International Toast

The Rotary Club of Shanghai.

 

This Club has a checkered history, being chartered on the 17th July 1919 with 35 members RI actually admitted the club on the 1st October the same year. Records from 1924 show the membership comprised of 80% American, 10% Chinese, we are unsure about the remaining 10%. The club was particularly active in community work. It supported Russian Immigrant boys and physically challenged children. By the end of the 1937-38 year, the Rotary Mobile Clinic and Dispensary had completed 8 months charitable work amongst refugees in Shanghai.

 

By mid 1946 due to WW11, Rotary International had terminated 20 of the original clubs. Rotary experienced a resurgence in China after the war, with admission or re-admission of 19 clubs between 1946-1948, including Shanghai on the 27th March 1946. However the club was again terminated 5 years later. By January 1952 all clubs in mainland China had come to an end, although the number of clubs in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan continued to grow.

More than half a century later the Rotary Club of Shanghai returned on the 22nd of May 2006. Only foreign passport holders may join these clubs until the government approves regulations governing international nongovernment organisations.