Sapajou - 9
by Richard Rigby
Envoi
And yet Sapajou's world did indeed come to an end, and with it,his best years as a creative artist. While, as has been noted in the introduction, he continued to drawfor the Shanghai German newspaper following the Japanese occupation of the Settlement, this was no longer the world in which he had come to occupy so notable a position, and which he had portrayed so well. Better to leave him, then, with one last and poignant drawing of late 1941, "The Golden Autumn" (Figure 90).
 
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After the oppressive heat of summer and the typhoons that frequently mark its end, Shanghai's golden autumn -- the Jin Qiu 金秋 -- never fails to provide a few precious weeks of relief, the more beautiful for its relative shortness before the chilling winter rains and sleet set in. But in October 1941, it was no longer possible to avail oneself of the traditional pleasures of the season. Winter was already on the way. |
 
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