Will Rogers Has a 1931 Shanghai Christmas

The American entertainer Will Rogers travelled the Far East in 1931 and had a fairly unique take on the place – “I may be all wet, and probably am, but when an American starts telling a Chinese “How to live,” why it’s like a new dude telling an old cowman how to run his ranch.”

Shanghai was a major stop on his tour and he liked Shanghai so much he returned in 1934 travelling again through many countries. Travelling out to Kobe he was on the same ship that brought the legendary jazz man Buck Clayton to Shanghai that year.

In 1931 he wrote back in his regular column to the folks back home about Christmas in Shanghai…