USC Shoah Foundation Delegation Attends USC Global Conference in China

Left-right: Cecilia Chan (standing), Stephen Smith, Ron Meyer, Xu Xin, Ming Hsieh, Zhi Qiang Chang, translator Cao Xiachong 

USC Shoah Foundation executive staff, supporters and partners met in China this week for the 2015 USC Global Conference, where they shared the Institute’s mission and newest projects with an international audience.

The delegation included Executive Director Stephen Smith, Director of Collections Karen Jungblut, Next Generation Council Member Cecilia Chan, and Board of Councilors Member Lee Liberman. They were joined by NBCUniversal Vice Chairman Ron Meyer and NBCUniversal Senior Vice President of Corporate Affairs Cindy Gardner.

Leaders of the USC community gathered in Shanghai Oct. 29-31 for the USC Global Conference to examine cutting-edge innovations that are already changing the world and the opportunities they present for the future. USC Shoah Foundation led a panel discussion on “Nanjing: The Power of Survivors’ Stories and Why Capturing them Matters.”

USC Shoah Foundation’s Nanjing Massacre collection was initiated in 2012 by a partnership with Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall in China with funding provided by the Siezen Foundation. The collection now includes 30 testimonies of survivors of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre.

Smith moderated the panel, which explored why telling stories matters more than you might think and why digital communications are an increasingly essential part of our storytelling oeuvre. On the panel were Nanjing University Professor Xu Xin, USC Trustee Ming Hsieh, Nanjing Massacre survivor Zhi Qiang Chang, and Meyer, whose mother fled Nazi Germany in 1938 to live with relatives in California and gave her testimony to USC Shoah Foundation in 1995.

While in China, the delegation had the opportunity to take a day trip to Nanjing. There they visited the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and met with its director, Zhu Chengshan, and the Museum of the Chinese People’s War against Japanese Aggression. In Shanghai, the delegation visited the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum and had a guided tour of the Bhagdadi Jewish neighborhood.