China v Great Britain 1936
The China squad for the 1936 Olympics in Berlin consisted of ethnic Chinese players from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Singapore, and Java. Following a couple of trial matches the squad was named in April, and then, following 7 warm -up games in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Nanking, undertook an arduous 27 match tour of Indo China, the Dutch East Indies, Singapore, Burma and India before travelling to Europe.
Their record in these preparation games, played between May 8th and July 8th was:
Played: 34
Won: 28
Drawn: 4
Lost: 2
For: 141
Against: 41
The 1936 Olympic football tournament was a straight knock-out. China were drawn against Great Britain in the first round. Great Britain won 2-0 through second half goals by John Dodds (Queen's Park) and Lester Finch (Barnet).
So after months of preparation and thousands of kilometers of travelling China's Olympics lasted 90 minutes.
The following week China played the first match of a three week tour of Europe.
The details of the first match on August 13th are unclear- they played a South-West Germany representative team in Frankfurt and lost (some sources give the score as 8-1 and others 8-3)*.
The Chinese then travelled to Vienna where they lost 4-2 to Rapid on August 15th and were thrashed 11-0 by Admira the following day.
On August 20th they defeated Servette 3-2 in Geneva.
Next stop was France and a 2-2 draw with Red Star Olympique in Paris on August 22nd followed by a 6-0 beating at the hands of Le Havre on the 23rd.
Ajax were the next team to entertain the China team, the Dutch winning 5-3 on August 27th.
The tourists then crossed the channel and met two English amateur sides. Their detour to England ended winless- On August 31st Islington Corinthians FC beat them 3-2 and Casuals 5-2 on September 1st.
The record of the European part of the tour (excluding the Olympic match) was:
Played: 9
Won: 1
Drawn: 1
Lost: 7
For: 15 or 17*
Against: 46
The star of the China squad was Lee Wai Tong. He received offers of contracts whilst in Europe, but, approaching his 31st birthday, he had resolved to retire from the game after the tour.
