Helen Zia
"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."
Los Angeles Review of Books - Taoyu Yang
"[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."
Rana Mitter
"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."
Claire Chao
"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."
Economist
"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."
Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom
"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."
Paul French
"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."
Economist
"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."
Kirkus Reviews
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)
