DAVIS, C. Noel.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

A History of the Shanghai Paper Hunt Club, 1863-1930. With Complete Records of Hunts, Hunt Handicaps, Steeplechases and Point-to-Points. First edition of this celebration of the Shanghai paper hunt, the expatriate community's answer to fox hunting. The text is supported by detailed maps of Shanghai's rural environs and photographs from the private collections of members, as well as drawings provided by the Shanghai-based artist Edmund Toeg and the cartoonist H. W. G. Hayter.Equestrian pursuits were extremely popular in Republican China's international settlements. Businessmen, diplomats, military officers, and the well-to-do used them to affirm their status and build connections, and Shanghai was perpetually gripped by a "mania" (Weirather, p. 59) for racing. Founded in 1863, the Paper Hunt Club was one of the oldest expatriate groups in the city, and by 1930 it included members from 19 different nationalities.This history anthologizes a large amount of information from the club's archives. A special section pays tribute to Ah Pau, the head boy responsible for laying the paper trail for riders to follow. Ah Pau was invaluable when dealing with locals who objected to riders careering across their land: "In his dealings with his fellow countrymen, he is usually the embodiment of imperturbability and good humour, but when their rapacity and obstructiveness pass all reasonable bounds, he lashes them with stinging invective and withers them with biting scorn" (p. 29).

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