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Talking of Christmas Presents…How About Some Sapajou?

Posted: December 3rd, 2009 | 2 Comments »

Well, if anyone were to ask me what I wanted for Christmas (and typically nobody actually has) I’d reply immediately that I’d like the first volume in what will be a three volume collection cataloguing the complete works of the great White Russian cartoonist Sapajou who worked in China, and mostly Shanghai, between the wars. Sapajou: The Collected Drawings of Old Shanghai’s Greatest Cartoonist (Volume 1) is the ideal ornament for any China Hands living room coffee table. Of course by the time of the third volume there won’t actually be any room for coffee, but who cares.

sapajou1-l-v1

Sapajou moved down through China after fleeing the Bolshevik Revolution and ended up working for the legendary North-China Daily News. His cartoons were always funny and retain their humour, were politically usually spot on and invariably affectionate portraits of the Chinese if not the pompous Shanghailander taipans. The volume has been put together by Nenad Djordjevic, who is now officially the most knowledgeable man on Sapajou ever after putting these books together after hours of scouring archives and collections. I’m sure that if you have even a parting acquaintance with old Shanghai you’ll recognise Sapajou’s style (see below) and a whole book full is a real treat. As ever, respect to Shanghai’s Earnshaw Books for putting this together (lots of other Christmas book ideas at their site – here).

Sap 5Sap 9


2 Comments on “Talking of Christmas Presents…How About Some Sapajou?”

  1. 1 Woodrow said at 8:05 am on December 3rd, 2009:

    Are you sure that the two cartoons at the bottom of this piece are by Sapajou? They look like Schiff’s work.

  2. 2 Paul French said at 10:21 am on December 3rd, 2009:

    Quite right – late night eyesight depletion
    Changed now
    Cheers


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