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Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai
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Volume
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About This Book
A triptych of a single day revealing the history and foreshadowing the future of a complex and cosmopolitan city in a world at war. November 12, 1941: war and revolution are in the air. At the Shanghai Race Club, the city's elite prepare to face off their best horses and most nimble jockeys in the annual Champions Day races. Across town and amid tight security, others celebrated the birth of Sun Yat-Sen in a new city center meant to challenge European imperialism. Thousands more Shanghai residents from all walks of life attended the funeral of China's wealthiest woman, the Chinese- French widow of a Baghdadi Jewish businessman. But the biggest crowd of all gathered at the track; no one knew it, but Champions Day heralded the end of a European Shanghai. Through this colorful snapshot of the day's events, the rich and complex history that led to them, and a cast of characters as diverse as the city itself, James Carter provides a kaleidoscopic portrait of a time and a place that still speaks to relations between China and the West today.
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Reviews
"a lively work that uses the story of horse racing and the events of a single day at the races in the early 1940s to provide a panoramic look at a colorful city on the cusp of a dramatic transformation ..."
"A satisfying juggling act of academic research and engaging popular history."
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