Champions Day : The End of Old Shanghai - James Carter

Champions Day

The End of Old Shanghai

By: James Carter

Hardcover | 17 July 2020 | Edition Number 1

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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.

Industry Reviews
"With the eye of an unusually perceptive flaneur, 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." -- The Economist
"Champions Day is based on an impressive trawl of the archives of old Shanghai. The details are plentiful and the overall narrative is clear. Carter's prose is punchy and his sense of Shanghai and pre-revolutionary China is keen." -- Mike Cormack - Literary Review

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