The Last Rose of Shanghai

by Weina Dai Randel

“What does it matter. People are strange. Some think they’re superior to others because of their wealth, their pride, the history of their country, their religion, or their looks. I’m just a man from Berlin, a guest of this city. I do my best to look decent, and I hope, if possible, to be a friend of this city.

a family without a mother was like a pearl necklace without a string.

“God laughs when man plans,

Life is precious, love is priceless, but compared to freedom, both are worthless.’

“Love is stronger than death.”

“When we’d just met, Ernest played the jazz song called ‘The Last Rose of Shanghai.’ I loved it, and I still remember the lyrics. It says in English, ‘There is a kind of love that strikes like a thunderbolt; it blinds you, yet opens your eyes to see the world anew.’”

We were what the tangle of the past made us, which trapped us, forcing us to be ensnared in a future we could never be set free from.

A yearning for the past was a betrayal of the present.

for a man was not a plant, not mud, not a bunch of bones and flesh. A man was an honorable being. A man should cry, but also laugh; should suffer, but also forgive; should dream, but also remember. Above all, a man should be given a chance to make things right again. If only he could make things right again.

love is stronger than death