Despite the value and interest of his political commentary, Sapajou is perhaps at his very best, and most sympathetic, when he is dealing with the rich and multi-faceted life of the Shanghai in which he lived, and this did in fact provide the themes for the bulk of his work. Accordingly, we can but touch on a very few examples that may serve to bring out some of the most persistent themes and aspects of life as it was lived in the International Settlement--and "Frenchtown"--by Sapajou and his contemporaries.

Some of these are as topical in today's Shanghai as they ever were: for instance, ridiculously high and overvalued rents in newly developed areas (Figure69). Shanghai's impossible traffic was another such theme, although the particular and perpetual conflict between ricshaw pullers and the Settlement's Sikh police, to which Sapajou returned on various occasions, is now, mercifully, no longer with us (Figures 70 and 71). But the difficulties caused by the coexistence of two forms of vehicular traffic, powered respectively by man and by motor, are as real as ever.

The weather was also a constant subject, especially the summer heat and the drama, but relief, of typhoons--the advance of which were carefully plotted by the Jesuits at their observatory and weather station in Zikawei (aka. Siccawei, Xujiahui) (Figure 72). Today, however, air-conditioning has largely rendered superfluous the annual exodus of wives and children during the hottest months, leaving the men to cope as best they might with the assistance of the Long Bar or such other consolations as Shanghai was generally able to provide (Figure 73). The beauty of Shanghai's women, both foreign and local, was another regular--and timeless--theme of Sapajou's, and it was clearly at times difficult to decide between the two (Figure74); although where the world's sailors were concerned, the choice appears to have been unanimous (Figure 75). This was of course but one aspect of Shanghai's cosmopolitan nature,celebrated by all true Shanghailanders, not least Sapajou, in many ways (Figures 76-78).

The Fourteenth of July, a major feature of expatriate life in Shanghai whether in the Settlement or Frenchtown, was always marked with a new cartoon (eg. Figure 79), and the major Russian festivals of New Year and Easter were recorded, at times with a particular and understandable poignancy (Figure 80). Nor were the quaint customs of other minority groups ignored (Figures 81 and 82). The annual Christmas cartoons, however, never failed to bring out the fundamentally British core of the International Settlement (Figure 83), shown no more clearly than by the scale of the celebrations mounted to mark the coronation of George VI in 1937 (Figure 84). It must also be added that as the decade of the Thirties proceeded in its increasingly lamentable fashion, the cosmopolitan harmony in which Shanghai rightfully took much pride came under increasing strain (Figure 85). Its cosmopolitan nature,though, was not the only basis of Shanghai's pride, as Sapajou also makes very clear.

Surrounded by a frequently chaotic environment, the International Settlement had long provided at least relative peace and security, not least for those Chinese most opposed to much of what it stood for (Figure 86). In the years following the Communist victory in 1949 at least until the dramatic re-emergence of Shanghai in the present decade--it has become increasingly easy to regard it with either nostalgia or execration. What has so often been forgotten amongst the images of a lost world of louche living, art deco architecture and/or an exploited and starving Chinese underclass, is quite how modern it was--modern in every sense, culturally, economically, physically. It was new, powerful, energetic and vigorous, and for many who participated in its development, foreign or Chinese, exhilarating. Moreover, where the International Settlement was concerned, at least following the post-May 30 and Northern Expedition reforms and realignment with the National Government and the burgeoning Chinese bourgeoisie, it was a joint enterprise between Chinese and foreigners.

This was a theme, of Shanghai as a unique city which would cede its place to no other, to which Sapajou returned time and again, and which in a sense informs and enlivens the whole body of his work. Three examples, from 1926, 1931 and 1937 close this portfolio (Figures 87-89).