of the original five treaty ports which were established under the terms of the Treaty of Nanking at the end of the first opium war in the year 1842...

 and French Concession

Shanghai French Concession

The Shanghai French Concession was a foreign concession in Shanghai, China from 1849 until 1946, and it was progressively expanded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The concession came to an end in practice in 1943 when the Vichy French government signed it over to the pro-Japanese puppet...

 away from the Chinese city, they lost most of their status during and after the Japanese occupation of Shanghai in World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

. A 1943 Sino-British Friendship Treaty abandoned the treaty port system, and by this time most American, British, and Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 Shanghailanders had been deported to concentration camps by the Japanese.

The concessions' extraterritorial zones proved a haven, however, to refugee Jews lacking visas. World War II saw a community of about 18,000 develop, principally from Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

 and Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

. After the war, the majority moved on to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 or Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

.

Famous Shanghailanders

• Werner Michael Blumenthal
• Ayya Khema
  Ayya Khema
  Ayya Khema , a Buddhist teacher, was born as Ilse Kussel in Berlin, Germany, to Jewish parents. Khema escaped Nazis persecution during World War II. She eventually moved to the United States. After travelling in Asia she decided to become a Buddhist nun in Sri Lanka in 1979...
  
  
• Jakob Rosenfeld
  Jakob Rosenfeld
  Jakob Rosenfeld , more commonly known as General Luo, served as the Minister of Health in the 1947 Provisional Communist Military Government of China under Mao Zedong....
  
  
• Franziska Tausig
  Franziska Tausig
  Franziska Tausig was an Austrian author. Her parents were deported to Theresienstadt and killed in Treblinka.She gave birth to her son, Otto Tausig in 1922 in Vienna. He later became an actor and director. In 1938, the persecution of Jews was heightening in Nazi-dominated Austria...
  
  
• Margot Fonteyn
  Margot Fonteyn
  Dame Margot Fonteyn de Arias, DBE , was an English ballerina of the 20th century. She is widely regarded as one of the greatest classical ballet dancers of all time...
  
  
• J.G. Ballard
• Wallis Simpson