The Early Spread Of Modern Sports In Shanghai (1850-1891) Viewed From "Zi Lin Xi Bao"

The predecessor of North China Daily News is North China Herald.It lasted nearly 101 years from the publication of the first newspaper on August 3,1850 to the last issue on March 31,1951.It is the oldest English newspaper in Shanghai.As the first English newspaper in Shanghai,North China Daily News was also the earliest modern newspaper in Shanghai.It played an significant role in Shanghai at that time.The main audience of North China Daily News is foreigners in Shanghai at that time,especially the British,whose content is mainly to meet the needs of foreigners in Shanghai.Therefore,North China Daily News not only publishes a lot of commercial and financial information,but also contains information about the early sports activities of foreigners in Shanghai.This information is extremely valuable for the shortage of materials that the early period of introducing.In this paper,these modern sports news in North China Daily News are taken as the object of the study.By sorting out these sports matches which reported in North China Daily News,the author tries to outline the early introduction and development process of modern sports matches in modern Shanghai.By sorting out the sports of football,volleyball,tennis,baseball,racquet and rowing,it was found that at that time,these sports were flourishing in the concession area of Shanghai.Many sports were introduced,and a lot of corresponding clubs were established.At that time,relying those on clubs,many sports matches were held every month,especially from April to September.However,there were few Chinese people in the reports of the matches at that time.Among the information were found at newspaper,only the baseball clearly had Chinese people participating in the baseball matches and forming a club.