Champions Day: The End of Old Shanghai

by James Carter

Overview

How a single day revealed the history and foreshadowed the future of Shanghai.

It is November 12, 1941, and the world is at war. In Shanghai, just weeks before Pearl Harbor, thousands celebrate the birthday of China’s founding father, Sun Yat-sen, in a new city center built to challenge European imperialism. Across town, crowds of Shanghai residents from all walks of life attend the funeral of China’s wealthiest woman, the Chinese-French widow of a Baghdadi Jewish businessman whose death was symbolic of the passing of a generation that had seen Shanghai’s rise to global prominence. But it is the racetrack that attracts the largest crowd of all. At the center of the International Settlement, the heart of Western colonization—but also of Chinese progressivism, art, commerce, cosmopolitanism, and celebrity—Champions Day unfolds, drawing tens of thousands of Chinese spectators and Europeans alike to bet on the horses.

In a sharp and lively snapshot of the day’s events, James Carter recaptures the complex history of Old Shanghai. Champions Day is a kaleidoscopic portrait of city poised for revolution.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393635942
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/16/2020
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

James Carter, professor of history at Saint Joseph’s University, is the author of two previous books on Chinese history and is a Fellow of the National Committee on US-China Relations. He lives in Ewing, New Jersey.

Table of Contents

Note on Names and Romanization ix

Prologue The Center of a World 1

Chapter 1 Morning in Shanghai 8

Part 1 Citiiens of Shanghai (1843-1937) 19

Chapter 2 "The Pleasures of Exile" 21

Chapter 3 Shanghailanders 33

Chapter 4 Race and the Races 46

Chapter 5 Chinese Shanghailanders? 61

Chapter 6 Creating a Chinese Shanghai 78

Chapter 7 Shanghai Races 94

Chapter 8 Cosmopolitans 118

Chapter 9 New Shanghai 134

Part 2 A Lone Island (1937-1941) 143

Chapter 10 Beginning the End 145

Chapter 11 Crossroads 158

Chapter 12 Races Renewed 170

Chapter 13 The Last Fall 190

Part 3 A Day at the Races (November 12, 1941) 203

Chapter 14 Champions Day 205

Chapter 15 Father of the Nation 209

Chapter l6 The Hupei Stakes and the Sikong Stakes 217

Chapter 17 The Wealthiest Woman in China 224

Chapter 18 The Oodnadatta Cup, Sinkiang Stakes, and Jockey Cup 231

Chapter 19 Murder Over New York 237

Chapter 20 Party at the End of the World 243

Chapter 21 Shoot-Out at the Cathay Ballroom 251

Part 4 The End (1942-1945) 255

Chapter 22 Last Laps 257

Epilogue Ghosts of Old Shanghai 271

Acknowledgments 283

Appendix: Shanghai Race Club Champions' Stakes: 1869-1942 287

Notes 293

Bibliography 311

Illustration Credits 319

Index 321

Editorial Reviews

"[Carter] juggles between telling gripping stories and advancing serious historical arguments...does a wonderful job of combining rigor with entertainment...deep knowledge of modern Chinese history and dedication to thorough research...fluent prose and the memorable quotes and phrases."

Los Angeles Review of Books - Taoyu Yang

"Champions Day is the work of a seasoned China specialist in top form, delivering engrossing stories, engaging arguments, and enticing details—a cultural history trifecta."

Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom

"A unique view of an extraordinary city at an electrifying moment in time. Thoroughly researched and colorfully rendered, Champions Day shows off Old Shanghai in all its irresistible glory and eccentricity."

Claire Chao

"James Carter’s account of Shanghai is a gripping tale…To understand the origins of some of the tensions and clashes between China and the West in the present day, this account is essential."

Rana Mitter

"Could it really be possible to encapsulate the nuanced story of old Shanghai in one day? James Carter proves it can and, through the lens of Champions Day, 1941, at the Shanghai Race Club, reveals the myriad histories of this controversial and problematic century-long urban experiment in East-West fusion."

Paul French

"With the eye of an unusually perceptive flâneur, in Champions Day [Carter] tells the story of Shanghai through its former racecourse (now part of the People’s Park). Mr. Carter is a wonderful guide for visitors in search of a long-gone city... Both books are cautionary tales about what happens, in Mr. Carter’s words, when the powerful exploit their environment, inviting war and revolution."

Economist

"More captivating than a day at the races, James Carter offers a sweeping ride through Shanghai’s tumultuous history…Every visitor to the city should read this book to know whose footsteps came before in People’s Square."

Helen Zia

"With the eye of an unusually perceptive flâneur, in Champions Day [Carter] tells the story of Shanghai through its former racecourse (now part of the People’s Park). Mr. Carter is a wonderful guide for visitors in search of a long-gone city... Both books are cautionary tales about what happens, in Mr. Carter’s words, when the powerful exploit their environment, inviting war and revolution."

Economist

2020-04-12
A distillation of the international flavor of old Shanghai and its sublimated race relations through one wartime day of celebration, mourning, and horse racing.

Carter, a history professor and fellow of the National Committee on U.S.–China Relations, focuses on Nov. 12, 1941, when “three crowds gathered in Shanghai…in different locations and with very different motivations” but all “represent[ed] tremendous change amid the crises engulfing China.” It was the time of Japanese occupation, yet the International Settlement, the 3-square-mile area that served as an extraterritorial colony sheltering foreigners amid the bustling Chinese city, remained technically neutral. The Settlement was also the host of the vaunted Shanghai Race Club, whose last Champions Day race was held on this day. This event, ably portrayed by the author, drew the first—and largest—crowd. Originally established in 1850 by British residents who had elbowed their way into Shanghai commerce after the Opium Wars, the SRC gained popularity over the next few decades as more foreigners flocked to the prosperous city and horse racing grew in popularity among the Chinese. Excluded from joining the SRC, in the early 1900s Chinese merchants founded the International Recreation Club, located outside the IS, allowing the members to bypass “the complicated politics of the all-but colony.” The second crowd was celebrating the birthday of the late Sun Yat-sen (d. 1925), father of republican China, whose legacy was being co-opted by the city's Japanese occupiers. The third crowd was attending the ornate funeral of China's wealthiest woman, Liza Hardoon, “the half-Chinese, half-French Buddhist widow of a Baghdadi Jewish merchant, whose death symbolized the passing of a generation that had seen Shanghai rise to global prominence.” Carter, whose knowledge of Chinese history and culture is abundantly clear, moves fluidly back and forth between the historical perspective and the bitter moments when Japanese occupation would eclipse the city's once flamboyant heyday.

A satisfying juggling act of academic research and engaging popular history. (45 illustrations)

Kirkus Reviews