Rebecca Copelovici has lived in China for long enough now that she’s convinced life in Canada would, at this point, feel more foreign to her.

The 29-year-old Torontonian and graduate of Associated Hebrew Schools and the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto’s Wallenberg Campus was recently appointed executive director of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce (CanCham Shanghai, for short) in Shanghai, where she’s worked since 2011.

Copelovici, whose job is to create and implement strategy and oversee the daily operations of all departments, is CanCham Shanghai’s first Jewish executive director and the youngest director it has ever had.

Founded by representatives of Canadian multinational corporations in China and Canadians who have started businesses in China, the mandate of the member-funded group is to support and connect China’s Canadian community with Chinese businesses interested in Canada and Canadian products and services.

 “We’re business-focused, but we also host community events with the intention of branding Canada in China,” said Copelovici, who is semi-fluent in Mandarin. “We try to facilitate Chinese investment in Canada, encourage Chinese people to send their kids to school in Canada, buy in Canada and facilitate trade.”

CanCham Shanghai often partners with different levels of Canadian government and organizes events for visiting Canadian ministers, but Copelovici said Ottawa “is only going to support Canadian companies with operations in China, but we support those companies, plus Canadians who have started businesses in China and no longer pay tax in Canada.”

Copelovici’s interest in China was piqued about a decade ago, when she spent six weeks backpacking through China and Japan.

Raised in a traditional Jewish household, she said that at the time she “didn’t know much beyond the people around me,” making the trip truly eye-opening. 

She returned to Toronto to finish her degree at York University, where she studied international relations, and spend a subsequent semester on exchange at a university in Hong Kong.

When the semester ended, she spent the summer immersed in a Mandarin language course in the city of Xi’ian, revelling in the freedom her new language skills provided.

A year later, after graduating from York, she moved back to Xi’ian and got a job teaching English to university students.

“My students would teach me Chinese after hours,” she said. “The faster I learned, the more I could do and say. It was a feeling I couldn’t get in Canada – one of real pride.”

Copelovici good-naturedly recalled being constantly stared and gestured at.

“I’d go into a restaurant and they’d put on Celine Dion,” she laughed. 

A year later, Copelovici came back to Canada with the intention of going to law school, but halfway through studying for the LSAT, she realized it wasn’t for her.

At the time, her brother, who worked for a U.S. video game company, was in Shanghai on business, and Copelovici decided to visit him and do some job-hunting while there.

She applied to an internship at CanCham Shanghai, got hired and has lived there ever since. After her three-month internship was over, the organization offered her a full-time job, and Copelovici worked her way up from working in the membership department to running it to becoming deputy director. 

Two months ago, she was appointed executive director.

While she’s still learning the nuances of Chinese culture, Copelovici said the exposure to different people and ways of life is fascinating. As for being Jewish in China, she’s been to the Shanghai Chabad and said the city’s Jewish community is not unsubstantial, though it’s mostly ex-pat-based. 

“Jews are looked upon favourably here,” she added. “They’re associated with being smart and good at business.”

Copelovici has no plans to leave China anytime soon.  “I think if I came back to Canada, I’d be bored,” she said. “I’d encourage more people to see what life is like on the other side of the world.”