The Jewish Sports in Shanghai During the Late Qing Dynasty and the Early Republic of China

Abstract

In the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, Shanghai was the largest Jewish settlement in China, consisting mainly of Sephardic Jews, Russian Jews and European Jewish refugees. The Sephardic Jews had certain economic strength and social status and were keen on individual sports such as horse racing and the family sports, which showed the lifestyle of the upper-class society such as fitness, entertainment and social intercourse. The Russian Jews and European Jewish refugees liked to engage in mass sports such as football, table tennis and boxing in their daily lives and thus showed differences with Sephardic merchants. In religious belief, Sephardic merchants paid more attention to the solemnity of religious rites, while the Russian Jews were relatively casual; however, when the Zionism arose, the emphasis on competitive sports to prepare for military operations made all Jews brought together in close unity. In addition, the Jews paid great attention to the comprehensiveness of children’s education, and the sports activities were always the important contents in school education and family education. Whether in good times or in adversity, the Jews in Shanghai always pursued the harmony and unity of the body and the perfect soul through physical exercise.