The QUEEN OF THE ORIENT

A Guide to 1930s Shanghai

Design and Writing

Scott Rhymer

Editing
Anthony Boyd, Scott Rhymer & Jim Sorenson

Layout and Art Design

Scott Rhymer

Cover Art
Matthew Bohnhoff

Interior Art
Matthew Bohnhoff, Scott Rhymer

©2017 Black Campbell Entertainment, LLC. The Queen of the Orient, trademarks and logos, all
characters are trademarks of Black Campbell Entertainment, LLC. All images used are public domain,
save for original pieces which are copyright Black Campbell Entertainment. All rights reserved.

The Ubiquity Role Playing Game system, Hollow Earth Expedition, and Secrets of the Hollow Earth are
trademark of Exile Games, LLC © 2006 and are used with permission.

This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places, and events are either the product of the author’s
imagination, or used fictionally.
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS ii 4. PARIS OF THE ORIENT 54
INTRODUCTION iii Governing the Concession 55
Consulates in the French Concession 56
1. THE QUEEN OF THE SOUTH 1 The Riverfront 56
A Short History of Shanghai 2 Little Russia 57
A Short History of the Kuomintang 3 Cyrillic Tea Room & Bookstore 57
Traveling to and from Shanghai 4 New Concession
Arrival 5 (Residential District) 58
Map: French Concession 61
2. NEVERNIGHT CITY 7 Set Piece: Shikumen 62
The Bund 7 Figures of the French Concession 63
The Central District 8
The Club Life 9 5. THE WHORE OF ASIA 68
Sending a Wire 10 The Old City 68
The City of Blazing Light 11 Chinese Bund 70
Hongkew (Japanese District) 12 Siccawei 70
Yangtsepoo District 13 Chapei 71
Getting About 13 The Kuomintang 72
For Extended Stays 14 Organization of the KMT 73
Nansen Passports 16 Leadership of the Kuomintang 74
Map: International Settlement 17
Set Piece: The Pearl of 6. GATEWAY TO CHINA 78
the Orient Nightclub 18 What is There to See in China? 78
Set Piece: Jin Wong Bang Exports 19 Nanking 78
Figures of the Peking 78
International Settlement 20 Hangchow 79
The Yangtze Gorges 79
3. DEMON CITY 28
The Council 28 7. SETTING: SHANGHAI 80
Shanghai Municipal Police 28 The Sights 80
Ranks of the SMP 29 The Sounds 80
Shanghai Volunteer Force 30 The Smells 81
The Green Gang 31 Shanghai’s Vermin 81
The Other Gangs 33 Food, Drink, and Smokes 81
National Bureau of Investigation Pinyin (Pidgin English) &
& Statistics 34 Chinese Slang 82
Kempeitai 35 Make the Setting Part of the Plot 82
MI6 35
Chinese Communists 36 8. ADVENTURE:
GPU/NVKD 36 SHANGHAI CONFIDENTIAL 85

The Sky Rats
(Foreign Volunteer Force 37
Aircraft of the Foreign Volunteer
Force 38
Japanese Fighter Craft 40
Figures of the Demon City 41

!ii
Introduction

This sourcebook for Shanghai grew out of an old Hollow Earth Expedition game that I had run
back in 2011. It was the swan song for the gaming group we had at the time, as several of the
players would leave for other cities, pursuing different opportunities. The characters and
adventures stuck with me, even after the game and group folded, as did the setting of Shanghai
— a city with a classic film noir attitude, where East and West met and mated, where deadly
kung fu gangs fought gunslinging policemen, and where strange, sorcerous events might just
disturb the peace (such as it is…)

Time and again, I’ve wanted to come back to this setting, so when we started putting out
scenarios for 1930s pulp games, Shanghai was the obvious choice for a setting book. I’ve tried to
create a place where a host of options exist for game masters and player to carve out their own
adventures.

Scott Rhymer
Albuquerque, NM

Some of the works that informed this sourcebook:

Graham Earnshaw. Tales of Old Shanghai: The Glorious Past of China’s Greatest City.
Earnshaw, 2012.

Peter Hibbard. All About Shanghai and Environs: The 1934-35 Standard Guide Book. China
Economic Review, 1998.

Brian G Martin. The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919-1937.
University of California, 1996.

Carl A. Trocki. Opium, Empire, and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium
Trade, 1750-1950. Routledge, 1999.

Robert E. VanPatten. “Before the Flying Tigers.” Air Force Magazine, p.72-77. June 1999.

Frederic Wakeman. Policing Shanghai: 1927-1937. University of California 1995.

Bernard Wasserstein. War in Shanghai: An Untold Story of Espionage, Intrigue, and Treason in
World War II. Houghton Mifflin, 1998.

!iii
1. The Queen of the Orient
SHANGHAI!
The city goes by many names: The Queen of
the Orient, the Paris of the East, the Pearl of
the Orient, the Sixth City of the World, the
Gateway to China. The city is the cynosure of
culture and commerce in Asia, home to tens
of thousands of Europeans in Asia, and many
more who pass through her port every day.
“Whore of Asia” — Shanghai is a place
where everything is for sale, and life and
death are cheap. Three and a half million
people live in “the most dangerous city on
Earth,” but to those escaping the Soviets and
the Nazis, it is “the port of last resort” and the
last hope for freedom in a world that doesn’t
want them.
To the Chinese it is the Nevernight City, not
just because of streets lit by neon, but because
business and activity never stop. To those
Chinese Nationalists and Communists, it is
the symbol of imperialism and repression. All
the Great Powers have some small military
force here: The British and French, the
Americans and Japanese, the Germans and
Soviets; and of course, the
1
Kuomintang, the Nationalist government of
the Republic of China.
The Japanese call her “the Demon City”,
because it is a hub of espionage, and its
cousin, crime. Here, the Green Gang rules
supreme, thanks to its ruthlessness and
unofficial ties to the Nationalist government.
Shanghai is the Hollywood of Asia. Their
film industry is busy turning out cheap
knockoffs of classic Hollywood films. Its
actors and signers are often compared to their
American counterparts — the “Gene Tierney
of China”, and “Buster Keaton of Asia” —
and jazz and swing music bursts forth from
every nightclub in the city. Prostitution is rife,
from the cheapest Shanghailese girl on the
street to the expensive expatriate treats of
Russia. Can’t make it in Hollywood, or
London, or Paris, doll? Go to Shanghai and
be a star!
There’s a fortune to be made in this town, if
you’re tough enough or smart enough to take
it.
A Short History of Shanghai
A fishing village at the conflux of the
Whangpoo and Soochow Rivers, Shanghai
has been inhabited from the beginning of
Chinese history. Its real birth, however, was
in 1074 when it was upgraded to a “market
town” by the bureaucracy of the Song
Dynasty. Over the next hundred years,
seawalls were constructed to stabilize the
shoreline. When Japanese pirates attacked in
1554, Shanghai became an essential part of
the defense of China. In 1732, it became
home to the customs office for the region,
cementing its place as the port for the Yangtze
Delta.
European influence in Shanghai started with
the First Opium War in 1840-1843. The
British went to war with the Qing Dynasty to
crack open Chinese markets to their opium
trade, and with Treaty of Nanking, gained
“concessions” to open treaty ports for trade.
The Americans quickly gained a trading
foothold, as did the French. All of these
powers had small concession ports near the
ancient, walled city of Shanghai.
In 1854, a Shanghai Municipal Council was
formed to manage the affairs of the multiple
nations, although France opted out, content to
run their own concession. Formerly known as
the British Concession, it quickly became
known as “the Settlement.” The French,
however, did contribute to the Shanghai
Volunteer Force, a militia dedicated to the
protection of the foreign settlements in the
city. The Volunteers would serve the
Settlement well, repulsing an Imperialist
attack that same year.
In 1860, the Volunteers would lead the
defense of Shanghai (and their trade) against
the Taiping rebels. This year also saw the
!2
creation of the “Ever Victorious Army” under
the command of an American freebooter
named Frederick Townsend Ward, who is still
a folk hero to the Chinese today. Armed only
with a walking stick, Ward would lead his
force with the rank of general bestowed on
him by the Imperial court. Ward died in
China’s service in 1862 and was replaced by
General Charles “Chinese” Gordon, a young
Scottish officer whose aggressive and
inspired leadership broke the Taiping in 1864.
(“Chinese Gordon” would later make his
name for his defense of Khartoum against the
army of the Mahdi, holding the city despite
the entreaties of the British government to
decamp.)
The 1899 Boxer Rebellion saw an attempt by
that rebel group to attack Shanghai, but the
Volunteers, supported by the United States
Marines stationed in the city, drove off the
threat.
From the start of the concessions, hundreds of
thousands of people flocked to Shanghai to
trade, but only a small number stayed. Those
who stayed on and put down roots would
refer to themselves as Shanghailanders. By
1935, Shanghai would have a population of
70,000 or so Europeans, with nearly a third
being Russians who escaped the Bolshevik
Revolution in 1917. 30,000 Jews would flood
into the city between 1920 and 1938.
“The Settlement” survived the tumult of the
Xinhai Revolution in 1911 and a second
revolt in 1913. With the end of the Qing
Dynasty, the countryside was seized by
warlordism and civil war. Two factions in the
area, the Fengtien-Afu and Chihli, turned
their eyes to Shanghai in 1924-25, requiring
the barricading of the International Settlement
and French Concession and the mobilization
of the Volunteers to protect the city.
Meanwhile, the Kuomintang — the
A Short History of the KMT
Nationalist government of Sun Yat-Sen
— came under the leadership of
The Kuomintang started as a revolutionary
Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek in 1926.
movement under Sun Yat-Sen in 1912 and helped
The KMT pushed outward and
to overthrow the Qing Dynasty, but the party was
northward from Canton. They forced the
dissolved by Yuan Shikai — another
British to return the Hankow and
revolutionary who later proclaimed himself
Kiukiang concessions, and pushed
emperor and ruled until 1916.
toward Shanghai. In response, the
concession powers and other European
After his death, China was plunged into a period
trading partners (Spain, Italy, the
of chaos and warlordism. Sun and other KMT
Netherlands) sent troops to bolster the
leaders in exile reformed their movement, but like
Volunteers and protect the city.
the myriad groups fighting for their piece of the
country, it was initially too weak to gain traction
The Nationalists were recognized as the
outside of Canton. With the aid of COMINTERN
official “government of China”, but this
(the Communist International), the Soviet Union,
is really little more than a function of
and the Communist Party of China, the KMT
their forces and capital (Nanking) being
joined in the First United Front, which adopted
close to the Shanghai International
Sun’s political philosophy.
Settlement. Throughout the period from
1925 to 1932, the KMT tried and failed
With the death of Sun, Generalissimo Chiang
to pacify and unify the nation. China was
Kai-Shek took control of the party in 1926 and
split between two main forces — the
launched the Northern Expedition to unite the
Nationalists and the Communists — with
country under KMT leadership. The KMT pushed
a number of other warlords backing one
outward and northward from Canton in a series of
or the other of the two forces. Alliances
battles with various warlords and colonial
were fluid, and levels of commitment
powers. They wrested Hankow and Kiukiang
from the warlords are always in
from the British, before pushing toward Shanghai.
question.
In response, the concession powers and other
European trading partners (Spain, Italy, the
The Japanese aggression shown during
Netherlands) sent troops to protect the city,
the invasion of Manchuria in 1932 has
preventing the KMT from taking the treaty port.
exacerbated tensions with the other
Assured of their position, the Nationalists then
concession powers. Everyone knows that
purged their ranks of communist sympathizers,
Japan will not be satisfied with ruling
broke their alliance with the communists, and
Manchuria. but no one really wants to
where possible arrested or assassinated the
admit how tenuous the situation is. Even
leadership of the CPC with the aid of the Green
when the Japanese launched their second
Gang. The remaining communists broke out of
war on China in 1937, and occupied the
Shanghai and force-marched to the Shaanxi
areas of Shanghai surrounding the
province.
Settlement, the concession powers
looked for ways to accommodate and
Bolstered by their successes, Chiang took Beijing,
coexist with the Japanese that had torn
the traditional capital of China, and quickly
through Nanking and destroyed much of

!3
 the Chinese portions of Shanghai.
gained recognition by the foreign powers in
Shanghai as the official government of the
This uneasy peace between Japan and
“Republic of China.” Chiang then moved his seat
the other powers would hold until the
of government to Nanking to capitalize on the
attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. By that
wealth flowing out of Shanghai.
time, the International Settlement’s days
were numbered.
The Nationalists have not been able to pacify
some sections of the country, nor do they even
Traveling to and from Shanghai
have solid control over their allies in the interior.
Nationalist warlords are often, in fact, rulers of
Until 1935, there are only two ways to
their own little fiefdoms, who have loose political
get to Shanghai: boat and rail.
or philosophical alliances to the Nationalists.
These alliances are ever-changing, and a traveler
Rail service in China is a finicky thing,
in the interior of China should never assume that
but regular passenger runs from Canton
a Nationalist warlord is friendly to the
and Hong Kong to Shanghai were
government in Nanking, nor to foreigners,
available during the 1920s and ‘30s —
especially near the northwestern border, where
the trip typically takes two days and cost
Muslim Hui and Uyghurs reside, or with Soviet-
$20US.
supported communists in Shaanxi.
To get to China from Europe by rail,
In 1932, the Sino-Japanese War gave Japan a real
requires one to take the train through the
imperial foothold in China, as they seized
Soviet Union. The total time for the trip
Manchuria, the northeastern-most province of the
is 18 days from Paris, via Berlin and
country, and installed the last Qing Emperor,
Moscow to Harbin in China, then to
Puyi, as a puppet ruler at Changchun. Called the
Shanghai, at a total cost of $42US.
kangde, Puyi reigns over the new “Manchu State”
or Manchukuo, but his rule is a sham — the
The largest number of visitors to the city,
Japanese army is the real power in the new
however, come via ship. There are a
country.
number of services that can get the
Asian-struck traveler to their destination.
Back in Nanking, the Kuomintang is putting up a
From Britain alone, there are a number
brave face, but these titular rulers of China know
of excellent choices:
that their situation is tenuous. By strengthening
their ties to the Green Gang and other triads in
The Blue Funnel Line has three runs a
China, the government is hoping to create a
month from London to Shanghai via
steady flow of cash and a supply of ready
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Port Said.
fighters, should it come to that.
The trip takes five weeks, and first class
cabins cost £98, second class £65.

The esteemed Peninsular & Oriental

Steam Navigation Company (or P&O)
runs fortnightly between Marseilles and
Shanghai via Hong Kong with a trip of

!4
30 days. From there, P&O packets can be
caught to Britain with a 4-5 day trip. Prices
are similar to the Blue Funnel Line.
Twice a month from Germany, there is the
Hamburg-Amerika Line with a 35 day trip
stopping at Hong Hong, Singapore, Colombo,
Port Said, Genoa and Marseilles, Barcelona
and Rotterdam, then ending at Hamburg for
£74.
The American Dollar Steamship Line runs
their service from New York via Havana, the
Panama Canal, Los Angeles, San Francisco
and Honolulu, before going to Shanghai, and
continues westward on their return journey
with stops in Manila, Singapore, Bombay,
Port Said, and Naples. Cost is $240 for first
class, $100 for tourist class, and the trip from
New York takes 40 days, and the westward
return 45 days.
After 1935, the ability to fly via Pan Am’s
China Clipper aircraft from San Francisco to
Guam (it would then continue on to Manila)
could shorten the trip from the United States,
the final leg of the journey required a
steamship from Guam, usually via Yokohama,
to Shanghai. The cost, however, of taking the
clipper route would cost about $400US, but it
cuts the trip from California to eight days.
Arrival in Shanghai
The city is located 54 miles upriver from the
mouth of the Yangtze River. Ships arriving
are met at the Bell Buoy by the harbor pilots,
who then bring the craft into the ports along
the Whangpoo River. The grand liners and the
honest freighters of the world, Chinese junks,
and sampans — small river craft — ply the
waterways of the Whangpoo and the Yangtze,
which meet at Woosung, fourteen miles east
of Shanghai. It is common to also see
!5
warships of all manner from the Great Powers
in the river, or docked along “Warship Row”
on the other side of the Whangpoo.
The passenger is typically deposited at one of
the docks of the International Settlement
where the Chinese customs officials go about
their work with speed and efficiency. Time is
money, and the customs officers are not
sympathetic toward those trying to evade
duties, or wasting their time. Personal goods
of visitors are not subject to duty, but tobacco
products more than a half pound (or 25 cigars
or 200 cigarettes) are. Salt and narcotics are
prohibited, as the former is governed by a
government monopoly. Unclaimed baggage is
stored with customs at a cost of 30 cents a
day.
Firearms are to be surrendered to the customs
officers for the duration of a visitor’s stay in
China, although permits to carry can be
secured with some difficulty through the
Shanghai Municipal Police or French
Concessions. These permits are typically only
valid inside the European portions of the city;
to gain permits to have weaponry inside
China requires permission of the Nationalist
government, and can be had with the proper
amount of kow-towing and bribery.
One way to avoid issues with customs
(including with firearms) is to use a
commercial clearance agent. These businesses
can typically aid a visitor to China with
import issues quickly, but at a cost (typically
about $50US for tourists, 5% of import value
for businesses.)
The highest duties are on wool and silk
goods, typically 80% for the former and 40%
for the latter. Alcohol is taxed at 30%.
When leaving the country, all nailed crates or
cases require a customs permit to be allowed
aboard vessel. Again having a shipping agent
can be useful — especially if the goods being
shipped require some…discretion.
Once through customs, the traveler now finds
themselves in the heart of Shanghai — the
International Settlement!

e
& S torag
ss
a l E xpre .A.
i S
merc . Inc. U. ts
Com F e d
g Agen
ar d i n
r e s s Forw okers
r
i o n a l Exp arance B
nat Cl e s
Inter Customs rt Packer I
Exp e A N GHA
SH 3
R O AD, NE 1693
AN PH O
I N G YU . TELE
M . .
UAN
50 Y OX 1042
B
P.O.

G.E. MA
(Incorpo
rated un RDEN &
der the H CO., LT
ong Kon
g Comp D.
anies Or
CUSTO dinance
s)
TRANS
MS BRO
PORT I KERS
N ALL F
125 Han ORMS
kow Roa
d :: Sha
nghai ::
Telepho
n e 11000

6
2. Nevernight City
The International Settlement sits at the heart
of commercial Shanghai, and is home to a
little over a million people in a nine square
mile area. It is a panoply of building styles,
where the Oriental and Occidental sit side-by-
side, or blend into one another. There are
thatch huts housing people next to some of
the tallest skyscrapers outside of the United
States. Old Chinese design abuts Art Deco.
Modern fashions mix with traditional Chinese
garb. Powerful motorcars vie for space with
man-drawn rickshaws. Dozens of languages
are being shouted at once. Chinese
businessmen stride
through the streets
with their Russian
bodyguards.
At night, the
streetlights come on,
the neon buzzes
outside clubs with
the hottest scene
outside of Chicago
or New York. In the
nightlife of Shanghai,
all are equal — the rich and connected of Asia
and Europe hobnob with scoundrels and
refugees.
Even in the middle of the night, commerce is
flowing and people are working, from the
“night soil ladies” that take away full bedpots
to stevedores and fish mongers. And, of
course, there are the other, illicit “night
trades.” Shanghai is notorious for its crime,
from drug smuggling and prostitution to
kidnapping and murder for hire.
Off of the brightly lit boulevards, the
Nevernight City can be a place of danger.
7
The Bund
Central to the activities of the Settlement is
the Bund. Originally it was a tow path for
boats in the river, now the Bund is a world
class promenade to rival those in Paris or
London. It runs from the Garden Bridge over
the Soochow Creek in the north to the French
Concession in the south, where it becomes the
Quay de France.
A wide park fronts the river and masks the
constant activity of the jetties and landing
piers along the river
bank, where small
boats are constantly
offloading people
and goods from the
liners and freighters
that dock downriver
near the Eastern
District or across the
river in Pootung.
To the west side of
the wide street large
skyscrapers in modern European style greet
the traveler. Situated at the Garden Bridge is
the British Consulate, across from a large
public garden. Several banks follow as one
moves south until you get to the magnificent
Cathay Hotel, or Sassoon House — the pride
of real estate mogul Sir Victor Sassoon —
and the elegant Art Deco-styled Palace Hotel
on the Bund at Nanking Road. The Cathay
Hotel was a particular landmark for its jade
green pyramid roof that was brightly lit at
night.
The hotels sit across the Bund from a
monument to Sir Harry Parkes, a former
diplomat to China whose service greatly Bund, a region called the Central District.
strengthened the position of Shanghai in the
country. The Central District

South again to Hangkow Road, we find the Nestled between the Soochow Canal to the
Chinese Maritime Customs, or as it is known, north and the Avenue Edward VII to the
the Custom House. This massive edifice is south, bounded on the east by the Bund, the
topped by a clock tower known as “Big Central District is dominated by Nanking
Ching.” Across the Bund is the examination Road, which turns into Bubbling Well Road
shed for the customs personnel. Another west of the Shanghai Race Club.
monument to a British customs official, Sir
Robert Hart, fronts the Between the Bund and
Customs House. Thibet Road is the
epicenter of
Next door to the Shanghai’s nightlife.
Customs House is a Nightclubs, shopping
tourist staple of environs, and
Shanghai, the Hong restaurants pack the
Kong and Shanghai main roads. Perhaps
Bank. Outside the the most important
impressive building, thoroughfare is
flanking its steps, are Nanking Road.
a pair of brass lions. Running west from
Allegedly, gold was the Cathay and the
accidentally used to Palace Hotels, it is
cast the lions, and the the home to many of
front paws of the the better retail
statues are worn establishments in the
shiny by the city: department
multitude of stores and specialty
passersby who “pet shops for clothing,
the lion” for strength food, furnishings and
and luck. other accouterments;
and even car importers line Nanking Road.
At the southernmost end of the Bund, before Due to the draw for tourists, this is also one of
crossing into the French Concession at the the safest areas of the Settlement, with a
Avenue Edward VII, one finds the Shanghai strong police presence night and day. Despite
Club. While this is a British establishment, it that, care should be taken with one’s
does allow other nationalities membership. valuables, as pickpockets are legion in the
The club is home to the “longest bar in the district; keep a ready eye out!
world.”
Trinity Cathedral is the oldest church in
The real excitement of the Settlement, Shanghai, and can be found just off of
however, lies west of banks and hotels of the Nanking Road on Kiangse Road. The church

8
was built in 1847, and features the familiar
chimes of Westminster’s Big Ben ringing out
to mark the hour. Past Kiangse Road, the
character of Nanking Road becomes
increasingly native, with buildings taking on
the flourishes of the orient, and the ownership
of shops being increasingly local. The
massive Chinese Native Products Company
stands just west of Shantung Road, and is a
department store for all that is China. If lower
prices is what you wish, the Shanghai
Secondhand Store is the best places to find a
deal on used merchandise anywhere!
Past the Shanghai Race Club and Public
Recreation Grounds, a beautiful park with a
horse track, Nanking Road becomes Bubbling
Well Road. It is home to some of the most
modern examples of architecture in the city,
including the magnificent Park Hotel — the
tallest building in the East, with 205
apartments, and a superb dining room and
grill. Only a quick walk from the theatrical
and sporting clubs, it opened in 1934 and has
been a popular locale for the wealthy of the
city to live.
Another popular hotel/apartment building is
Bubbling Well Homes, at Lane 591 on
Bubbling Well Road. These modernized
shikumen homes provide reasonable rates for
the traveler needing longer housing than a
hotel can provide.
Moving south from Nanking Road, the next
major hub of activity is Foochow Road. The
excellent Metropole Hotel and Hamilton
House face each other across the road, and
nearby is the American Club at 209 Foochow
Road. The American Club has a small number
of rooms for members. No women are
allowed in the American Club, save for on the
Annual Ladies Night and Washington’s
Birthday Ball.
!9
THE CLUB LIFE
A mainstay of life for transient
businessmen and other travelers to
Shanghai is the gentlemen’s club. There are
many of these establishments throughout
Shanghai with fine pedigree: the Shanghai
Club on the Bund, the American Club on
Foochow Road, the Country Club on
Bubbling Well.
All of these clubs have permanent members
in the Shanghailander community, but they
extend the privileges of their facilities to
travelers who are nominated and seconded
by the club management for a period of
time (usually two weeks, the average length
of stay in the city.) Racial constraints are a
rarity at the clubs in the city, although most
do restrict their membership to men only.
The notable exception to this is the Cercle
Sportif Français on Rue Cardinal Mercier,
which embraces (up to forty) female
members. The notable exception to the
racial openness in the city’s clubs is the
Deutscher Garten Klub (German Garden
Club), which restricts access to Jews and
blacks after 1934.
Women’s social clubs like the excellent
American Women’s Club on Bubbling Well
Road, and the long-standing British
Women’s Club in the Hong Kong and
Shanghai Bank Building provide similar
respite for women of the Settlement.
There are also a number of Y.M.C.A. and
Y.W.C.A facilities located throughout the
city that provide short-term residence and
sporting facilities for travelers.
A block away is the Shanghai Municipal The last of the great roads of the Settlement is
Council building. This structure also houses the Avenue Edward VII, which becomes the
the Central District Station for the Shanghai Avenue Foch west of the Recreation Grounds.
Municipal Police and headquarters for the This grand boulevard is the border between
Shanghai Volunteer Corps, the militia that the International Settlement and the French
keeps the Settlement safe and free. Concession. The northern side of the street is
Settlement territory, the southern side is
Just past the Central Station is Honan Road, French.
and here one enters a neighborhood of
picturesque Chinese The Bureau of
shops, bookstores, International
teahouses, restaurants, SENDING A WIRE Telegraphs, the
and theaters. Most of main telegraph
these are found in The cost to send telegrams is per word. For offices, is at 15
shikumen houses, a mix messages inside China, the cost is $0.03 US, Avenue Edward
of European and but international missives cost $0.13 to VII on the northern
Chinese architecture Manila, between $0.50 and $0.75 to the side of the street,
that is typified by two to United States and Europe, and $2 for just west of the
three-story townhouses telegrams to South America. Travelers Bund. Here one can
that line a central alley should note that the time difference between send and receive
or longtang. These the city and the destination can slow the messages from
allies/courtyards are delivery of a message. Telegrams sent at around the world.
separated from the main noon in Shanghai arrive late in the evening Other telegraph
roads by a “stone gate” the previous day in the Americas, but arrive offices are at 35
— often highly in the early morning hours in Europe. Avenue Edward
ornamented with VII: the Great
dragons, phoenixes, or The telegraph companies have agreements Northern Telegraph
other motifs. Shikumen with the local post offices to deliver Company; Eastern
make up almost 90% of telegrams throughout the city, but this can Extension,
the residential housing also slow receipt. Australasia, and
in the city, but also are China Telegraph
often home to more Co.; and the
illicit entertainments, the Commercial Pacific
most notorious shikumen being the Hui Le Li Cable Co. Another full-service telegraph
(Lane of Lingering Happiness.) office is in the Cathay Hotel which is
provided by the Chinese Government Radio
In all, 151 “singsong houses” — the Chinese Administration, and the RCA Company.
slang for brothels — are crammed into the
alleyways of this section of the Central The Avenue Edward VII also provides various
District. The area is bounded by a circular entertainments. There is the large and
road — Hoopeh Road, which loops from excellent Nanking Theater, which shows
Nanking south, then turns west into Paihoi “talkies” from early matinee shows to a late
Road before connecting to Thibet Road at the night show. Dance clubs like the Ambassador
Recreation Grounds. (which claims to have 100 of the prettiest

!10
dancing hostesses in the city), Ladow’s
Casanova, and Palais Cafe are top-notch
establishments with a wide variety of music
and shows for their visitors, as well as
spacious floors for the light-footed.
The City of Blazing Light
“This town would ruin anybody in no time.”
— General Joseph W Stillwell, 1935
Sundown changes the character of Shanghai.
During the day, it is a place of maddening
bustle and constant industry. At night, the
lights of the town blaze bright and every kind
of entertainment — from the most staid tea
parties and dances, to cabaret shows and jazz
clubs, to movies and stage theaters — can be
had.
The nightlife starts at tea-time (or cocktail
hour, depending on your preference…), about
five in the evening and runs until 2 a.m. for
the reputable places, breakfast for the not-so
11
ones. Most of the fashionable hotels have
proper teas or dinner dances, as do the better
ballrooms. These require proper attire — tie
and dinner jackets; proper dresses. Here, you
bring your dinner date, or meet someone
appropriate. This isn’t the case in the low-
class joints.
These more rambunctious cabarets still
require some kind of dress up, but it is not
uncommon to see the form-hugging Chinese
cheongsam (locally called qipao) on Western
women, and men in uniform blowing their
Thursday pay disbursement. Here your date is
most likely someone you met in the club, or
they are in the employ of the joint — the
infamous “dancing girls” of Shanghai. These
girls, often Russian or Jewish girls escaped
from the Soviet Union, are beautiful, multi-
lingual, and angling to make as much off of
the customers as they can. They do this by
getting a cut of the bar bill…and boy! can
these girls drink!
In these low-class but respectable cabarets,
the girls might be making money doing more
for the customers than keeping them
company, but this is never openly discussed.
Rooms upstairs are set aside for assignations,
and the house takes a steep cut, but makes
sure the clients don’t get out of hand.
Then there’s the no class joints — the dives
that are filled with a dangerous element, or
the singsong houses that offer pleasure with
no bones about what they’re selling. Opium
dens and heroin houses beckon from the
darker shikumen alleyways, but one never
knows if you’ll find yourself robbed or worse.
Some of the more reputable high-class
cabarets and ballrooms are:
Ambassador Ballroom near the Recreation
Grounds on Avenue Edward VII. The vast
number of stunning dancing hostesses is
worth the visit.
The Canidrome at 1189 Rue Lafayette
manages to pull a great many American jazz
musicians thanks to the connections of Mr.
Andrew, its American manager. Not to be
outdone, the Majestic Cafe of Mr. H.H. Wong
at 254 Bubbling Well Road also claims 100
dancing girls and boasts an excellent
American orchestra that does a wide variety
of popular music styles. Wong also owns the
elegant little St. Anna’s Ballroom at 80 Love
Lane — a more upscale and respectable
atmosphere for the ladies.
The Palais Cafe sports more popular jazz and
swing music, and benefits from its location at
57 Avenue Edward VII, near the Bund. Good
service and an excellent bar make this a first
stop for many newcomers. Similarly, Ladow’s
Casanova, with its long dance floor and the
!12
Paramount’s good music are popular for their
nearby location.
Venus Cafe is on North Szechuan Road in
Chapei (North District) has been operated by
the effusive and well-regarded Mr. Levy for
two decades, and the quality and cleanliness
of the food is undeniable.
The Vienna Garden Ballroom just off of
Bubbling Well Road has a small golf course
and an open air pavilion during the summer
months, as well as the superb Celis’ All-Star
Orchestra.
If one wants to dip a toe into the most
dangerous end of the good clubs, one doesn’t
have to go far. While still safe for the
newcomer, these places are a bit more rough
around the edges. Cabarets like Ciro’s, or the
Little Club — very popular with the U.S.
Marines — offer wilder companions. Another
popular spot is Mr. Kessik’s Pearl of the
Orient. He boasts a ballroom with a modern
art deco flair combined with elements of
traditional lacquered floors and walls, replete
with Oriental dragons and phoenixes.
For the truly adventurous, there is the
infamous “Blood Alley” at Rue Chu Pao-san,
just off of the Avenue Edward VII on the
French side of the line. Here dive bars like
Mumms, the Crystal, George’s Bar, and
Monk’s Brass Rail vie for your money.
Hongkew (Japanese District)
North of the Soochow Canal is the district
formerly known as the American Settlement.
Sometimes known as the Northern District,
the official name is Hongkew. When crossing
the canal from the Bund via the Garden
Bridge, the first things of interest are the line
of consulates along the riverwalk to the east.
The Soviet, German, and Japanese consulates
are all located here. To the left is Soochow
Road, which parallels the canal. Here one
finds the Head Post Office, as well as the
General Hospital, which is run by Franciscan
nuns. A large apartment skyscraper called the
Embankment House is popular with the
residents of this district; and after 1935, it is
joined by the Broadway Mansions.
Along the Soochow Canal, the Honan Bridge
deposits people at the Temple of the Queen of
Heaven — one of the most popular temples to
visit in Shanghai. There is a large street
market that sells all manner of religious
trinkets by the temple at the corner of North
Honan and Tiengdong Roads.
Going further north to Boone Road, one finds
several points of interest. The first is the
Shanse Bankers Guild building. A fine
example of modern Chinese architecture, the
building is famed for the intricate wood
working and the domed theater inside. Across
the street from the Guild is the Hongkew
Market. An open-aired affair, the market is
open around the clock, but new product is
brought in about sunrise. Most fishermen,
farmers, and butchers hawk their wares from
sun up until sundown, but there are stalls that
stay open all night. Heaps of fresh fish and
meat, mountains of vegetables and fruit are
available and cheap.
The Market is located in the heart of the
Japanese Colony. Here, most of the police
you will encounter will be Japanese, but
nearly all of them speak English. While
infallibly polite, they are quick with a baton
to those who question their authority. The
surrounding area from North Chekiang to
North Szechuan Road, and north from
Tiengdong Road to the Shanghai North
Railway Station (the northern boundary of the
!13
district) is filled with fine examples of
Japanese architecture. Nipponese hotels,
restaurants, and shops crowd this
neighborhood and give it an exotic flair.
The Shanghai North Rail Station is the
embarkation point for most seeking to travel
inland to Nanking or Peking. There are trains
leaving almost every hour during the day.
Yangtsepoo District
Also known as the Eastern District,
Yangtsepoo stretches from Hongkew to the
Point in the East. This is where the
concession ends and Chinese rule begins. The
main streets are Broadway and Seward Road,
which run from the Northern Bund, as it is
sometimes called, nearly all the way to the
end of town.
This area is highly industrial. Most of the
manufacturing that takes place in Shanghai
happens here. There are mills for silks and
cotton cloth, breweries, and tea packaging
factories, and here is where many of the
Green Gang’s opium warehouses are. It is
home to the Shanghai Power Company’s
main power production plant, as well as the
Shanghai Waterworks Company, and the
Shanghai Gas Company.
Much of the commercial shipping is
offloaded here, as well. Docks, godowns
(warehouses) line the Whangpoo River. Local
river boats, steamers, and big freighters are
constantly moving in and out of port around
the clock.
Getting About
Shanghai is surprisingly modern to many
people who first visit, especially in terms of
the public transportation. While there are no
elevated or subway trains in the city, there is
an extensive network of buses and electric-
powered trams that ply the streets and cover
much of the city’s areas. Rates for these are
reasonable, comparable to similar services in
America or Europe.
a day, it is recommended you do so through
your hotel. They are more experienced at
haggling pricing with the pullers. The average
cost is between $1.50 and $2 Mex. a day. The
average cost for a short hop is about $0.25
Mex.

Hiring a (taxi) car is also quite easy. The The latest type of rickshaw to see use in
minimum fare is usually $1 Shanghai dollar Shanghai is the “tuk-tuk”, as they are called
(sometimes called the “Mexican dollar” and in Siam. These are three-wheeled motorized
worth about $0.15US) for a twenty minute vehicles from Japan, and they can carry three
trip. The driver will expect a “cumsha” or tip, passengers seated behind the driver.
as well. It is recommended you negotiate your
price before allowing the driver to take you
anywhere, as fares can be highly variable if
you hire the car for a longer period. Usually,
the cost runs between $3-6 Mex per hour,
depending on the type of car.

This is another point where Shanghai differs

from much of China — the number of
automobiles on the street. There are more
than 30,000 in Shanghai with a wide variety
of manufacturers represented. Operating a car
in the Settlement and French Concession
requires a license from either of these
authorities, but to operate a car in the Chinese
sections requires a license from the Chinese
authorities.
For Extended Stays
The most available sort of transportation,
however, is the rickshaw. These ubiquitous For visitors remaining more than a few days
vehicles are nearly always within shouting in Shanghai it is recommended you register
distance, any time of the day or night in the with your local consulate, if only for your
Settlement. The pullers who draw these own protection. Those with Canadian,
vehicles through the streets are almost Japanese, or Hong Kong citizenship do not
exclusively Chinese, and most will not accept require visas to move throughout China, nor
foreign currency — only the Shanghai dollar do visitors traveling by ship for the length of
will do. These rickshaws can be pulled by a time the ship is in port (generally two days.)
man on foot or by a bicycle setup where the Otherwise, even those visitors to the
puller pedals. They usually seat two people Settlement are required by Chinese authorities
comfortably. to have a visa. (If you do not venture outside
of the Settlement or French Concession, this
If you are thinking of engaging a rickshaw for is not really an issue.)

14

Some fourteen foreign nations have treaties of
extraterritoriality with the Chinese
government, giving their citizens the right to
trial by those national authorities, should you
find yourself in legal trouble.
For Americans: The United States Court for
China was set up in 1906 and consists of a
judge, a district attorney, a US marshal, and a
clerk. They also have a yearly session in other
concession ports. If convicted of a crime in
this court, prisoners are sent to Bilibad Prison
in Manila, or to the United States (usually to
Hawaii.)
For Belgians: There is no permanent court
and it must be convened on an ad hoc basis
via the authority of the Royal Prosecutor
General. This means a court case can take
several weeks or months to be heard. There
are no appeals processes for trial in Shanghai,
and serious offenses see the defendant
transported to Brussels for trial.
For British: A Supreme Court was established
in 1865 to hear cases in Shanghai. Convicts
are sent to Chinese prisons, although the court
reserves the right to send prisoners to Hong
Kong.
For Dutch: A consular court is convened as
needed by the Consul General, and
defendants have all the rights of a Dutch
citizen regarding representation. A prosecutor
is usually hired from the Dutch legal
community, or brought in from Dutch
Indonesia, which may delay trial.
For French: There are seventeen consular
courts throughout China, as they have the
most widespread extraterritoriality treaties
with the Chinese. A single judge sits for the
court in Shanghai and there is no examining
!15
prosecutor. Instead, those duties devolve to
the Concession’s council, with a prosecutor
being appointed as needed. Appeals can be
heard in Saigon or Hanoi.
For Danes: The judge for cases in the Danish
Court for China is the Danish Consul General
to Shanghai. Any appeals are handled in
Copenhagen.
For Italians: The consul general appoints a
judge for Italian citizens accused of crimes.
Usually expulsion from the Italian consular
areas is the punishment for any minor crimes.
Major crimes in the French Concession are
often turned over to the French court system
for judgment (although the defendant can ask
for trial in Italy.)
For Japanese: The Japanese consul general is
authorized to hear court cases against
Japanese subjects, and he is the sole arbiter
under Japanese civil codes. The defendant,
however, may be returned to Japan for trial at
the order of the Minister of Foreign Affairs —
and this is frequently the case with Japanese
officials accused of crimes. Criminals serve
their sentences in Shanghai until after 1932,
and after were remanded to custody in
Manchuria or Japan.
For Norwegians: As with most of the minor
powers in Shanghai, the Consul General acts
as judge in the Consular Courts. For cases
where punishment would exceed three years,
the defendant is remanded to Norway for
trial. All appeals are conducted there as well.
For the Portuguese: All civil cases are heard
by a consular judge who has a circuit between
Shanghai, Macau, and other consular ports. If
the case is criminal and serious in nature, it is
usually heard in Macau or Goa, in Portuguese
India. Sentence is carried out at penal enough connections or money to buy their
colonies in Portuguese Africa. way out of severe sentences.

For Spaniards: The Consul General convenes Consulates in the International Settlement can
courts to hear civil cases and serious criminal be found at the following locations:

cases. Cases of violence where no blood was
shed and no weapon used are nearly always Austria 330 Szechuan Road
dismissed. Serious offenders are usually Denmark 26 The Bund
shipped to Spanish penal colonies in Africa. Germany 9-10 Whangpoo Road
Italy 555 Bubbling Well Rd
For Swedes: There is a consular judge for Japan 25 A Whangpoo Road
legal cases in Shanghai and appeals must be Mexico 131 Museum Road
conducted in Stockholm. Norway 110 Szechuan Road
Spain 1205 Bubbling Well Rd
For the Swiss: The Consul General acts as the Soviet Union 1 Whangpoo Road
judge in cases brought against Swiss citizens. United Kingdom 33 The Bund
Appeals are conducted in Zurich. Untied States 248 Kiangse Road

There are several European nationalities not (See Chapter 4 for the consulates in the
covered by extraterritoriality: Austrians and French Concession.)
Germans, Greeks and Hungarians, and
Russians (Soviet or “white” Russians), and
those with “nansen” passports provided by
the League of Nations. As with Chinese
citizens living in the International Settlement,
they are under the jurisdiction of the local
Chinese Provincial Courts present — the Nansen Passports
Shanghai Special Area District Court and the
Second Branch, Kiangsu Provincial High Internationally recognized travel documents
Court. provided by the League of Nations, the first
of these passports were given to Russian
Prior to 1930, these courts were “Mixed” — nationals displaced by the Bolshevik
having Chinese judges that were “assisted” by Revolution. They are issued by the
foreign officials, and which often saw International Office for Refugees and
European offenders escape Chinese justice. named for the statesman that first issued
However, since the reorganization of the them. Between a quarter and half million
courts under the Kuomintang, the Chinese people carry these passports around the
courts rarely consult foreign officials and world, and nearly all Russian, Armenian,
often give preference to Chinese citizens in Jewish, and Turkish residents in Shanghai
cases involving foreigners. Chinese justice is have them.
swift, appeals are rare, and the life of a
convict is one of hard labor or worse.
However, the corruption that is endemic in
the Nationalist offices often allows those with

!16
17
The Pearl of the Orient Club
A good example of the sort of place one can
safely unwind is the Pearl of the Orient Club
— a large cabaret owned by Mr. Roland
Kessik, a half-Chinese businessman who hails
from Hong Kong. (Known to the local
Chinese community as “Boss Banana” — a
crack on his Scottish father,
an bank official in Hong
Kong.)
that Kessik’s connections with the Green
Gang and 13K Triad run deep, despite
Chinese derision at his bi-racial nature. It is
an excellent place to meet a contact without
seeming too out of place. For a price or a
favor, Kessik can usually set up a meet with
anyone, or find you just about anything you
need in Shanghai.

With his impeccable style

and business connections in
Hong Kong, he has been
able to assemble one of the
best stocked bars in the
Orient. The place is elegant,
but modern, a mix of
Mandarin motifs and art
deco. His dancers are mostly
Russian, and his lead
hostess, Jenya, is considered
one of the most beautiful
women in the Settlement.
Security is kept by John
Mack, a feisty Scotsman and
former sergeant in the 9th Jat
Regiment in India, and a
selection of massive Sikhs,
some of them former
policemen with the SMP.

There is a private gambling

rooms on the first floor of
the club, and on the second
floor, rooms for other sorts
of pleasures…

Any night, the Pearl hosts

guests from the most
wealthy patrons of Shanghai
to the shadiest of
businessmen. It is rumored

18
Jin Wong Bang Exports
Situated on the river in Yangtsepoo, this
innocuous import/export company is native
owned, a partnership between Jin Wong and
his brother, Roland Kessik. Kessik is a silent
partner in the business; the day-to-day
operations of the small fleet of tramp
steamers is left to Wong.
Like many other small shipping companies,
they have several warehouses near the wharf
on Kung Ping Road. Most of their traffic is
perfectly legal, and they can act as official
transport agents. However, they also do
19
plenty of illicit runs along the coast from
Hong Kong to Seoul, moving whatever their
customers need.
They have three Chinese junks that have been
outfitted with gasoline engines to augment
their sails, but most of their shipping is done
in smaller 70’ diesel boats that are big enough
to carry decently large hauls but remain fast
enough to outrun the Chinese authorities’
coastal monitors.
The floor plan below is typical of a small
warehouse and export business.
Figures of the International Settlement


Sir Victor Sassoon

force behind the Shanghai Sporting Club and the
race track there. He is an inveterate gambler on
horses, but steers clear of other games of chance.

REAL ESTATE TYCOON

Motivation: Fortune
Nationality: British Age: 28

ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 6
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 5
SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
Bureaucracy 3 INT 6
Business 7
Con 2 CHA 5
Diplomacy 3 CHA 6
Drive 1 DEX 3
Gambling 2 INT 5
Horse Racing 6
Linguistics 3 INT 6
Ride 2 DEX 4
Streetwise 2 CHA 5

A powerful real estate mogul in the city from the

late 1920s until the Communists take over China RESOURCES & TALENTS:
in 1949, Sassoon is an Armenian Jew whose Status 3: +4 social tests in Shanghai International
family had made out well in the opium trade Settlement government, French Concession, and
before it was outlawed in 1911. He was educated the business community.
at Harrow and Cambridge, and was an officer in
the Royal Flying Corps during the War. Wealth 4
Originally, he was based in Bombay, but moved to
Shanghai during the Nationalist rise to power in LANGUAGES:
1927. English (native), French, Mandarin

Fueled with $85 million (Mex.), and having

inherited his father’s trading company, he built the
Cathay Hotel, the Metropole, the Jinjiang, and the
Establishment House. He became the center of the
upper echelons of Shanghailese society, and
remains in the city until just before the Japanese
took over in 1942.

He is a savvy man, quick to spot a con or a good

deal. Funny and cultured, his great passion after
architecture is horse racing, and he was a major

!20
Secretary-General Stirling Fessenden
POLITICIAN
Motivation: DutyNationality: American

ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 4
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 6
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 5

SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

Academics,
Law 3 STR 6
Bureaucracy 3 INT 6
Government 7
Diplomacy 3 CHA 7
Drive 1 DEX 3
This influential American has been the Firearms 1 DEX 3
Secretary-General of the Shanghai Municipal Investigation 1 INT 4
Council since 1929 (until 1939.) A Bowduin Linguistics 3 INT 6
man whose father was the Secretary of State Ride 1 DEX 3
for Maine, he came to Shanghai in 1903 as
part of the American Trading Company, and RESOURCES & TALENTS:
started a law practice a few years later and Status 4: Highly respected and wealthy.
eventually became a judge for the United
States Court to China. He is the chairman of FLAWS:
the Far Eastern Bar Association, a member of Condescending
the board of trustees for the SMC, and created
the powerful American Mercantile LANGUAGES:
Company, a real estate venture in Shanghai. English (native), French, Latin, Mandarin

WEAPONRY:
Harrington & Richardson .32 revolver
Damage: 2L Attack Rating: 7L Range: 25’
Capacity: 5(r) Rate: M Speed: A

21
William “Bill” Fairbairn

This tall, thin Englishman served as a Royal

Marine before becoming an SMP police officer in
1907. Over the next 20 years, he was in hundreds
of street fights, leading him to develop the
martial art “defendu” as well as various close
quarters pistol techniques, and created the special
anti-riot squad, “the Specials.” He invented, with
his friend Eric Sykes, a combat dagger, a metal-
lined “bullet proofed” vest that could stop a .30
Mauser round (if the wearer was very lucky…)

During the 1930s, he is the assistant

commissioner of the Reserves for the SMP. He is
a serious, no-nonsense man who exudes an air of
danger. He is scarred extensively from his life of
brawling, and these can be seen on his neck and
hands.

Fairbairn has also done many a job for the

“Special Branch” of the SMP, essentially British
Intelligence, and is often looking for people
willing to do missions for them. Long-term
residents with a clean(ish) record and skills sets
that could benefit the police will often find
themselves recruited for the Reserves.

POLICE COMMISSIONER
Motivation: Duty Nationality: British
RESOURCES & TALENTS:
ATTRIBUTES: Block: Defense is a reflexive action.
Body: 3 Charisma: 3 Contacts 3: +4 social tests in in Shanghai
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2 governments and criminal element.
Strength: 3 Willpower: 4 Parry: Parry maneuver is a reflexive action.
Quick Draw: Draw weapon as reflex action.
Secondary Attributes: Rank 3: Police commissioner
Size: 0 Move: 6 Perception: 6
Initiative: 5 Defense: 6 Stun: 3 FLAWS:
Health: 7 Danger Magnet: Trouble finds him. As does a
style point.
SKILLS LVL BASE RATING Thrillseeker: Style pt. when her love of action
Athletics 2 STR 5 gets him in trouble.
Bureaucracy 2 INT 4
Con 2 CHA 5 LANGUAGES:
Defendu 3 STR 6 English (native), French, Mandarin
Diplomacy 1 CHA 4
Drive 2 DEX 5 WEAPONRY:
Firearms 3 DEX 6 Webley MK VI .455 revolver
Intimidation 3 CHA 6 Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 9L Range: 50’
Investigation 3 INT 5 Capacity: 6(r) Rate: M Speed: A
Linguistics 3 INT 5
Stealth 2 DEX 5 Sykes-Fairbairn Combat knife
Streetwise 3 CHA 6 Damage: 2L Attack Rating: 9L Speed: A
Survival 3 INT 5

22
Eric A. Sykes
ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 3 Charisma: 2
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 6 Perception: 5
Initiative: 5 Defense: 6 Stun: 3
Health: 6

RESOURCES & TALENTS:

Contacts 3: +4 social tests in Shanghai
government or business community.
Long Shot: Doubles Firearms range
Rank: 2: Head of Special Branch

FLAWS:
Addiction: Smoking

LANGUAGES:
English (native), French, Mandarin
SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
Athletics 2 STR 5
Brawl 3 STR 6
Bureaucracy 1 INT 3
Diplomacy 1 CHA 3
Drive 2 DEX 5
Firearms 3 DEX 6
Rifles 7
Linguistics 3 INT 5
Originally a salesman for American weapons Stealth 1 DEX 4
Streetwise 3 CHA 5
companies in East Asia and an avid and Survival 2 INT 4
skilled hunter, Sykes was a sharpshooter
during the Great War. He joined the SMP WEAPONRY:
Reserves as an inspector in 1926, and helped Webley MK VI .455 revolver
Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 9L Range: 100’
create their Specials unit, training snipers and Capacity: 6(r) Rate: M Speed: A
marksmen when he wasn’t working his day
job at S.J. David & Co., an import/export Enfield No. 2 MK I .303 Bolt-action Rifle
business. He would eventually become the Damage: 4L Attack Rating: 11L
Range: 400’ Capacity: 10 (m) Rate: M
head of the unit in 1937, but leaves Shanghai Speed: A
in 1940 to train Secret Intelligence Service
and Special Operations Executive agents. Sykes-Fairbairn Combat knife
Damage: 2L Attack Rating: 8L Speed: A
POLICE SNIPER
Motivation: AdventureNationality: British

23
William Johnstone “Tony” Keswick

From an old Scottish family, Tony is the “tai- BUSINESSMAN

pan” of the Jardine Matheson Company in Motivation: Money Nationality: British
Shanghai. Jardine — sometimes called “the
muckle house” for its Scottish roots — is the ATTRIBUTES:
biggest hong or trading company in the East, Body: 2 Charisma: 3
and has been involved in Chinese and Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Japanese trade for a century. It was on the Strength: 2 Willpower: 3
ground floor for the opium and tea trade in
the 1840s, and sold guns to revolutionaries Secondary Attributes:
during the Meiji Revolt in Japan. They now Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 5
make most of their money through shipping, Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
insurance, railways in China, and banking. Health: 5

In Shanghai, Jardine owns the largest cotton SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
mill, a packing plant, and one of the better Athletics 2 STR 4
breweries. With a fleet of more than 30 Bureaucracy 3 INT 6
merchant ships and a hundred thousand Business 7
employees, Jardine is a powerhouse. Con 3 CHA 6
Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
Tony was born in Japan, educated in England Drive 1 DEX 3
at Winchester and Cambridge, and has been a Firearms 2 DEX 4
company officer since 1925. He comes to Linguistics 3 INT 6
Shanghai in 1935, still in his early 30s, and is Ride 2 DEX 5
the Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal
Council just prior to the Pacific War. RESOURCES & TALENTS:
Status 4: +8 social tests in business
Tony is a fun-loving man and gregarious. Part throughout the Orient and British Empire.
of the reason for this is he is also working for Wealth 4
British Intelligence on the side. In this
capacity, Tony might be encountered by LANGUAGES:
characters as a patron — paying for English (native), Cantonese, French,
information, or for the characters to do some Mandarin
mission for rarely defined reasons.

!24
John Keswick
John is frequently referred to as “the younger SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
Keswick.” He is three years Tony’s junior, Athletics 2 STR 4
and another high-ranking official at Jardine. Rugby 5
He follows Tony out to Shanghai in 1935. He Bureaucracy 3 INT 6
is married, and his wife Claire — the Con 3 CHA 6
daughter of the famed tenor Gervase Elwes— Diplomacy 3 CHA 6
is a popular member of the Shanghai elite. Drive 1 DEX 3
Firearms 2 DEX 4
John mostly oversees the day-to-day Linguistics 3 INT 6
operations of the Jardine holdings in Ride 3 DEX 5
Shanghai, while Tony manages the large Streetwise 1 CHA 4
strategic issues of the day. He is a friendly
and approachable man, and popular with his RESOURCES & TALENTS:
Chinese employees. With a pronounced back Status 4: +8 social tests in business
of his head, John is often suitably compared throughout the Orient and British Empire.
to Fu Shen, the god of happiness, by his Wealth 4
people.
LANGUAGES:
BUSINESSMAN English (native), French, German, Mandarin
Motivation: Duty Nationality: British

ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 6
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 5

!25
Roland “Boss Banana” Kessik

The owner of the Pearl of the Orient Club, Secondary Attributes:

Kessik is considered one of the better brokers Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 6
between the foreigners of the Settlement and Initiative: 6 Defense: 5 Stun: 2
the Green Gang and other Chinese business Health: 5
interests in the Shanghai. His half-brother, Jin
Wong, is a known and skilled boat pilot and SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
suspected smuggler who frequently plies the Athletics 3 STR 5
trade route between Hong Kong, Canton, and Brawl 3 STR 5
Shanghai. But it is his illegitimate ties to the Bureaucracy 2 INT 5
Keswick (pronounced “Kessik”) family, that Con 2 CHA 6
are why he becomes so useful in the middle Diplomacy 2 CHA 6
of the 1930s to the Green Gang and the Drive 1 DEX 4
Kuomintang. Firearms 3 DEX 6
Intimidation 1 CHA 5
Always impeccably turned out in Western Linguistics 3 INT 6
clothing he has made by top-notch Chinese Melee 3 STR 5
tailors and speaking with a fluid English Streetwise 2 CHA 6
accent, he is the welcoming face of China to Stealth 1 DEX 3
the foreigner, part “them”, part “us.” The Survival 1 INT 4
Chinese gang deride him as “Boss Banana”,
but he has worked his way into the middle of RESOURCES & TALENTS:
the Settlement’s elite circles, and they need Allies 2: Green Gang
him. Mooks 2: 20 average mooks at hand
Refuge 2: Pearl of the Orient nightclub
Characters will find Kessik usually has Wealthy: $250US/mo., car
something on the burner — a caper that needs
doing, a favor for the Nationalists or the FLAWS:
British — and he is willing to pay well. He is Criminal: style pt. when causes him trouble.
also surprisingly egalitarian in his hiring Fanatical: Chinese independence
practices: If someone can get the job done, he Half-breed: -2 die social tests with Chinese
doesn’t care about age, sex, color, or
ethnicity. LANGUAGES:
Cantonese (native); English, French,
GANGSTER Japanese, Mandarin
Motivation: Influence
Nationality: Chinese WEAPONRY:

Walther PPK 7.65mm
ATTRIBUTES: Dam: 2L Attack Rating: 5L Rng: 50’
Body: 2 Charisma: 4 Cap: 7(m) Rate: M Speed: A
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

!26
Chang Ching-Chiang (Curio Chang)
Educated in France, Chang calls himself Chang
Renjie, but is known by most of the Settlement
as “Curio Chang.” He is from a wealthy family,
and was an athletic and intellectually gifted boy,
but suffered from arthritis and an eye condition.
He now wears awkward, thick glasses that give
him a sinister air.

In France he was an anarchist, but quickly

joined the Nationalists after the revolution
toppled the Qing Dynasty. He was instrumental
in the purge of communists from the Nationalist
government, and in the electrification of
Shanghai and the surrounding areas. However,
demand for electrical power never quite met his
ambitions, and Chang has been slowly losing
money and influence in the Kuomintang.

His extensive knowledge of Chinese history and

artifacts makes him one of the primary brokers
of Chinese objets d’art. He frequently will
fence stolen art or archeological finds to
Western collectors for a cut of 20%.

MONEYMAN
Motivation: Fortune
Nationality: Chinese

ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 4
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes: RESOURCES & TALENTS:

Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 5 Intelligent
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2 Skill Aptitude: Academics
Health: 5 Style: 4 Status 3: +6 social tests.

SKILLS LVL BASE RATING FLAWS:

Academics 2 INT 6 Greedy
Athletics 2 STR 3 Myopia: -2 to perception involving sight
Bureaucracy 2 INT 5
Con 3 CHA 6 LANGUAGES:
Diplomacy 3 CHA 6 Mandarin (native), Cantonese, English, French,
Firearms 2 DEX 4 Japanese
Linguistics 4 INT 7
Stealth 1 DEX 3
Streetwise 2 CHA 5
Survival 1 INT 3

27
3. Demon City
“If God lets Shanghai endure, He owes an
apology to Sodom and Gomorrah.”
— Anonymous evangelical missionary, 1922
The Council
The Shanghai Municipal Council is the ruling
body of the Settlement. Governed by the
Land Regulations of 1844 (and sometimes
modified) which originally simply stated the
rules for land acquisition from the Chinese
government, it also defined the administration
of the International Settlement, and the rules
of suffrage for those who owned land or paid
taxes in the same.
While allegedly international in character, the
SMC is primarily an Anglo-American entity,
as those two nations control much of the trade
in the city. The German and Japanese
representation on the council is only a seat
each, but the Japanese regularly agitate for
more seats.
Legislation for the Settlement is handled by a
annual meeting of the “Ratepayers” who
receive and approve (or not) the suggestions
of the council. Currently, there are only 2000
ratepayers who qualify to vote for the council
members or attend the meetings.
Residents of the Settlement may be of any
nationality, including native Chinese, but
foreign residence in the Settlement can be
(but rarely is) revoked by the council.
Shanghai Municipal Police
Enforcing the law throughout the rough and
tumble city known as “the most dangerous
city in the world” is the Shanghai Municipal
28
Police, a force of roughly 4750 men during
the 1930s. To combat the ubiquitous crime in
the city — from smuggling and drug use to
prostitution and violence — the SMP have
developed a reputation that rivals the
gunslingers of the American West. Some
members of the force have been in dozens of
gunfights or fist fights. The Assistant
Commissioner of the Reserves, William
Fairbairn, has even created his own martial
arts form, defendu — a combination of
aikido, boxing, and kung fu — to aid his men
in protecting themselves against thugs who
are not shy about killing to remain free.
Most of the force is ethnic Chinese, but there
are about 450 members in the Foreign
Branch, encompassing soldiers, lawmen, and
other skilled individuals, many of whom
serve part-time or as needed. The Foreign
Branch is primarily made of British nationals,
but there are also Americans, Canadians, and
Australians. Well regarded are the 550 or so
officers of the Sikh Branch, and are almost
exclusively former soldiers of the British
Indian Army. They are some of the most
highly decorated, dedicated, and feared
members of the force. Additionally, there are
also around 250 members of the Japanese Frederick Wernham Gerrard. The assistant
Branch, who mostly patrol the areas of the commissioner in charge of the Reserves Unit,
Northern District (or “Hongkew”), and are and arguably the most famous policeman in
known for their quick triggers and brutality. Shanghai, is William E. Fairbairn, a veteran
of over 100 fights.
The laws in the Settlement loosely mirror
those of Great Britain, with the main offenses The Reserves make up the bulk of the Foreign
being drug Branch — men with
smuggling and sale, day jobs who are co-
Ranks of the Shanghai Municipal
prostitution, and opted as needed for
Police:
various property and operations and
violent crimes. Tax Constable investigations. The
evasion is another Usually assigned to a particular neighborhood. most prestigious of
major issue for the these reservists are
Sergeant
SMP. All of these the “Specials”, who
Usually in charge of a particular watch.
offenses tend to reap are trained in more
high monetary Sub-inspector direct combat skills.
reward or involve Assigned to lead a squad or investigation. One of the best
high amounts of known men in the
Inspector
violence, and since Usually supervises a particular investigation. Specials would be
many of the Eric A. Sykes, a clerk
offenders are Chinese Chief Inspector with S.J. David &
In charge of a squad of inspectors.
who look forward to Co. Sykes’ marksman
extradition to the Superintendent skills are legendary,
Native City and an In charge of a particular police station. and he is frequently
unsympathetic called in to provide
Assistant Commissioner
Nationalist court, it is cover for officers
In charge of a branch or station.
no wonder the engaged in dangerous
violence levels Deputy Commissioner arrests or raids.
toward police are Supervises overall day-to-day operations.
high. This is made There are several
Commissioner
more dangerous by The commander in chief of the SMP. stations for the
the antagonistic Shanghai Municipal
relationship between police throughout the
the Chinese police of the City Government of Settlement. The first and most important is
Greater Shanghai. (For more see Chapter The the Central Station in the Shanghai Municipal
Old City.) The “city government” tends to Council building on Foochow Road. Another
have tight ties with the Green Gang, the station that sees a lot of action is the Louza
dominant criminal organization in the Station on Nanking Road. This police station
Settlement, and it is not uncommon for city has seen frequent action during political
police and the SMP to spar over jurisdiction uprisings in the past — from the Taiping
or the disposition of a well-connected suspect. Revolt to the panicked refuge seekers during
the 1932 and 1937 wars between Japan and
From 1935 to 1938, the Commissioner is China. There is a station on Bubbling Well

!29
Road which services the more upscale
neighborhoods of the settlement west of the
Recreation Grounds. The Japanese Branch
operates out of the Hongkew and West
Hongkew Stations. Other stations can be
found on Gordon Road, Chungdu Road,
Pootoo Road, Yangtsepoo Road, Wayside,
Arnold Road, Yulin Road, and Dixwell Road.
Most of the police officers that a traveler will
meet will be ethnic Chinese, including about
half of the detective squads. In areas where a
more “forceful “ presence needs to be
deployed, the Sikh Branch will often be found
guarding key locations or patrolling hot spots.
Shanghai Volunteer Force
Established in 1853 during the Taiping
Uprising, this paramilitary force has been
called on several times over the history of the
International Settlement. Mobilized during
the Boxer Rebellion and during the Great
War, the SVC has traditionally had units
representing all of the nations active in the
Settlement. The German and Austrian
companies were stood down during the Great
War, and have not been reactivated.
30
After 1914, the SVC adopted its own
uniform. Previous to that, each company wore
combat dress that was patterned on their own
national military. The uniform is now a khaki
battle dress similar to that of the British
Army, with the SVC star on the cap, but
several units have ornamentation that is
unique. For instance, the Jewish Company
wear a Star of David collar device with SVC
emblazoned on it, the Shanghai Scottish
Company are authorized kilts, and Sikh
troops can substitute a turban for cap. The red
turbans of the Sikhs gave rise to the Chinese
slang for Indian troops in general “Red Head
Number Threes” — the number three comes,
most likely, from the propensity for British
and Indian troops to use the phrase “I say”
which sounds much like the Mandarin for
“three.”
All of the volunteers are unpaid, but their
equipment is paid for by the Shanghai
Municipal Council. Enlistment is simple: If
you are a resident of the Settlement, you can
apply. If you are clear of a criminal record,
and have two recommendations by “respected
members of the community”, you can join
through your particular consulate. By
tradition, the commandant of the Volunteers is
a serving British Army officer. The
commandant from 1931-34 was Colonel Sir
N.W.B.B. Thoms, OBE, DSO, MC — a New
Zealander, and he was followed by Colonel
F.R.W. Graham, DSO, MC until 1937.
After the Sino-Japanese War in 1932, the
SVC reached its largest manpower of about
2,500 men until it was disbanded in 1942.
(For that last year, the White Russian
Regiment was also an auxiliary unit of the
Shanghai Municipal Police.)
The units active during the 1930s were:
A Company (British) smugglers and boatmen using the canals
B Company (Sikh and Indian) around Shanghai that called itself the
C Company (Chinese) “Friends of the Way of Tranquility and
Air Defence Company Purity”, or Anqing Daoyoi. The competing
American Company authorities and laws of the Chinese, French,
American Machine Gun Company and International Settlement governments
Armored Car Company allowed the group to thrive. During the Qing
Field Artillery Battery (British) suppression of the opium trade, the Green
Field Company (Engineers) Gang really found its niche.
H or the Jewish Company
Interpreter Company Since the end of the monarchy, the Green
Japanese Company Gang gained much of its power through
Light Artillery Battery (mostly Scandinavian) connections with the Kuomintang. The leader
Light Horse (American) of the gang, Du Yuesheng, or “Big Eared
Philippine Company (US officers) Du”, was an enforcer not just for the Green
Portuguese Company Gang, but for the most notorious gangster in
Public School Cadet Company the French Concession…their chief of police,
Shanghai Scottish company Huang Jinrong. When the police chief was
Signals Company brought down by scandal, the vacuum
Transport Company allowed Du to take over as the largest opium
White Russian Regiment boss in the city.

The equipment of the Volunteers is British-
issue: Enfield No. 4 Mk I SMLE .303 rifles,
Webley MK VI revolvers, Vickers .303
machine guns, as well as a few small mortars
and field guns, and the QF (quick fire) 3.7”
anti-aircraft gun.
The Green Gang
While there are plenty of criminal
organizations in the Shanghai limits, one
looms large above the rest: the Green Gang or
Qing Bang. The Green Gang, itself, is
referred to as jia or “the family” and members
are jiali or “in the family.” Those affiliated
with the gang, but not actual members are
referred to as kongzi, or “without or having an
empty character.”
The gang has its roots in the history of the
Ming Dynasty, but its real origins were in a
smuggling cooperative between salt
Du was a nationalist, politically, and tied the
gang to the KMT by allowing the government
to use them to break up union organizing, as
well as to massacre communist operatives
during the purge in 1927. As a reward, Du
was put in charge of the National Board of
Opium Suppression Bureau. The fox was
guarding the hen-house. In return, the Green
Gang funded the purchase of war materiel for
the KMT, including Stuka dive bombers!
They act as intelligence operatives for the
Nationalist government, working to suppress
the Maoists and their Soviet supporters, as
well as hunting Japanese spies.
Because of this tie, the Green Gang
membership is not terribly concerned about
being caught by the SMP or French police —
they are unlikely to be convicted of all but the
most heinous of crimes. Their anti-communist
ties make them very popular with the White

!31
Russian community, and Du uses Russian
bodyguards to protect himself.
The structure of the gang is based on the fleet
structure of the Anqing Daoyou — with the
respective gangs of the Green Gang called
bang or “fleet.” There is a system of seniority
that is taken from the old guild hierarchies, in
which a master and disciple have a
relationship of fealty. Senior leaders are
“teachers” (shifu or laoshi) and their
followers tudi or students. The seniority of
the members is allegedly generational, as with
a trade guild, with the elder generations have
seniority over the younger. In practice,
however, this is not always the case. The
member has a generational name or zi which
is used to identify their position in the group.
A student is always (supposed to be) of a
lower generational rank than their teacher.
The Qing Bang has 24 zi, or ranks— the first
four are reserved for the revered ancestors of
the organization: the Qing, Jing, Dao and De;
in practice, the members of the gang hold one
of the last five zi: the Li (held only by the
oldest of the gang and supposedly created at
the end of the nineteenth century), the Da,
Tong, Wu, and Xue.
Becoming jiali requires the new member to
go through a ritual — the xiangtang — that is
loosely based on Buddhist monastic practices.
The initiate is dressed similarly to monks in
green robes. They are said to be “entering the
monastery” where they will pay their member
fee after “taking their vows.” They are met by
their “teacher” — that gang mentor that
sponsored them for membership — to whom
they have already sworn a brotherhood oath
to, and six masters who have various duties
during the ceremony from announcing the
applicant, to instructing them in the principles
and practices of the gang, a master of
!32
ceremonies, and the like. The applicant was
termed a “student.”
Unlike most triads, there is no ritual exchange
or drinking of blood for these brotherhood
oaths. For the Green Gang recruit, this is
more of a prayer, usually over burning
incense. It can be highly informal or it can be
highly ritualized, according to the teacher.
Once a member of the organization, a student
can have multiple teachers. This system
allows for different gang leaders or members
to develop interlocking networks of power
and influence. Using these diverse oaths, the
membership can signal changes of relative
power, with older and established leaders
signaling their support of a newer leaders’
rise. It also allows the gang to formalize
relations with the community outside the
gang. A business person might not have any
day-to-day dealings with the gang, but having
a brotherhood oath with a gang leader might
aid in protecting their goods, or allowing for
easier access to services or favors the gang
could provide, and vice-versa.
Understanding the fleet model of the Green
Gang is essential. The different fleets are
semi-autonomous. They can and do compete
and war with each other for markets and
power, but against outsiders they present a
united front. The most influential bang or
fleets are the Xing Wu Liu in the International
Settlement, and the Wing Wu Si in the French
Concession. Others, like the “Big Eight Mob”
(Da Ba Gu Dang), or the Jia Bai, are also
powerful branches of the gang. Most have no
specific physical territory in Shanghai, but
flow around and through each other as their
trade demands. The Jiang Huai Si, Hang San,
and the Jia Hai Wei are lesser factions of the
Qing Bang, named for some of the original
smuggling fleets.
The Green Gang has no foreign members.
Even half-breeds are shunned as
untrustworthy. The gang has no problem
hiring foreigners and they especially
appreciate the zeal and violence of the White
Russian community, particularly when it
comes to communists — but they will never
be part of the organization.
The Other Gangs
The other Chinese organized crime groups
operating in the city are known as “triads.”
Many of these groups started as revolutionary
movements that moved into crime for
survival, and their ranking conventions tend
to mirror those more august early motives.
They have carved out a small niche for
themselves in Shanghai, as have the Japanese
yakuza.
The two triads with any kind of footprint in
Shanghai are the Wo Shing Wo, a gang that
originally started in 1930 in the Chinatown of
Toronto, Canada, but which moved operations
to Hong Kong in 1932. Small, careful, and
willing to pay tax to the Qing Bang, the Wo
Shing Wo never really thrives in Shanghai, but
is growing in Hong Kong.
The other group is the Sun Yee On (New
Righteousness and Peace Commercial and
Industrial Guild), also based in Hong Kong.
This gang was formed in 1919 and has since
spread to England and Australia, and has ties
with other gangs in overseas Chinatowns
(called “tongs” in the United States.)
Leaders of these gangs are often called things
like “Dragon Head” or “Mountain Master”,
and many use a numerical code to identify
these figures in coded correspondence. A
mountain master, for instance, would be
“489”, but his deputy mountain master, his
!33
“vanguard” or chief operations officer, and
the master of ceremonies at their meetings, or
“incense master” would be 438. Lieutenants
or “white paper fans” are 415, enforcers or
“red poles” are 426, and “straw sandals” —
those tasked with negotiating with opponents
and business partners are 432. “49ers” are
those made into the gang, and “blue lanterns”
are those affiliated with the gang, but not yet
members.
To get made a member, one has to be put up
for it by a 49er or higher. Typically, it takes a
few weeks to months after that for a White
Paper Fan to evaluate a candidate’s abilities
and loyalties. The candidate is given
assignments that are difficult, and would test
their ability to keep their mouths shut.
Secrecy is important, and loyalty valued
above all else. Once seconded by a lieutenant,
his entrance to the gang is usually signed off
on by the vanguard.
The last major criminal element in Shanghai
is the Yakuza (also known as the gokudō.) The
history of the yakuza is wrapped in myth and
legends, but seems to have developed during
the late-Edo period. They started as an
alliance of peddlers in stolen goods and
owners of gambling dens who wrangled their
way into administrative positions, and even
managed to gain the right to carry swords.
Like the Green Gang, the yakuza is actually a
collection of criminal organizations (often a
family group as the leadership) that have a
loose confederation.
Initiation rites are modeled on those of these
two guilds, and the initiate is expected to
chose between tekiya (peddler) and bakuto
(gambler) for their livelihood. The initiate
enters into a “foster child”-like relationship,
with the gang leader playing the part of
oyabun (foster father) and the gang member
as kobun (foster child.) This is formalized by
sharing a cup of sake from the same cup,
similar to the Japanese wedding ceremony.
These oyabun or kumicho are the heads of the
“family”, and the gang members are referred
to as elder or younger sons, depending on
their rank in the organization. Females
seldom are members of the organization, but
it has been known to happen. They are
referred to as “sister.” Below the oyabun is
the saiko komon, his advisor, and the “house
chief” or so-honbucho, who run the head-
quarters. Next are the wakagashira, who run
several gangs who are under the command of
a local boss, a shateigashira.
Of note is the extensive use of tattooing by
the yakuza. These tattoos or irezumi, usually
cover a large portion of the body, and have
spiritual, personal, or historical significance
to the tattooed. The use of tattoos as a means
of displaying one’s criminal virtues seems to
have its origins in the Edo period, where
irezumi tattooing was popular. Gang members
do not publicly display these tattoos to
anyone but members of their gang.
One element of yakuza culture is the focus on
honesty and honor toward other members of
the gang. These culture norms not only aid in
the maintenance of discipline of the
organization, but create a sense of superiority
to other criminal groups. Central to this
notion is yubitsume, a ritual in which a
member who has disgraced himself will cut
off a finger and offer it to their boss as an
apology. The first offense sees the small
finger removed, working toward the thumb
for other indiscretions.
The largest yakuza family is the Yamaguchi-
gumi, which has hundreds of clans connected
34
to it. It is based in Kobe, and is active in the
International Settlement, mostly in the
Hongkew District. The Japanese kempeitai
use the yakuza to handle criminal and other
illicit matters for them, and in exchange, their
operations on the docks of the district are
often overlooked by the Japanese Branch of
the Shanghai Municipal Police.
National Bureau of Investigation and
Statistics
The dull sounding name of this department of
the National Military Council disguises its
purpose. The NBIS or simply “the Bureau” is
the intelligence and political police
department of the Nationalist government.
Run by Dai Li, the Bureau is a cut-throat
band of agents who seek any advantage
against the communists, Japanese, and the
foreigners they see infesting China. Their
stock in trade is blackmail of important
officials, often through the tried-and-true
“honeypot” operation, but they are fond of
murder, as well. (Often, they will contract out
these activities to a bang of the Green Gang.)
Most intelligence operations are conducted by
the Second Division or “Special Works
Department.” This group would eventually
eclipse the NBIS and replace it in 1938. They
conduct covert operations throughout China
and Manchuria, as well as counterintelligence
missions. Their missions are often very risky,
and losses in the Second Division are high.
Kempeitai
Formed in 1881, the “Military Police
Corps” (kempeitai) is the military police
branch of the Imperial Japanese Army. It
functions under the auspices of the Interior
Minister in Japan, but is under the War
Minister for Occupied Territories, such as
Manchuria. Members of the group are called
kempei.
The Japanese Branch of the Shanghai
Municipal Police is mostly made up of
“former” kempeitai, but many suspect these
policemen are still on the emperor’s payroll.
Inside the kempeitai is a “special branch”, or
secret police force. These kempei act as spies
and intelligence analysts, but also as loyalty
police, always alert for signs of anarchism,
unionism, communism, or other forms of
disloyalty in the army. In occupied territories,
they function as a extra-legal police force that
addresses political threats.
In Shanghai, the official kempeitai mission is
— like that of other consular missions — to
protect the diplomatic staff and buildings of
the empire. That, however, is not their only
mission. There are 20 units of these secret
35
policemen are disguised as businessmen,
members of the SMP, or under official cover,
who are actively engaged in collecting
information on the Kuomintang, on the
communists, on the warlords throughout the
countryside, and on the other foreign powers.
These spies are particularly interested in the
operations of the Qing Bang and their
connections to the Nationalist government.
After 1932 and the annexation of Manchuria,
Japan found itself in a shaky relationship with
the other foreign powers in Shanghai, but has
done little to assuage their concerns. The
kempeitai engaged in blackmail and extortion
operations to try and gain intelligence on
American designs on China. They attempted
to weaken the hold of the Green Gang in the
city (without success.) Where possible, they
would use the yakuza to conduct these
operations to give themselves a shield of
deniability, much like the Nationalists would
use the Green Gang.
In the period between 1937, when the
Japanese run the Nationalist government out
of Nanking, and destroy sizable sections of
Chinese Shanghai, until the start of hostilities
with the Allies in 1941, Japanese kempeitai
are increasingly brazen in their attempts to
circumvent the legal organs of the French
Concession and the International Settlement.
Military Intelligence, Section 6
(British Intelligence)
Military Intelligence, Section 6 predates the
Great War in one faction or another, but its
current moniker is thanks to the war and the
coding system used for the intelligence
services. MI6 is also known as the Secret
Intelligence Service, and conducts espionage
for the Crown around the world. While there
are operatives and officers from MI-6 who are
operating freelance or under non-official
covers, most of the activity for the service is
under the auspices of the Special Branch of
the Shanghai Municipal Police.
The Special Branch does most of its spying
under the direction of an MI6 officer attached
to the consulate. For nearly all of the interwar
period, this man is Harry Steptoe, the Vice-
Consul. In Shanghai and Hong Kong,
everyone knows who “Steptoe” is and what
he does. But while everyone is looking at this
strange man, few are paying attention to his
network of businessmen, adventurers, and
police reservists who collect information for
the Crown.
The British intelligence network is the largest
(foreign) network in the city, rivaled only by
the kempeitai.
Chinese Communists
The Chinese Communist Party has been on
the ropes since the purge of 1927, when the
KMT assassinated or ousted many of the
party from their alliance. Most of their
successes have been in the Western provinces,
where support from the Soviet Union has
been helpful against the Muslim and
Nationalist warlords.
Over the course of the early 1930s, the CPC
36
is reliant on criminal gangs they have formed
to fund and recruit new members. Where
possible, they have gotten support from
COMINTERN and the Soviet security forces
in Shanghai. After 1934, leadership of the
party fell to Mao Tse-Dong, who has been
pushing the local communist leaders to focus
their efforts on expanding the allure of the
party to the poor of the city.
As a result of their current poor funding and
organization, and a universally hostile
environment in the city — where all of the
major law enforcement and intelligence
groups are unified in their anti-communism
— the CPC presence is reduced mostly to the
Communist Youth League, which operate out
of the French Concession.
GPU/NKVD
The Soviet presence in Shanghai should not
be surprising. The city is home to one of the
largest populations of White Russians, some
of whom actively conspire against the Soviet
Union and their allies in China, Mao Tse-
Dong’s Communist Party of China (CPC)
From 1922 to 1934, espionage operations
were mostly confined to assassinations and
counterintelligence under the State Political
Directorate (or GPU), but after 1934, a new
bureau, the People’s Commissariat for
Internal Affairs, or NKVD, was formed to
handle both internal and external security for
the Soviet Union.
Russian agents have a reputation for cold
efficiency and brutality. They are often well
educated and trained, and are deeply
dedicated to the ideology of the Bolshevik
Revolution (or at least highly motivated by
their unforgiving master, Joseph Stalin.)
Much of the Russian activity here is in the Between 1935, when Jouett’s contract ran out,
form of agents pretending to be White and the arrival of Claire Chennault in 1938 as
Russians so that they can infiltrate the NBIS the aviation advisor to the air force (and de
via the Green Gang. This has proven difficult, facto air chief of staff), the FVF was the only
as the gang does not use foreigners more than real game in town. Their training operations
as hired help. became sanctioned by the Kuomintang, and
provided a steady stream of income.
Foreign Volunteer Force (Sky Rats)
The FVF in Shanghai has a squadron of
The Foreign Volunteer twelve pilots from 1932 until
Force, or as they call mid-1935. Led by
themselves, “the Sky “Captain” Joe Porter, a
Rats,” are a group of former American
mercenary flyers and barnstormer, they are
adventurers from all based out of the airport
over the world. The FVF at Lunghwa Airport on
was started in 1920 by the banks of the
flyers from the Great Whangpoo River, and
War who offered their have their own hanger
services to militaries near those of the Chinese
around the world. National Aviation
There are several Corporation, rather than
groups of Sky Rats at the Chinese Air Force
around the world, facilities at Hongjiao to
providing protection the west of Shanghai.
to those in need (and
with the cash to pay.) Porter and his pilots have
become local celebrities:
After 1932, elements there is Ting Mai, the first
of the FVF were Chinese woman to fly with
hired by the a private the Sky Rats and to see
group of Chinese nationalists fronted by combat; “Injun” Joe Reed,
Madam Chang, the First Lady of China, to the former boxer or Indian scout depending
train their air force, which had only five pilots on the story he’s telling that evening; Flight
qualified to fly fighters and twenty rated for Lieutenant “Robby” Cole, former RAF and a
trainers. Unlike the government-authorized decorated Great War veteran; Sally “the Wing
Italian and Russian contingents of the Queen” Adams, a former wing-walker and
Chinese Air Force, or the training air group stunt woman from Hollywood, Flight
set up by American Colonel John Jouett, the Sergeant John Hong, a fearless, philandering
Sky Rats act as privateers. They defend the Chinese-American from San Francisco;
city’s shipping and Chinese Airlines flights Archie “Mad Man” McCann, the Irishman
from illicit attacks by the Japanese and other known for his cool singing voice and hot
sky pirates in the interior. temper.

37
From 1935 until 1937, there are two FVF
squadrons — a training unit that turns out
80-100 Chinese pilots a year, and Porter’s
group of combat flyers. During this period,
Porter was finally recognized as a reserve
colonel with the Chinese Air Force, and the
other pilots in his privateer unit captains.
The Sky Rats fly a combination of aircraft,
with the majority of them flying the Curtis
P-6 Hawk and the appropriately-named
Polikarpov I-16 “Rat.” Porter is known by his
modified racing seaplane, a Supermarine S.5
seaplane (with a pair of .30 Browning
M1919s, and wheels in the pontoons for
ground landings.)
After 1935, most of the Sky Rats are flying
the Boeing P-26 “Peashooter.” The craft sport
the CAF rondel on their wings after 1935, but
during their entire service can be identified by
their nose flash, “Sparky the Rat.” Their
business cards also feature Sparky.
Throughout the 1930s, there are contingents
of Sky Rats flying in Africa and the Middle
East, South America and the Mediterranean,
and they participated in the Spanish Civil War
(mostly on the Republican side.)

The Aircraft of the Foreign Volunteer Force

Boeing P-26B “Peashooter”

Designed in 1932, the P-26

is the first American
monowing pursuit fighter,
and the first all-metal
production fighter. Powered
by a fuel-injected Pratt-
Whitney Wasp R-1340-33
engine it could climb to
27,400’, had a range of 600
miles, and armed with
twin .30 Browning M1919
machine guns and up to 200
lbs. of bombs.

CRAFT SIZE DEF STRCT SPD HAN CREW PASS

Boeing P-26B Peashooter 2 6 8 230 0 1 n/a

Polikarpov I-16 “Rat”

This Russian fighter was introduced in 1934, and featured a radical low-wing cantilever design
with retractible landing gear. The proximity of the engine to the center of gravity and small
wingspan were thought to make the plane susceptible to flat spins, but this was not the case.
However, the much like the Gee Bee racing plane, the plane was a “tough stick” — naturally

38
 unstable but highly
maneuverable. The powerful
supercharged M-63 motor
made them fast, but short-
ranged. They carry two
ShKAS machineguns, 2
ShVAK 20mm cannons, and
either 500 lbs. of bombs or six
RS-82 unguided rockets.

This is the favored plane of

Ting Mai, who painted her
ship in yellow with black wing
and tail tips, and a black stripe amidships. She calls it “the Bumblebee.”

CRAFT SIZE DEF STRCT SPD HAN CREW PASS

Polikarpov I-16 “Rat” 2 8 8 326 +2 1 n/a

Porter’s Supermarine S.5 — Aurelia

The N219 was the first prototype for the

S.5 racing plane by Supermarine. Built in
1927, the aircraft was retired after her
sister N220 won the Schneider Cup and
the company decided to concentrate on
designing the S.6.

Porter was able to get his hands on the

Supermarine for a song, thanks to a favor
done the British government during his
time in the Adriatic. He had the plane
modified, replacing the spruce spars of
the wings with duralumin and swapping
the Napier Lion motor for the much more
powerful Rolls-Royce inline R, then added four .30 M1919 Browning machine guns to the
wings. Wheels were added to the pontoons so the plane could handle ground landings, as well.

CRAFT SIZE DEF STRCT SPD HAN CREW PASS

Supermarine S.5 N219 2 8 8 320 +2 1 n/a

39
Japanese Fighter Craft

Kawasaski Ki-10

This fighter was introduced in the

period between the Sino-Japanese
wars. Eschewing the monowing
design, the Imperial Japanese Army
decided to field the more
maneuverable, but slower biplane
with its sesquiplane wings and
fabric-covered metal fuselage. The
aircraft featured a pair of 7.7mm
Type 89 machine guns.

The primary enemy was seen as the

Chinese Air Force, with its older Curtis Hawk II biplanes, but by the time it was fielded, the
ROCAF and groups like the Sky Rats had begun using the more advanced and deadly
Peashooters and Rats.

CRAFT SIZE DEF STRCT SPD HAN CREW PASS

Kawasaki Ki-10 2 6 8 250 0 1 n/a

Mitsubishi A5M “Claude”

Almost immediately, the Ki-10

was seen to be inferior to her
opponents in the sky. Mitsubishi
had already been working on a
carrier-based fighter for the
Imperial Japanese Navy, and was
introduction in 1937. The A5M
was also a beautiful plane, with
fixed landing gear and a lovely
gullwing design. Tough and
maneuverable, the A5M was a
match, despite the light dual
7.7mm armament, for nearly
everything they came up against.

CRAFT SIZE DEF STRCT SPD HAN CREW PASS

Mitsubishi A5M “Claude” 2 8 8 270 +2 1 n/a

40
Figures of the Demon City

Shanghai is home to a host of freebooters, adventurers, thieves, spies, entertainers, and petty
crooks. These mingle freely with the better element of the city in a way matched only by,
perhaps, Los Angeles’ intersection of criminals and Hollywood elite.

Du Yueshang

Sitting in the middle of the spiderweb of the Jinrong, the head of the Green Gang in the
Shanghai underworld is “Big-Eared” Du French Concession, as well as the chief of
Yuesheng, the head of the detectives on the police force. He became the
Green Gang. chief enforcer for
Huang, and
This fervent supporter when the
of Chinese culture and detective fell
the Nationalist from grace, Du
government is a took over his
patriot, in his own businesses.
way, but Qing Bang
first and foremost. Du is a savvy man
who quickly used
He is quick to laugh, his acquaintance
just as quick to with Chiang Kai-
anger, but you are Shek to make
unlikely to see that himself useful to the
side until later, Kuomintang leader.
when the time is This cemented the
right for him to gang’s ties with the
show his Nationalist
displeasure. He government, and lent
is always their illicit trade
generous to the protection. During the
poor, religious purge in 1927 of
despite his communist elements
vices, and is a popular from the Nationalist
addition at parties and events, where he is ranks, Du was appointed
likely to arrive with some beautiful Russian president of the National Board of Opium
woman on his arm. Suppression Bureau, thus becoming the head
of the organization that was supposed to stop
Orphaned by age nine, Du came to Shanghai the Green Gang’s narcotics operations. In
at age 13 and opened a fruit stand. He quickly return, he actively supported the Nationalist
moved from that humble enterprise to that of cause, even buying warplanes for the
bodyguard for some of the local brothels, government when they were needed.
where he came to the attention of Huang

41
By 1931, he was wealthy and politically
connected enough to even have a temple built SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
and dedicated to his ancestors. He owns the Athletics 2 STR 4
biggest native shipping company in Shanghai. Bureaucracy 1 INT 3
He has not been able to cut deals with Jardine Con 3 CHA 6
Matheson, and has to use “Boss Banana” Diplomacy 1 CHA 4
Kessik as a conduit for those more legitimate Drive 2 DEX 5
enterprises — something he dislikes, as he Firearms 2 DEX 5
does not trust Kessik’s loyalty to the Chinese Gambling 2 INT 5
cause. Intimidation 2 CHA 5
Investigation 1 INT 4
Du lives in a sprawling mansion in the French Linguistics 3 INT 5
Concession, has dozens of concubines, four Martial Arts 3 DEX 6
wives, and a half dozen sons. He is known for Melee 2 DEX 6
his traditional and impeccable Chinese silk Stealth 2 DEX 5
clothes, his Cadillac limousine and phalanx of Streetwise 3 CHA 6
Russian bodyguards. Survival 2 INT 5

For characters, meeting Du is likely to RESOURCES & TALENTS:

involve him wanting them to procure Mooks 5: He’s got the number of goons he
something for him, or do the gang a favor. He needs.
pays well, and remembers services rendered. Status 3: +6 social tests in Shanghai.
If one can deliver and keep their mouth shut, Wealth 3:
Du can be a steady employer.
FLAWS:
MOBSTER Criminal: -2 die to social tests with those who
Motivation: Survival care.
Nationality: Chinese Superstitious

ATTRIBUTES: LANGUAGES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3 Mandarin (native), English, French
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 4 WEAPONRY:

Colt Detective .38 revolver
Secondary Attributes: Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 8L Range: 50’
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 7 Capacity: 6(r) Rate: M Speed: A
Initiative: 6 Defense: 5 Stun: 2
Health: 5 Style: 4

!42
Dai Li

Dai Li is the head of the innocuous-sounding SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

National Bureau of Investigations and Athletics 2 STR 4
Statistics of the National Military Council, the Brawl 2 STR 4
Kuomintang’s secret police department. His Bureaucracy 3 INT 7
affable face and easy-going manner hide a Con 3 CHA 6
highly-intelligent, cunning, and amoral Diplomacy 3 CHA 6
character that would eventually earn him the Drive 2 DEX 4
nickname “the Himmler of China.” Firearms 2 DEX 4
Gambling 2 INT 6
Dai Li was born Dai Chunfeng and was Investigation 2 INT 6
privately educated as a child. Unable to afford Linguistics 3 INT 7
university, Dai found himself hustling and Ride 2 DEX 5
playing cards at the age of sixteen, where he Stealth 1 DEX 4
met and befriended Du Yueshang. A stint at Streetwise 2 CHA 5
the Whampoa Military Academy and an Survival 1 INT 5
introduction to Chaing Kai-Shek found Dai Li
in charge of creating an intelligence
department after his actions in the Canton RESOURCES & TALENTS:
Coup, where communist elements of the Rank 4: Head of the secret police
Nationalist-Communist alliance were purged Status 3
in 1927.
FLAWS:
Dai Li’s bureau is always looking for Callous
intelligence on the other nations in China, and
it is likely Dai could enlist the charaters’ aid LANGUAGES:
for a favor or a fee. Mandarin (native), English, French, Japanese

SPYMASTER WEAPONRY:

Motivation: Duty Nationality: Chinese Colt 1903 Pocket Hammerless .32 pistol
Damage: 2L Attack Rating: 6L Range: 25’
ATTRIBUTES: Capacity: 8(m) Rate: M Speed: A
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 4
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 7
Initiative: 6 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 5

!43
Harry Steptoe

An “old China hand”, Harold Steptoe has SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
been “Vice-Consul” (but not on the official Athletics 2 STR 4
rolls of the consulate) since the end of the Brawl 2 STR 4
Great War. He is a colorful figure, with a Bureaucracy 2 INT 5
strangely furtive way about him that Con 3 CHA 6
immediately makes one think he’s up to Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
something — almost a caricature of a spy. Drive 2 DEX 4
Add to that his penchant for wearing non- Firearms 2 DEX 4
regulation uniforms, it would be easy to Linguistics 4 INT 7
dismiss him as a fraud if everyone from Seoul Pilot, Boat 2 DEX 4
to Saigon didn’t know who Steptoe is: the Ride 2 DEX 4
chief intelligence officer of MI6 in Shanghai. Stealth 2 DEX 4
Streetwise 3 CHA 6
Where all those people make a mistake is Survival 2 INT 5
assuming his eccentricities make him a fool. Warfare 1 INT 4

SPY RESOURCES & TALENTS:

Motivation: Duty Nationality: British Alertness
Rank 2: Head of intelligence, Shanghai
ATTRIBUTES: Wealth 2: $500/mo. income
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3 FLAWS:
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3 Eccentric: Mot people don’t take him
seriously.
Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 8 LANGUAGES:
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2 English (native), French, German, Mandarin
Health: 5
WEAPONRY:

Webley Bulldog .455
Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 7L Range: 50’
Capacity: 5 ( r ) Rate: M Speed; A

!44
Captain Katsuhiro Nagano

At first glance, Nagano would not seem the SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
kind of man to embrace the ultranationalism Athletics 2 STR 4
of the paramilitary Black Dragon Society (or Bureaucracy 2 INT 4
kokuryūkai.) His father was a steel importer, Drive 2 DEX 4
he was educated at Stanford University in the Firearms 2 DEX 4
United States. But as a young Imperial Army Investigation 2 INT 5
officer, his experiences in Korea and during Linguistics 2 INT 5
the Sino-Japanese War in 1931-32 convinced Martial Arts,
him of the superior qualities of the Japanese Aikido 3 STR 5
people. Melee 3 STR 5
Stealth 2 DEX 4
As a member of the Shanghai Municipal Streetwise 3 CHA 5
Police, he is a figure of law and order in the Survival 4 INT 3
cesspool of the city. His authority and Warfare 1 INT 4
influence have allowed him to create a large
spy network in the International Settlement, RESOURCES & TALENTS:
and he exacts Tokyo’s revenge on its enemies Rank 1: Shanghai Municipal Police
in the city through the agents of the Black
Dragon Society FLAWS:
Intolerant: All non-Japanese.
SPY Sadistic
Motivation: Duty Nationality: British
LANGUAGES:
ATTRIBUTES: Japanese (native), English
Body: 3 Charisma: 2
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3 WEAPONRY:

Strength: 2 Willpower: 3 Nambu Type 14 8mm pistol
Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 7L Range: 50’
Secondary Attributes: Cap: 8 (m) Rate: M Spd: A
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 5
Initiative: 5 Defense: 5 Stun: 3 Katana
Health: 6 Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 8L Spd: A

!45
Major General Francis “One Arm” Sutton

Winner of the Military Cross for his service SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
as a Royal Engineer in the Gallipoli Athletics 2 STR 4
campaign, Sutton lost the lower part of his Brawl 2 STR 4
arm to a hand grenade during the Great War. Bureaucracy 1 INT 3
Con 2 CHA 5
Following the war, he bounced around South Diplomacy 1 CHA 4
America, working on building railroads, then Drive 2 DEX 5
did a stint in Siberia and Korea as a mining Firearms 2 DEX 5
engineer. He washed up in Shanghai where he Linguistics 3 INT 5
was able to secure the rights to sell Stokes Pilot, Air 1 DEX 4
mortars to the Chinese army, and for a time Ride 2 DEX 5
was a major general in the army of a Chinese Stealth 1 DEX 4
warlord who lost to the Japanese Army. Streetwise 2 CHA 5
Survival 1 INT 3
Throughout the 1930s, Sutton is an arms
dealer, mostly to the warlords in the interior
of China. He is, for this reason, unpopular RESOURCES & TALENTS:
with the Nationalists, but he also supplies the Contacts 1: +2 social tests in NYC society.
KMT and the Green Gang, which has kept Wealth 2: $500/mo. income
him from a sticky end.
FLAWS:
ARMS DEALER Danger Magnet: Trouble finds her. As does a
Motivation: Survival Nationality: British style point.
Thrillseeker: Style pt. when her love of action
ATTRIBUTES: gets her in trouble.
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2 LANGUAGES:
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3 English (native), Dutch, French

Secondary Attributes: WEAPONRY:


Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 5 Harrington & Richardson .32 revolver
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2 Damage: 2L Attack Rating: 7L Range: 25’
Health: 5 Style: 4 Capacity: 5(r) Rate: M Speed: A

!46
L. D. “Peg-Leg” Kearney

“Half an American”, as he calls himself due SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

to his amputated legs, Kearney also claims to Athletics 2 STR 4
have once been an admiral in the Chilean Brawl 2 STR 4
Navy (mostly true!) This Pennsylvanian is an Con 2 CHA 6
arms salesman extraordinaire in the late Diplomacy 1 CHA 5
1920s and start of the 1930s, doing business Firearms 2 DEX 4
in the street from his rickshaw, pulled by his Linguistics 3 INT 5
faithful “man-servant”, Chao. In 1923, the Pilot, Boat 3 DEX 5
United States issued an arrest warrant for Ride 2 DEX 4
Kearney and his associates, but the consular Stealth 2 DEX 4
authorities were repeatedly unsuccessful in Streetwise 2 CHA 6
affecting his capture. Survival 2 INT 4
Warfare 2 INT 4
He works closely with “One Arm” Sutton
throughout the ‘30s, handling the parts of the RESOURCES & TALENTS:
smuggling business that don’t require him to Contacts 3: +4 social tests in smuggling and
interact with officials who might otherwise criminal circles.
try to arrest him. Kearney is also the founder Wealth 2: $500/mo. income
of the “San-K”, a unsuccessful branch of the
Ku Klux Klan in Shanghai, which has a few FLAWS:
American members, but is mostly ineffective Criminal: -2 die in social situation.
due to the egalitarian attitude of the Double Amputee: Kearney has wooden peg
Shanghailese. legs and cannot walk well without crutches
(-2 dice to athletics when his lack of legs in
CRIMINAL involved..)
Motivation: Survival Nationality: American Intolerant: He win not work with certain
races.
ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 4 LANGUAGES:
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 2 English (native), Mandarin, Spanish
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3
WEAPONRY:

Secondary Attributes: Colt 1911A1 .45 pistol
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 5 Damage; 3L Attack Rating: 7L Range: 50’
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2 Capacity: 7(m) Rate: M Speed: A
Health: 5 Style: 4

!47
Jin Wong

Younger half-sibling to Roland Kessik, the SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

owner of the Pearl of the Orient, Jin Wong Bureaucracy 3 INT 6
came from Hong Kong to run a legitimate Con 2 CHA 5
import/export business in the Yangtsepoo Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
district of the International Settlement. He can Drive 1 DEX 3
maneuver all of the customs bureaucracy and Firearms 2 DEX 4
requirements for tourists and businesspeople Linguistics 3 INT 5
in Shanghai. Melee 2 STR 4
Pilot, Boat 2 DEX 4
There is another side to the business, Streetwise 2 CHA 5
however. Across the river in Pootung, are a Survival 1 INT 3
series of warehouses that handle the illicit Navigation 4
side of the business — smuggling arms and
drugs, currency and people. Thanks to his RESOURCES & TALENTS:
connections with the Green Gang, the Contacts 2: +4 social tests with Green Gang.
warehouses are safe from the interest of the Refuge 2: Warehouses in Pootung
Chinese government, and their location keeps Wealth 3
their dirty business out of the Settlement and
its jurisdiction. FLAWS:
Criminal
Wong, like his brother, dresses in fine Nearsighted: -2 Perception for sight without
Western style, though his tailors are Chinese. glasses
He is less flashy than his brother, adopting an
obsequious and humble demeanor that belies LANGUAGES:
the willingness to use violence when Cantonese (native), English, Japanese,
threatened. Mandarin

SMUGGLER
Motivation: Money Nationality: Chinese

ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 6
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 5

!48
“Captain” Eugene Pick

Born Yevgeny Mikhailovich Kojevnikoff, SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

Pick is also know as “Hovens” and “Doctor Athletics 2 STR 5
Clige.” He is probably Latvian, served in the Brawl 3 STR 6
Great War (claiming he’d been captured and Bureaucracy 1 INT 3
escaped 11 times.) He came to Shanghai in Con 2 CHA 5
1925 and was an agent for COMINTERN Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
until he started working double for British Drive 2 DEX 5
intelligence in 1927. Firearms 2 DEX 5
Linguistics 3 INT 5
He has been a model figure of the Russian Melee 3 STR 6
expatriate community for his opera singing, Performance,
stage management of various productions, Acting 3 CHA 6
and was the founder of the Far Eastern Grand Singing 3 CHA 6
Opera. Fraud, extortion, and forgery are his Ride 2 DEX 5
areas of real expertise, and he would later be Stealth 2 DEX 5
described by US intelligence as “well- Streetwise 2 CHA 5
educated, a good linguist and accomplished Survival 2 INT 4
actor…also a competent murder, intelligence Warfare 1 INT 3
agent…and smuggler of arms.”
RESOURCES & TALENTS:
SPY Contacts 2: +2 social test with Soviet and
Motivation: Survival Nationality: Soviet British intelligence communities.
Fame 1: +2 social tests in Shanghai.
ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 3 Charisma: 3 FLAWS:
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2 Criminal
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3
LANGUAGES:
Secondary Attributes: Russian (native), English, French
Size: 0 Move: 6 Perception: 5
Initiative: 5 Defense: 6 Stun: 3
Health: 6

!49
Dr. Albert von Miorini

Well established as a gynecologist, Austrian SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

von Miorini came out to Shanghai after Art,
having some “issues” with his practice. He is Photography 2 INT 5
a supporter of the Shanghai Symphony Bureaucracy 1 INT 4
Orchestra, which which he sometimes plays Con 1 CHA 5
cello, is a good photographer, and an avid Diplomacy 1 CHA 5
sportsman. He is also recognized as an expert Drive 1 DEX 3
on monkeys. Gambling 1 INT 4
Linguistics 3 INT 6
Classy and cultured, he is also a drug dealer, Medicine 2 INT 5
underground abortionist, and a member of the Performance,
“Spider Club”, infamous for its debauchery Cello 3 INT 6
and trade in young girls. Science,
Biology 2 INT 5
He lives with his married mistress in a fancy Streetwise 2 CHA 6
apartment on Bubbling Well Road, and it is Black Market 7
rumored he supports her family.
RESOURCES & TALENTS:
ADVENTURESS Ally 3: Errol Flynn
Motivation: Escape Nationality: American Contacts 2: +4 sex trade community.

ATTRIBUTES: FLAWS:
Body: 2 Charisma: 4 Addiction: Opium
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3 Addiction: Sex
Strength: 2 Willpower: 2 Callous

Secondary Attributes: LANGUAGES:

Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 5 German (native), English, French, Latin (read
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2 only)
Health: 4

!50
Joseph Porter, FVF Shanghai

Joe Porter is an American combat pilot and SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
soldier of fortune. He joined the army in Athletics 2 STR 5
1917, lying about his age to get inducted, and Brawl 2 STR 5
was selected for pilot training. The war ended Bureaucracy 1 INT 4
before he could ship to Europe. Military 5
Con 2 CHA 5
Not content to have escaped rural Diplomacy 1 CHA 4
Pennsylvania only to have no prospects, he Drive 2 DEX 5
sold his services as a flight instructor and Firearms 2 DEX 5
mail pilot, before joining the Foreign Linguistics 2 INT 4
Volunteer Force, or “Sky Rats” in 1922. He Pilot, Air 3 DEX 6
fought seaplane pirates in the Adriatic before Ride 1 DEX 4
coming out to China in 1932 to set up the Streetwise 1 CHA 4
FVF contingent in Shanghai. Survival 2 INT 4

From 1932-35, he styled himself “Captain”

Porter, but from 1935 to 1938, the FVF was
an official contractor for the Republic of
China, and Porter was a colonel in the
Chinese Air Force.
Blond, handsome, and dashing, Porter is a
popular man about town. The Japanese have a
bounty on all of the Sky Rats, and this
occasionally causes trouble in the nightclubs
for the flyer.
PILOT
Motivation: Thrillseeker
Nationality: American
RESOURCES & TALENTS:
Drive-By Attack: Ignore -2 penalty for
relative speed.
Evasive Action: as a reflexive action.
Mentor 3 (from 1932-35): Lady Chiang
Rank 3 (from 1935-38): Colonel ROCAF
Reckless Pilot: may trade 1 vehicle structure
for +2 to pilot skill for a maneuver.
Status 2: +4 social tests in Shanghai
FLAWS:
Danger Magnet: Trouble finds him.
Heart of Gold: Will grudgingly do the right
thing.

ATTRIBUTES: LANGUAGES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3 English (native), Dutch, French
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3 WEAPONRY:

Colt 1911A1 .45 pistol
Secondary Attributes: Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 8L Range: 50’
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 5 Capacity: 57(m) Rate: M Speed: A
Initiative: 5 Defense: 5 Stun: 2
Health: 5

!51
Flight Sergeant “Injun” Joseph Reed

“Injun Joe” is a massive fellow with dark RESOURCES & TALENTS:

black hair and eyes. He claims to have come Evasive Action: use as a reflexive action
from Oklahoma and to be a Cherokee. He Knockout Blow
also claims to have been an Indian scout and Tough
tracker, a boxer in Texas and Florida (there is
some evidence for this.) Where he learned to FLAWS:
fly is just as much a matter of what story he’s Liar
telling — working as a tracker in Texas, from Secret
a guy in the flying circus, or while fighting in
South America. LANGUAGES:
English (native), Spanish
There are some that say Injun Joe is actually
from Boston, is Irish not a native American, WEAPONRY:

and is a hustler who learned to fly during the Remington SSA .45 revolver
Irish Rebellion, then flew first as a sky pirate, Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 9L Range: 50’
before switching sides for the Sky Rats in the Capacity: 6 (r) Rate: M Speed: A
Mediterranean.
Winchester M1912 12 gauge shotgun
PILOT Damage: 4L Attack Rating: 10L
Motivation: Escape Nationality: American Range: 25’* Cap: 5 (i) Rate: M Spd: A

ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 3 Charisma: 2
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 6 Perception: 5
Initiative: 5 Defense: 6 Stun: 3
Health: 5

SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

Athletics 2 STR 5
Brawl 3 STR 6
Con 2 CHA 4
Firearms 3 DEX 6
Linguistics 3 INT 5
Melee 3 STR 6
Pilot, Air 2 DEX 5
Ride 2 DEX 5
Stealth 2 DEX 5
Survival 2 INT 4

!52
Flight Lieutenant Ting Mai, FVF

The first Chinese female to fly for the FVF, RESOURCES & TALENTS:
Ting Mai has shown herself to be a top-notch Drive-By Attack: Ignore -2 penalty for
combat pilot. Cool and with lightning relative speed.
reflexes, she has quickly established herself Evasive Action: as a reflexive action.
as a folk hero to the Chinese of Shanghai. Fame 1: +2 social tests in Chinese society
Reckless Pilot: may trade 1 vehicle structure
She was born in the city to a Chinese silk for +2 to pilot skill for a maneuver.
merchant. She was educated in the American Wealth 2: $500/mo. income
school, and learned to fly from a boyfriend in
the Foreign Volunteer Force. She displayed FLAWS:
incredible talent for flying, and despite her Danger Magnet: Trouble finds her. As does a
youth, impressed Captain Joe enough he took style point.
her on as a Sky Rat. Thrillseeker: Style pt. when her love of action
gets her in trouble.
ADVENTURESS
Motivation: Fame Nationality: Chinese LANGUAGES:
English (native), Dutch, French
ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 2 WEAPONRY:

Dexterity: 4 Intelligence: 2 Mauser C96 7.62mm pistol
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3 Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 8L Range: 50’
Secondary Attributes: Capacity: 10(m) Rate: A Speed: A
Size: 0 Move: 6 Perception: 5
Initiative: 6 Defense: 6 Stun: 2
Health: 5

SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

Acrobatics 1 STR 5
Brawl 1 STR 3
Diplomacy 2 CHA 4
Drive 2 DEX 6
Firearms 1 DEX 5
Linguistics 3 INT 5
Pilot 3 DEX 7
Stealth 1 DEX 5
Streetwise 1 CHA 3
Survival 2 INT 4

!53
4. Paris of the Orient
Established in 1848, the French Concession
reached its current size in 1900 after an
expansion westward beyond the International
Settlement. The French Concession is
bounded by the Whangpoo River in the east;
in the southeast by the Walled City or Chinese
City, and the Zhoujiabang canal along the
southern border. To the north, the concession
abuts the International Settlement (formerly
the British Concession) along the Avenue
Foch and Avenue Edward VII.
The eastern portion of the
concession is heavily built-
up, mostly commercial in
character, and centered
on the Rue de Consulat
which runs east-west,
and on the Quai de
France, along the
Whangpoo River to
the Bund in the
International
Settlement. The “New
French Concession” is a
district of wealth and
prestige, not just for Europeans,
but wealthy Chinese looking to
escape the crime of the Chinese City, and
stretches west of the International Settlement.
The eastern portion of the New Concession is
dominated by shikumen housing — a mix of
European and Chinese architecture that is
typified by two to three-story townhouses that
line a central alley or longtang. This alley/
courtyard is separated from the road by a
“stone gate”, and make up almost 90% of the
residential housing in the city.
Shikumen were also used for business and
entertainment venues. Many brothels were set
up in these units for the privacy they afforded
54
their clientele when entering and leaving. The
most (in)famous of these were the Huile Li
and Qunyu Fang, on Foochow Road. The
Xingren Li, was a shikumen dominated by 20
different money lenders. The Shude Li
shikumen is the home of the Chinese
communist Party, and the Communist Youth
League is based in one off of the Avenue
Joffre.
The housing further west in this area is made
up of large and new houses and
mansions, and they are often on
spacious parcels of land
bounded by walls. The
roads of the New
Concession are well-
maintained and lined
with London planes
(now called French
planes by most of the
residents.) The main
artery is the Avenue
Joffre, which also has a
tram line linking the
district.
From 1920 on, many American and
British nationals chose to live in the New
French Concession areas for the upscale, but
relatively cheap housing, causing the
population of the area to rise from about
100,000 in 1920 to half a million by 1933.
Another group that flooded into the French
Concession in the 1920s were the White
Russians — those expatriates who fled the
Soviets — many who would wind up finding
work on the Chinese Eastern Railway, and in
the businesses of the city. While the foreign
presence in this district is large, it is Chinese
residents who make up the vast majority of
the population since 1934.
The French Concession ends in 1943 when
the Vichy government turns it over to the
Japanese-controlled government.
Governing the Concession
The concession is governed by the Consul-
General and the conseil d'administration
municipale (the Municipal Administrative
Council), the latter of which is located on the
Avenue Joffre since 1909. The council was
originally exclusively French in makeup, but
after 1914, when the “New Concession” was
ceded to the French, two Chinese seats were
added as a reflection of the large native
population that was suddenly acquired.
The council has a bevy of departments that
handle the day-to-day operations of the city,
including a Health and Sanitation Department
that is excellent in keeping the streets of the
New Concession clean, and which also
maintains the multitude of French planes that
line them. While the council has a great deal
of influence over the decisions made
regarding the governance of the Concession,
the final word is that of the Consul-General,
who has total veto power. Like a viceroy of
old, he can rule by fiat, and answers only to
the French Minister to China.
For much of the 1920s until 1932, the
Consul-General was a man named Koechlin,
who was tightly tied to Du Yuesheng and the
Green Gang. It was only after heavy pressure
from French newspapers, and a declaration of
martial law by the commander of the French
Far East Fleet in an attempt to curb the
influence of the Green Gang, that Koechlin
and his corrupt police commandant, Captain
Etienne Fiori, were shuffled into retirement.
Koechlin was replaced by the former Consul-
General of Tientsin, Henri Mayrier, who was
!55
given the post with strict instructions to
“clean the place up.”
Law and order is maintained by the Garde
Municipale, a police force commanded by
French officers, but heavily reliant on local
policemen. After Captain Fiori was dismissed
in 1932, the force has been run by Lieutenant
Colonel Louis Fabre — the police chief in
Tianjin under Mayrier — who has been
dubbed “incorruptible” in the French press.
Since his appointment (against his will),
Febre has been culling the police of corrupt
officers where he can find them, and
tightening the chain of command. Another
move was to bolster the ranks of the police
with men who were not ethnically Chinese,
but from Annam. Without deep ties to the
community, these policemen have been more
effective at combating the narcotics trade in
the Concession.
These moves, however, have made Fabre a
target for the Chinese gangs in the
Concession, and he and his wife, Suzanne,
travel nowhere without police escort. Despite
attempted bribes and threats to his life, Febre
has held his ground, and this has pushed
much of the opium and heroin trade out of the
Concession and into Chinese-controlled
Chapei, north of the International Settlement.
The main police presence is the station at
Lokawei, along the Zhoujiabang Canal. In
addition to the garde, there is a militia — the
corps de volontaires — which is tasked with
protecting the concession from attack, but is
essentially a reserve force for the police. In
addition to the concession proper, the French
control extra-concessional roads out of the
district to Xihawei, a Catholic stronghold
outside of Shanghai.
By treaty, legal cases involving French left rule, which sometimes causes trouble for
citizens are heard by the consular court under Continental and American motorists not used
the policy of to it.)
extraterritoriality.
Chinese nationals and Consulates in the French The Riverfront has
non-treaty nationals like Concession: the same collection
Russian and stateless of jetties and wharfs
expatriates (or nansen) In cases of legal or other troubles, here is that line the
are heard by the a list of the locations of the various Whangpoo River in
International Mixed consulates to be found in the French the Settlement, but
Court for the French Concession. Other diplomatic presence, here is the main
Concession until 1930, such as for Japanese or American citizens, weather signal tower,
when jurisdiction was is to be found in the International which reports the
shifted to the Settlement. weather using data
Nationalist Chinese from the Siccawei
courts. Cases before the Belgium 1300 Rue Lafayette Observatory. At the
Mixed Court were Brazil 359 Route Cohen corner of the Quay de
heard by a Chinese Chile 265 Rue Bourgeat France and Rue du
judge, who were usually Finland 100 Rue Marcel Tillot Consulat is the home
“assisted” by a French France 2 Rue de Consulat of the French
clerk. While it was Netherlands 25 Rue de Consulat Consulat-Generale,
assumed that the end of Portugal 1050 Rue Lafayette which houses the
the International Mixed Sweden 96 Rue Marcel Tillot governmental and
Court would Switzerland 113 Rue de Sai Zoong judicial offices of the
disadvantage non-treaty Concession.
foreigners, but some The extent of the diplomatic presence and
have received more the extent of any extraterritoriality The main roads away
preferential treatment measures afforded these foreigners is from the river are
(if they had the money addressed on pg. 15-16. Avenue Edward VII
or connections) from and the Rue du
the Nationalist courts. Consulat, which are
squeezed between the Settlement and the Old
The Riverfront Chinese City. The first avenue is home to
fancy and expensive shops and clubs aimed at
The “French Bund,” or Quay de France, Western visitors. The Rue du Consulat is
continues south from the International home to the French and Dutch consulates, as
Settlement at the Avenue Edward VII until it well as many Chinese merchants. The warren
abuts the Chinese City to the south. The of smaller streets between these two great
jurisdiction of the Concession ends in the boulevards are home to shikumen housing
middle of that avenue, so when driving that hosts legitimate businesses, but also
toward the river on Avenue Edward VII, you conceals the prostitution and drug dens of the
are in the International Settlement, when Concession that have not decamped to
driving west, you are in the Concession. Chapei. At night, this area is packed with
(Shanghai drivers use the British drive to the

!56
tourists, sailors, and soldiers on pass, all
looking for entertainment.
Little Russia
South of the Rue du Consulat, and west of the
Old Chinese City is another major artery of
the French Concession: the Avenue Joffre.
This wide boulevard is home to much of the
artistic community of the Concession. It is
also known as “Little Russia”, the cynosure
of the expatriate Russian residents of
Shanghai. Most of the population are “White
Russians” — those that escaped the
Bolshevik Revolution in 1918. By the 1930s,
between twenty and twenty-five thousand
Russians called this stretch of Shanghai
home.
This is an area where the population came
from less than nothing — homeless, stateless,
and penniless — and struggled until they
died or prospered. Most are industrious and
honest folks. Until 1932, many of the Russian
men were employees of the Chinese Eastern
Railway, but increasingly work in the
factories and warehouses of the city. Even
those involved in illicit enterprises tend to
operate by a strict code of honor that involves
loyalty and honesty to one’s employer. (For
the men, this is usually some form of
protection service; Russian bodyguards are
considered some of the best money can buy!)
The women of Little Russia are often held up
as epitome of beauty by the local advertising
masters, as well as those sailors that pass
through the port. They have monopolized the
top positions in the nightclubs and brothels of
Shanghai. They are the high-priced dancing
girls, entertainers, hostesses, and madams,
and some of them take home more than a
Hollywood starlet.
!57
Cyrillic Tea Room & Bookstore
Established in 1926, the Cyrillic Bookstore
is owned by Count Feodor Rusikov, a former
officer in the Imperial Russian Navy and a
Crimean aristocrat. Displaced by the
revolution, he and his last remaining child,
Anya, arrived in Shanghai in 1923.
An amateur, but respected, archeologist, the
count opened the bookstore with the
proceeds from his finds in Western China
and Mongolia. As his collection of books,
Chinese artifacts, and maps grew the
bookstore eventually grew to take over a
shikumen between of the Avenue Joffre and
Rue Marcel Tillot. His daughter added the
tea room in 1930, which serves authentic
Russian cuisine from early morning to about
midnight. Expatriate Russians come to the
tea room to play chess, read, and socialize.
No one is turned away (except communists)
and no one is thrown out — it is not
uncommon for the tea room and bookstore to
be open all night.
The count and his daughter live on the
opposite side of the longtang from their
establishment, and it is rumored the count’s
personal library is even more impressive
than what is on display.
The Cyrillic Tea Room and Bookstore is
home to anti-communist conspirators,
archeologists and treasure hunters looking
for a place to start their endeavors, and a host
of other colorful characters. It is a place
where a rare trinket can be auctioned or sold,
where information can be had for a price or a
good sob story, where good food and music
can be had almost any time of the night or
day.
There are a number of small conservatories
along the avenue that train Shanghailese
children in musical theory and performance.
There is no shortage of talent in the city, and
these small theaters and workshops frequently
put on concerts for a small price.
One of the most noted points of culture in the
neighborhood is the Cyrillic Tea Room and
Bookstore run by Count Rusikov and his
daughter Anya. Poetry readings, musical
concerts, chess competitions, and political
round tables are hosted in this eclectic
combination of book store, curio shop and
museum, restaurant, and flop house. Since
1930, it has often
been the first refuge
for White Russians
arriving in the city.
The presence of
White Russians
also draws a sizable
interest from the
Chinese and Soviet
communists. The
Communist Party
of China and the
Communist Youth
League both have
offices in Little Russia, the latter in the Shude
Li, a shikumen across the Avenue Joffre from
the Cyrillic Tea Room and Bookstore.
The conflict between communist and Russian
expatriate fuels the darker side of Little
Russia. Soviet intelligence officers from the
GPU or NKVD (see pg. 36) not only seek to
undermine the Kuomintang government in
China, but to find and eliminate those
enemies of the Party in China. When there is
a murder in Little Russia, most residents will
lay the blame on Bolshevik assassins, no
matter the real cause.
58
New Concession (Residential District)
The commercial character of the Avenue
Joffre begins to change after the Rue Admiral
Bayle, which crosses into the International
Settlement to become Mohawk Road.
(Mohawk Road is home to the Rugby Club
and the Sporting Club, and is the Western
boundary of the Recreation Grounds.) West of
this road, is the “New Concession”, created in
1914. Prior to that time, this district had been
under Chinese control but the French had
rights to police and maintain the roads leading
out to Siccawei (or Xiahawei), a Catholic
enclave near the Concession.
West of Rue
Admiral Bayle, the
shops, theaters, and
other businesses
begin to give way
to elegant homes
behind walls
surrounding large
yards. North of
Avenue Joffre, the
Rue du Consulat
turns into the other
major artery of the
New Concession,
Avenue Foch, which is the boundary of the
International Settlement. Again, as with
Avenue Edward VII, the north side of the
street is the purview of International
Settlement, and the south side is French
Concession.
The roads of this Residential District are wide
and well maintained, and usually ornamented
with trees (the popular “French” plane being
the favorite) or other foliage. The homes here
are large, comfortable, and have the modern
amenities of any European or American
home: indoor plumbing, running water,
electricity, and often phone service. They
usually have yards, often times surrounded by
a eight to twelve-foot high wall.
Many of the wealthy elite of Shanghai live in
this area, including the infamous gangster Du
Yuesheng whose large mansion is on the short
Rue Paul Henry at Rue de Roi Albert.
Adding to the international character of the
New Concession are various clubs, as well as
educational and religious organizations. The
first of these is the American College on
Avenue Pétain. Founded in 1912, the school
provides American-style public education for
students of all nationalities from kindergarten
to high school diploma without religious
curriculum. Most other schools operating in
the Concession are Catholic or Russian
Orthodox operated establishments. One such
59
Catholic school is run by the Saint Ignatius
Cathedral, which also owns and operates the
Siccawei Observatory that does both
astronomical and meteorological surveys.
Also connected to the diocese is the
Bibliotheca Siccawei or “the Great Library.”
Founded by Jesuit priests in 1842, the library
has grown to be the largest in Shanghai, with
a collection including over 100,000 titles.
80,000 volumes are in various European
languages (nearly all are represented in some
fashion), and there are over 120,000 in
Chinese.
The first floor is decorated in Chinese style
and houses most of the Chinese collection,
while the second floor is adorned in European
fashion. There are reading rooms and an
excellent staff of librarians, some of them
Jesuit priests, who can aid those looking for
research materials.
Russian Orthodoxy is also well represented in
the French Concession, as befits a community
as large as that of the expatriate Russians.
From the Mission church on Rue Paul
Harvey, to St. Andrews on Rue Vallion, to St.
Nicholas on Rue Comeille, the churches
provide refuge for newcomers, as well as a
place to worship. St. Andrew’s is probably the
most popular with the Russians. (St. Andrew
is the patron saint of Russia.)
Another segment of the White Russian
population are Jews who were similarly
displaced by the Bolshevik Revolution and
the following pogroms toward the religion
and people of Abraham. For them, most of the
beneficent societies are tied to the synagogues
in Shanghai, all of them in the International
Settlement, either the Beth Aharon
Synagogue on Museum Road or Ohel Moishe
or Ohel Rachel Seymour Road. Most of the
Jewish population resides in the Settlement,
although they are also well-represented in the
New Concession, despite increasing anti-
Semitism in the French and German
communities.
The two most popular sporting and social
clubs in the Concession are the Cercle Sportif 
 changed from 1933 onward.
!60
Français and the Deutscher Garten Klub
(German Garden Club). As with most clubs in
the International Settlement, the Cercle
Sportif Français does not discriminate against
any nationality, but is also notable for
allowing female guests, and boasts forty
female members! A military member of any
nation is automatically a member once they
sign the guest book. The character of the club
is both social and sporting, with a strong
interest in athletics. During the summer, the
roof garden hosts some of the best dances in
the city. During the winter, the indoor
swimming pool remains open.
The German Garden Club at 454 Avenue
Haig and the neighboring Deutsche
Evangelische Kirche (German Evangelical
Church) are the center of German social life
in Shanghai. Until 1934, the club was open to
all nationalities, however racial restrictions
against Jews and blacks were put in place
after this (although Asians were still afforded
access.) Women, as with the French Cercle
Sportif were welcome as guests but could not
be members. The club, like many German
Shanghailese, resisted the influence of
Naziism, but inevitably the tenor of the place
61
Shikumen

This represents a shikumen that has been

split into residential and business
properties. The top diagram is the
ground floor the lower a second floor
plan.

The smaller buildings separated by a

tight alley were nearly always one room
dwellings which can house a family (or
two, in a pinch.) Often they cook out in
the alleyway between their home and
the main houses.

The bottom shikumen have assorted

business layouts to give an idea of the
ways these buildings were modified.

The scale is 5’ to a square.

62
Figures of the French Concession

Consul-General Henri Mayrier

The former consul-general for Tientsin, SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

another French concession port, Mayrier has a Academics,
reputation for efficiency and honesty — a rare History 2 INT 5
thing in the French colonial administrations Politics 3 INT 6
throughout the Orient. Following the Bureaucracy 3 INT 5
embarrassment that was the eminently- Government 6
corrupt Koechlin, Mayrier was shifted to Con 2 CHA 2
Shanghai’s French Concession to “clean the Diplomacy 3 CHA 5
place up.” Firearms 1 DEX 3
Linguistics 4 INT 7
This was no easy task. It has required a
willingness to cross politically connected RESOURCES & TALENTS:
bureaucrats, gun-wielding gangsters, and Rank 4: Consul-General
dirty cops. Status 4: +8 social tests in French government
and +4 in French Concession society.
He calm but haughty demeanor doesn’t tend
to earn him friends, but no one in the city can FLAWS:
deny he has been effective — his police Arrogant
commandant has purged the ranks of Stubborn
questionable police, and pushed most of the
violent crime into Chapei, “where the Chinese LANGUAGES:
can deal with it.” French (native), English, German, Mandarin

POLITICIAN WEAPONRY:
Motivation: Duty Nationality: French Browning M1910 7.65mm pistol
Dam: 2L Attack Rating: 5L Rng: 25’
ATTRIBUTES: Cap: 7(m) Rate: M Speed: A

Body: 2 Charisma: 2
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 4

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 7
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 6


!63
Commandant Louis Fabre

In his late 30s and early 40s during his tenure SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
in the Concession, Fabre had started life as a Athletics 2 STR 5
celebrated military man. He was awarded the Rugby 6
Legion of Honor for his service in the Great Brawl 3 STR 6
War, after which he graduated from Joinville Bureaucracy 2 INT 4
le Pont Military Academy as a Captain in Diplomacy 1 CHA 3
1920. He participated in the Syrian campaign Firearms 3 DEX 6
before being named the Chief of the General Linguistics 3 INT 5
Staff of French troops in China in 1922 as Ride 2 DEX 5
well as Deputy Chief of the French Police in Stealth 1 DEX 4
Tientsin. Streetwise 2 CHA 4
Survival 1 INT 3
He is an avid rugby player, and played for the Warfare 3 INT 5
Tientsin Rugby Club, and championship
badminton. He was promoted to the Chief of RESOURCES & TALENTS:
Police in Tientsin in 1928, before being Rank 3: Police Commandant
transferred to Shanghai in March 1932. His Status 2: +2 social tests in Shanghai
move to Shanghai was against his will.
FLAWS:
He lives with his wife, Suzanne, and young Overconfident
daughter, Cecille. Stubborn

POLICE COMMANDANT LANGUAGES:

Motivation: Duty Nationality: French French (native), German, Mandarin

ATTRIBUTES: WEAPONRY:

Body: 3 Charisma: 2 Lebel MAS M1892 7.62mm revolver
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2 Dam: 3L Attack Rating: 9L Rng: 50’
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3 Cap: 6 (r) Rate: M Speed: A


Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 6 Perception: 5
Initiative: 5 Defense: 6 Stun: 3
Health: 6

!64
Count Feodor Rusikov

This massive bear of a man is known for his SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
exuberant laugh and brilliant mind. Once a Academics,
captain in the Imperial Russian Navy, he History 3 INT 6
barely escaped with his family, after Athletics 3 STR 6
convincing his crew to remain loyal during Brawl 2 STR 5
the October Revolution. Held as refugees by Bureaucracy 2 INT 5
the French for over a year in Africa, his wife Con 2 CHA 5
and son died of the Spanish Flu, and once Diplomacy 1 CHA 4
released, he moved to Shanghai with his Firearms 2 DEX 4
daughter. There he started the famed Cyrillic Linguistics 3 INT 6
Tea Room and Bookstore, which has become Pilot, Boat 2 DEX 4
the center of Little Russia’s social life. Ride 2 DEX 4
Survival 1 INT 3
He is an expert amateur archeologist, having Warfare 1 INT 4
done work on early Mongolian civilizations.
He is a patron or the Great Library in RESOURCES & TALENTS:
Siccawei and was recently given an honorary Status 3: +4 social with scientific and Russian
doctorate of history by the Academie des expatriate communities
Sciences. He travels on a Nansen passport. Wealth 2: $500/mo. income

ADVENTURER FLAWS:
Motivation: Escape Danger Magnet
Nationality: Russian (Nansen) Hunted, NKVD
Stateless
ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 4 Charisma: 3 LANGUAGES:
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3 Russian (native), French, German
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3
WEAPONRY:

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 5
Initiative: 4 Defense: 6 Stun: 4
Health: 7

!65
Countess Anya Rusikova

When Anya was eight, her family lost FLAWS:

everything in the October Revolution and Hunted, NKVD
barely escaped Odessa in her father’s ship to Stateless - style pt. when causes her trouble.
French Tunisia. After her mother and brother
died of the Spanish Flu in 1921, her father SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
moved them to Shanghai, where he set up Academics 2 INT 5
their bookstore, and threw himself into his Acrobatics 2 DEX 5
amateur archeology studies. Anya traveled Athletics 1 STR 3
with him on many of his adventures, before Bureaucracy 2 CHA 5
adding the tea room to their establishment and Con 3 CHA 6
taking over the family business. She has a Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
Nansen passport issued by the League of Empathy 2 INT 5
Nations, but officially has no country. Firearms 1 DEX 4
Gambling 1 INT 4
Tall, red-haired and elven-faced, she is the Investigation 2 INT 5
face of the Cyrillic Tearoom. She is self- Linguistics 3 INT 6
educated, and very well so, and has her finger Streetwise 3 CHA 6
on the pulse of Little Russia. Stealth 1 DEX 4

ANITIQUITIES DEALER LANGUAGES:

Motivation: Survival Russian (native); English, French, German,
Nationality: Russian (Nansen) Mandarin

ATTRIBUTES: WEAPONS:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3 Colt Detective .38 Special Snubnose
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 3 Damage: 2L Attack Rating: 6L Range: 50‘
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3 Cap: 6 (c) Rate: A Spd: A

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 6
Initiative: 6 Defense: 5 Stun: 3
Health: 5

RESOURCES & TALENTS:

Attractive
Contacts 1: +2 Russian & antiquities
community.
Refuge 2: Cyrillic Tea Room
Skill Mastery (Academics)
Wealth 2

!66
Captain Arkady “The Ghost” Lenshev

Unwavering in his faith in communism and SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

the rightness of the Soviet cause, Lenshev is Athletics 2 STR 4
the son of a peasant farmer who became a Brawl 3 STR 6
commissar in Estonia. Arkady came to the Bureaucracy 2 INT 2
attention of Gelb Bokii, head of the “Special Con 3 CHA 5
Department” of the GPU and later NKVD for Diplomacy 1 CHA 3
his loyalty and zeal in dealing with political Firearms 2 DEX 5
problems for the Party. Investigation 3 INT 5
Larceny 2 DEX 5
There are all manner of rumors about some of Linguistics 2 INT 4
the Special Department’s activities — Ride 1 DEX 4
including supernatural and “psychometric” Stealth 3 DEX 6
experiments. Lenshev is said to have studied Streetwise 2 CHA 4
Eastern mysticism while in Tashkent, is a Survival 1 INT 3
graduate of the mysterious “Brain Institute”,
and that he can disappear right before one’s RESOURCES & TALENTS:
eyes, hence “The Ghost.” Iron Will
Psychic Ability: Cloaking (Use Willpower)
Lenshev regularly operates in China on behalf ** see p.47, Secrets of the Surface World for
of the Soviet Union and their communist more.
Chinese allies.
FLAWS:
SPY Callous
Motivation: Duty Nationality: Soviet Fanatic, Communism
Sadistic
ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 3 Charisma: 2 LANGUAGES:
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2 Russian (native), English
Strength: 2 Willpower: 4
WEAPONRY:

Secondary Attributes: Tokarev TT-33 7.62mm pistol
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 6 Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 8L Range: 50’
Initiative: 5 Defense: 6 Stun: 3 Cap: 8 (m) Rate: M Speed: A
Health: 7

!67
5. The Whore of Asia
City Government of Greater Shanghai
Several municipal government schemes were
attempted since the revolution in 1911, but it
was not until the Kuomintang took power in
1927 that an organization of some success
was formed. This City Government of Greater
Shanghai controls the territories outside of the
French Concession and International
Settlement. This authority extnends to
Pootung, across the Whampoo River from
Shanghai.
The structure of the city government is a
secretariat, with eight bureaus overseeing
operations from Finance and Public Utilities,
to Education and Public Works. Heading the
City Government is a mayor, appointed by the
Nationalist government in Nanking. Holding
this position since the first of 1932 is General
Wu Te-Chen. General Wu led the city through
68
the Japanese aggression of ’32 and was been
instrumental in the rebuilding of Chapei.
Under his leadership, the developments in
that district included a new series of industrial
parks, a civic center, and new ports to connect
Woosung to Shanghai.
The Old City
The Chinese City, or Old City as the Chinese
call it, is the original urban center of
Shanghai. Huddled on the Western bank of
the Whangpoo River, the city was originally
surrounded by a high brick wall, but by 1912
much of that was pulled down to make way
for a ring road around the district — the
Chung Hwa Road, looping around the
southern half, and Ming Kuo Road, which
becomes the Boulevard Des Deux
Republiques to the north.
The Old City was the administrative center
for Chinese life in Shanghai during the early
1920s, but after 1927, the functions of
“Special Municipality of Shanghai” (as the
Nationalist government referred to it) were
moved to Siccawei, the westernmost district,
just outside of the New Concession. The area
is officially called the Hunan District by the
Chinese government until 1937, when the
Japanese occupation renames it Nanshi.
The portions of the wall that still exist along
the northern side of the Old City are
connected to one of the most noted features of
the district: the City God Temple and
69
surrounding Yuyuan Gardens. The temple was
dedicated to the Jinshan or Gold Mountain
god, and it is typically to pray for good
fortune or peace when attending.
The Yuyuan Gardens, or “Gardens of
Happiness”, are located on five acres by the
temple. Founded in 1559, the gardens had
many of the structures destroyed during the
first Opium War with the British, and it was
used as a headquarters by the Small Sword
Society during the Taiping Revolution. The
new buildings were constructed to evoke
those that preceded them, and include rock
gardens and ponds like the “Grand Rockery.”
Chinese Bund

The “Chinese Bund” takes up from the Quai

de France at Fong Pang Road, the southern
border of the French Concession between the
Boulevard des Deux Republiques and the
river, and continues to the westward curve in
the Whangpoo. The natives call this area the
Nantao, or Southern Market, and it is home to
many native businesses and guild houses.

The piers and wharves of the Chinese Bund

are thick with boats of every description.
Families live and work on these floating
neighborhoods, sometimes never leaving the
water, being born, living their entire lives,
and dying aboard their vessels. This floating
marketplace is central to much of the native
smuggling that goes on in the city.

There are various guilds houses in this part of

Shanghai. They include the blacksmiths’
guild and the silverworkers’ guild (although
they work in all decorative metals), but the
most impressive is housed in what appears to
be a temple of red and gold. This is the
Mosang Way Kway (the Wood Merchants’
Guild) and the temple — dedicated to Lupai
— is part of a complex of buildings that
include a theater famed for the pewter storks
in its lobby, and several courtyards.
This district of Shanghai is notorious for the
maze of tight, dark alleys leading to warrens
of interconnected courtyards where
merchants, entertainers, and criminals ply
their trades, surrounded by buildings that are
dangerously ill-constructed fire traps, some
centuries old. Fires can destroy hundreds of
these structures, and their residents in a
matter of minutes.
Travel by Westerners is highly discouraged
without a trustworthy guide, and should be
avoided at night.
Siccawei
West of the New Concession is the district of
Siccwei, and important point of contact
between east and west since the late 1500s.
The area was donated to the Society of Jesus
by Hsu Kwang-Chi, a student of the Jesuit
priest Matteo Ricci, and has been a center of
Roman Catholicism in China ever since.
Siccawei is a nucleus of learning in China. It
is home to the Siccawei Meteorological
Observatory, part of a network of dozens of
similar institutions around the world and is
governed by the staff of the Saint Ignatius
Cathedral. Subsidiary institutions connected
to the Observatory are the “Great Library” or
Siccawei Library (for more see pg. 59), an

70
astronomical observatory in nearby Zo-se,
and a seismological station.

While the area is nominally under the

authority of the native Municipality of
Greater Shanghai, maintenance and control of
the roads in Siccawei fall to the French
Concession. Extraterritoriality should not
apply in this district, but in practice, the
Chinese municipal government tends to refer
foreigners to their consular courts in cases of
misdemeanor crimes.

South of Siccawei and situated on the

northern bank of the Whangpoo River, is
Lunghwa. The area is known for its famed
pagodas, and now it is also the site of
Shanghai’s Lunghwa Airport. First opened as
a simple grass and dirt runway in 1929, the
current facility was built in 1931 by China
Airways (then under the management of the
Curtiss-Wright Corporation.) It features an
semi-circular art deco terminal, several
private hangars, and two runways, as well as
a seaplane facility at the edge of the river.
Lunghwa Airfield also serves as a military
base for the Republic of China Air Force
(ROCAF) and is used primarily for training.

Lunghwa is now operated by Pan American

Airlines, which bought China Airways in
1933. These two companies control all of the
passenger flights to the interior; the Aviation
Ministry does not provide permits to smaller
commercial passenger craft. Smaller private
cargo craft do not have these restrictions.
They operate out of the airport, as do personal
aircraft that are stored at Lunghwa.

Chapei

North of the International Settlement, and

delineated by the rails of the the Shanghai
North Railway Station is the district of

71
 Chapei. A center of industry since the start of
the century, Chapei is home to a multitude of
different factories, and the silk manufacturers
are world-famous.

Chapei was the target of Japanese attacks

against the Chinese government during their
war in 1932, and much of the district was
raised by bombs and fire. There are still
swathes of the area that are burned out or in
ruins, but money is king in Shanghai, and
Chapei has been quickly rebuilding and
growing — a chaotic collection of streets and
alleys, industry and illicit activity.

The rebuilding of Chapei is inextricably

connected to the movement of the opium and
other illicit trades to Chapei due to the change
in leadership in the French Concession, and
the commitment by the new Consul-General
and the Commandant du Garde to remove the
influence of the Green Gang. Loans and
investment by the gang in legitimate
businesses in Chapei have made the gangsters
heroes to the people of the district.

The Kuomintang

One cannot talk about the City Government

of Greater Shanghai without addressing its
master — the Kuomintang, the Chinese
National Peoples’ Party. The city authorities
are appointed by the KMT and must bend
with the whims of the ministers in Nanking.

72
Not far from Shanghai, only a two hour train
ride, Nanking is the seat of the Kuomintang
and the Republic of China. The proximity to
Shanghai makes the political intrigue of the
KMT very important to the day-to-day
operations of the city. The ties between the
Green Gang and its leader, Du Yuesheng, to
the administration of Chiang Kai-Shek mean
China has a vested interest in protecting the
gang’s enterprises where they can; and
likewise, the gang is wholly invested in the
survival of the Nationalists.
Organization
Passed in 1928, the Organic Law of the
Nationalist Government is the constitution of
the Republic of China, and stipulated that the
government would be under the tutelage of
the National Congress and Executive
Committee of the KMT. It effectively made
the government subservient to the party, much
like the Nazi Party and Communist Party
exercise sovereignty over government organs
in Germany and the Soviet Union.
The Organic Law created a five-branch
government: an Executive Yuan, a Legislative
Yuan, a Judicial Yuan, an Examination Yuan
(which handles civil service testing), and a
Control Yuan, which governs the various
bureaucracies. The executive is lead by the
Chairman of the Executive, Lin Sen; and a
Vice-Chairman. Various ministries are part of
the executive, but the day-to-day bureaucracy
is under the Control Yuan.
The Legislative Yuan is comprised of 225
members who are elected by a American-style
“first past the post” electoral system. While in
theory there can be other parties in the yuan,
in practice only Kuomintang are elected.
Legislators serve for four years.
!73
The Judicial Yuan is comprised of the various
government courts, with a Supreme Court that
is led by a president of the judiciary who
serves four years; other Supreme Court jurists
serve for eight years between appointments.
While Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek has
not held the post of chairman in the executive
since 1931, he is the Chairman of the
National Military Council, and is in charge of
defending the nation. His policy of “first
internal pacification, then external resistance”
has led him to concentrate on the warlords
and communists over direct conflict with the
Japanese. This is highly unpopular with the
military and with the leader of the Legislative
Yuan, Sun Fo — son of Sun Yat-Sen — who
see the imperialism of Tokyo as more of a
threat to the nation than the communists.
Chiang controls the Nationalist party through
the CC Clique — a faction of the Kuomintang
that began as a cabal of secret police led by
Chen Guofu and Chen Qimei. The Chens
were early mentors of Chiang, and their
clique is one of the more powerful factions in
the KMT, having great influence in who gets
posts in the Executive Yuan. Their influence
is felt everywhere…
One of the key members of the clique is Dai
Li, the chief of the Nation Bureau of
Investigation and Statistics, sometimes called
the “Chinese Gestapo,” and the familial
nature of the clique is illustrated by the
presence of Finance Minister (and Governor
of the Central Bank of China from
1933-1945) Kung Hsiang-Hsi. Kung’s wife,
Soong Ailing is the eldest of the Soong girls
— Chiang’s sister-in-law — and it is a open
secret that the minister’s policies are tailored
to keep his greed-fueled wife in the manner to
which she is accustomed.

Leadership of the Kuomintang

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek

Born in 1887 to wealthy salt merchants,

Generalisimo Chiang was educated at a
Japanese military academy, but returned to
China during the Wuchang Uprising in 1911.
One of his mentors at this time was Chen
Qimei, a close ally of Sun Yat-Sen — the
founder of the Republic of China — and a
member of the Green Gang. Chiang’s ties to
the gang would prove fruitful later in his rise
to power.

Chiang quickly came to the attention of Sun

for his military schooling and underworld
connections, and he was one of the early
members of the Kuomintang. Sun made him
the commandant of the Whampoa Military
Academy, and after the great man’s death in
1925, Chiang took control of the Kuomintang
during the Canton Coup, and lead them to
prominence throughout China thanks to
canny alliances with the Soviet Union and
Chinese communists. As soon as he felt his Chiang is interested in fostering a strong
position was secure, however, he purged the China that is run by Confucian philosophy
communists and dissidents from the ranks of and virtues (that he himself falls short of), and
the new Republic of China, leaving the hopes to rid China of Western influences…
Kuomintang the dominant power in the but for now he’s content to siphon money
nation. from them. His grip on the interior of China is
weak, and relies on the various warlords that
Chiang is not the strongest of rulers, and has have been bought off to create a buffer zone
remained where he is by surrounding himself with the communists in the Western
with family — his wife, Soong Mei-Ling, provinces.
was the sister-in-law of Sun Yat-Sen, and
gave him some level of legitimacy as Sun’s His real worry since 1932 is the Japanese,
successor. The other Soong sisters are married who established a foothold in China by
to various important figures in the KMT, as conquering the northern province of
well. In many ways, the Kuomntang is a Manchuria, where they set up the former and
Soong family affair, and these connected, last Qing Emperor of China, Puyi, a a puppet
savvy women are the real power behind the monarch.
generalissimo.

74
While he keeps mostly to Nanking, Chiang RESOURCES & TALENTS:
does frequently visit Shanghai with his wife. Iron Will
Characters may encounter Chiang and his Rank 5: Generalissimo of China
wife at the higher end events or clubs in the Wealth 5
city. He can converse only in Chinese and
Japanese with characters, otherwise, if the FLAWS:
government has some business with them, Arrogant
Madam Chiang is likely to conduct it. Stubborn

DICTATOR LANGUAGES:
Motivation: Power Nationality: Chinese Mandarin (native), Japanese

ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 4
Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 7
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 6

SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

Athletics 2 STR 4
Brawl 1 STR 3
Bureaucracy 3 INT 6
Con 2 CHA 5
Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
Firearms 2 DEX 4
Linguistics 3 INT 6
Ride 2 DEX 4
Streetwise 2 CHA 5
Warfare 2 INT 5

!75
“Madam Chiang” — Soong Mai-Ling

A native Shanghailander, Madam Chiang was

born in the city to Charlie Soong, a wealthy
businessman and Methodist minister. She
was schooled at the illustrious, all-female
McTyerie School in the city, then attended
Wesleyan College in the United States. Her
eldest sister, Ai-Ling is married to the finance
minister (and arguably richest man in China),
and the middle sister, Ching-Ling, married
Sun Yat-Sen, but broke with the Kuomintang
after the purge of communists in 1927.

She met Chiang Kai-Shek in 1920, but it was

seven years before they were allowed to wed,
and only after Chaing divorced his wife and
promised her mother he would convert to
Christianity. Madam Chiang was a member
of the Legislative Yuan for the Republic of
China from 1930-32, and was the Secretary-
General of Aeronautical Affairs from
1936-38.
SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
Academics 1 INT 4
She acts as Chiang’s translator for English
Bureaucracy 3 INT 6
and French, is his secretary and primary
Diplomacy 3 CHA 6
advisor, as well as his eyes and ears in
Investigation 3 INT 6
society. In essence, she is the real power in
Linguistics 4 INT 7
the Republic of China.
Streetwise 3 CHA 6
POLITICIAN
RESOURCES & TALENTS:
Motivation: Duty Nationality: Chinese
Contacts 3: +4 social tests in China
Rank 4: First Lady of China
ATTRIBUTES:
Skill Mastery (Academics)
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
FLAWS:
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3
Loyalty
Secondary Attributes:
LANGUAGES:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 6
Mandarin (native), English, French
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 4

76
Soong Ching-Ling

While not directly involved in politics, like

her sisters, Dai Li’s secret police believe she
is a prominently-placed spy for the
Communist Party of China and the for the
Soviet Union.

SPY
Motivation: Duty Nationality: Chinese

ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 6
Initiative: 5 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
Health: 5

SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

Bureaucracy 3 INT 6
Con 2 CHA 5
Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
The middle of the Soong sisters, Ching-Ling Investigation 3 INT 6
married Sun Yat-Sen, the founder of the Linguistics 4 INT 7
Kuomintang and the Republic of China. She Streetwise 2 CHA 5
was Sun’s second wife, and in that capacity
was highly influential. Early on, she was an RESOURCES & TALENTS:
ardent supporter of communism, and after the Status 4: +6 social tests in China.
death of her husband was elected to the
Central Executive Committee of the KMT. FLAWS:
After Chiang’s purge of the communists in Secret: Soviet spy
1927, she fled China to the Soviet Union,
returning for the move of her husband’s LANGUAGES:
remains to his mausoleum in Nanking in Mandarin (native), English, French, Russian
1929, and remaining after coming home for
her mother’s death in 1931.

77
6. Gateway to China
Travel into the interior of China comes in
many forms. Many of the larger cities of
China are accessible by rail for reasonable
rates, and leave from the Shanghai North
Railway Station. Prices and schedules can be
changed without notice by the government, so
using a reputable travel agent is a must;
however, the average cost for a trip to the
major cities of China runs about $50US.
Service to nearby Nanking is about $15US
and takes two hours. For these services, the
American Express offices on 158 Kiukiang
Road and the ChinaTravel Service at 420
Szechuen Road are the best choices, but
Thomas Cook & Son is also reliable.
Air travel is still new to China. China
Airways was established in 1929, and a series
of accidents exposed shoddy management by
the Curtiss-Wright Company. In 1933, Pan
American Airlines took control of China
Airways, and service has improved. Flights
into China leave from Lunghwa Field. The
cost of air travel in China is a bit higher than
comparable flights in the United States or
Europe, mostly due to fuel costs. Flights to
the ever-popular Hangchow and Peking cost
around $300US round trip; Nanking can be
reached in 30 minutes at a cost of $70US.
Traveling by river is an excellent choice for
the budget-minded. There are a host of boats
plying the Whangpoo that can take the
wanderer up into the interior. However, unless
using one of the established sightseeing
companies, it is advisable that the traveler
have a reliable and respectable guide to
handle the negotiation of prices and to see to
one’s safety.
Not recommended is traveling by automobile.
!78
While there are some well-maintained roads
in the local area of Shanghai, and connecting
roads to Nanking are acceptable, outside of
that small corridor, most roads are terribly-
constructed cart tracks. Thick, yellow mud
(called loess), potholes, and traffic, both foot
and animal-drawn, make a trip by car into
China difficult to say the least. Some hardy
souls have ventured forth on motorcycle, but
many of the same issues — bad roads, a
paucity of fueling or repair stations, and the
occasional bit of banditry make this
inadvisable.
So what is there to see in China?
Nanking
The capital of the Republic of China,
Nanking, is a quick trip from Shanghai. Since
the Kuomintang set up shop in the city, the
population of the city has grown
uncontrollably. It is now estimated the
population of Nanking is about a million, and
this has made many a savvy real estate man
wealthy.
There are a many cultural sites in Nanking.
During the Ming Dynasty, it was the capital,
and the ancient tombs and temples of the
Ming dot the city. The Nanking Wall, 32
miles of ancient barrier to protect the city, still
stands and is worth a look. As the seat of Sun
Yat-Sen’s revolution against the Qing, there
are several monuments to him and other
important revolutionaries.
Peking
Long the capital of China and one of the
oldest cities in the world, Peking sits 918
miles from Shanghai. Thirty miles of walls
enclose a twenty square mile city that is a
mixture of Tartar and Chinese architecture.
The palace with its incredible carvings and
gargoyles, the walled enclaves of private
homes, legations, and temples make this a
curious and edifying place to visit.
The Forbidden City, that most famed palace
complex of emperors, is now a museum
complex housing some of the great historical
wonders of ancient China. The Winter Palace,
with its lakes and arched bridges, and the
spectacular Nine Dragons Screen are well
worth a traveler’s time. Nine miles outside of
Peking is the Summer Palace, another scene
of imperial grandeur.
A morning train from Peking will deposit
sightseers at the most spectacular man-made
feature in China: the Great Wall. 1500 miles
long and two thousand years old, the Great
Wall has protected China from the Mongols
and Tartars. It ranges from twenty to fifty feet
tall and is dotted with watch towers along the
length of the wall.
Hangchow
A popular destination for visitors from
Shanghai is Hangchow, 130 miles away at the
southern end of the Great Canal. So popular is
the destination in the summer that a well-
paved road has been run from Shanghai to
Hangchow. By car or train, it is five hours or
so away. There are numerous resorts in town
or on Mokanshan (“Isolated Peak”) to the
north.
!79
The combination of low mountain range to
the north and to the south, the Western Lake
which is also bounded by mountains makes
for a pleasant climate all year around. The
average temperature is about 70 degrees
Fahrenheit for much of the year.
The most fascinating aspect of Hangchow
however, is the bimonthly bore. Tidal effects
in the Hangchow Bay, which is shaped like a
funnel which closes from a hundred miles to
only two where it meets the the Ch’ien T’ang
River cause the sea push against the river
flow. This creates a six foot high wall of
water where the sea and river meet. This
battle of water sees the sometime miles-wide
bore move back and forth several hundred
yards at the river’s mouth, and during the
autumnal and spring equinoxes these
clamoring bores can rise to twenty-five feet
high!
The Yangtze Gorges
A thousand miles up the Yangtze River is one
of the natural wonders of the world. Here the
flow carves through the rugged and
fantastical-looking mountain range. In the
400 miles the river falls toward the sea from
Chungking the elevation drops from 600 feet
to 160. The flow of the water is fast and
rough in many places, but is navigable the
entire way.
A steamer trip to the Gorges takes three
weeks, and costs $400 US, while a visit by air
costs $780 round trip and takes four days.
7. Setting: Shanghai
The Devil is in the Details
Verisimilitude — “the appearance of being
true or real” — is a key to creating a good
game setting. Shanghai was an unique blend
of the Oriental and the Occidental. Capturing
the strange blend of the familiar and alien can
really make the setting breathe. For the native
Chinese, the incursion of Western calendars,
languages, clothes, architecture, roads, and
laws, combined with the new phenomena of
radio, movies, and automobiles created
resistance and consternation. For the
Westerner coming to Shanghai, it was easy,
from the deck of a ocean liner, to think one
was landing in any European city…but once
on the ground, the kaleidoscope of cultures
quickly created dissonance.
The Sights
Western-style buildings competed for space
with the skikumen and wooden hovels of the
old city. The signage of stores and other
businesses are often a mix of Chinese, and
other languages like French, English, and
Japanese.
Western clothing styles were adopted by the
local native Shanghailanders, so seeing
Chinese in modern fashions or traditional
garb. Western women adopted the quipo —
the form-fitting Chinese dress, and some of
the more eccentric men might adopt Chinese
Mandarin jackets.
On the streets, heavy pedestrian traffic,
bicycles, and rickshaws drawn by natives,
animal-drawn carts and trucks, vie for space
in the paved streets of the International
Settlement and French Concession with
automobiles and motorcycles, tram cars, and
!80
busses under spiderwebs of electrical and
telephonic wires. At night, the “City of a
Thousand Lights” is ablaze with electric
streetlights, neon, lighted signs and marquees.
Off of the main streets of the Settlement or
the Concession, however, darkness or gas and
candlelight strip these tight streets and
alleyways of their cosmopolitan flavor. These
neighborhoods are warrens of ill-paved or dirt
streets, surrounded by hastily built structures.
The Sounds
Shanghai is a riot of noise at practically
anytime of the day or night. Dozens of
languages are being shouted in the streets.
Mandarin with a particular accent marks
someone as a lifetime resident of the city, but
Cantonese is also commonly spoken by
traders from Hong Kong. English and French
are the most common European tongues, but
one will hear Hebrew and Yiddish, Italian and
Spanish, Greek and Norwegian, as well as
Hindi, Annamese (Vietnamese), and Tagalog,
the Philippine trading language.
Music from the multitude of cabarets, radios,
and phonographs heard through open
windows inundate the pedestrian with
traditional Chinese music, jazz and swing,
American blues, classical and Romantic
sonatas from small bands of musicians, and
show tunes (most, amusingly, badly translated
into Mandarin.)
Vehicle motors, power tools, ship horns,
animal calls, the rumble of generators near
the power plants, the hum of the electrical
lines when it is quiet — the noise of industry
is ever-present in the International Settlement
and parts of Chapei and the French
Concession. Gunfire is rarely a surprise to
hear in some of these neighborhoods. Out in instant-boiled mutton. There is less focus on
the New Concession, the large houses and spices, as in Korean and Szechuan foods.
their plots of land give residents an oasis of
relative quiet in a sea of enterprise. In the New Concessions, the reek of industry
and commerce is kept at bay by the scent of
The Smells flowers and trees, and the natural eastward
flow of the air toward the sea.
As a center of commerce, filled with
factories, vehicles, and surrounded by canals Food, Drink, & Smokes
and a heavily travelled river, Shanghai is…
pungent, to be kind. One can find just about every kind of food in
Shanghai, but the traditional Mandarin dishes
Many of the shikumen neighborhoods do not like moo goo gai pan, sweet and sour
have indoor chicken, instant-
plumbing, and the boiled mutton,
Shanghai’s Vermin
human waste is Peking duck or
either dumped into barbecue, etc. are
With the amount of decay, filth, and food
the tight network of most common
exposed to the air in Shanghai’s streets and
streets, or gathered when one is
markets, it is hardly a surprise that the city has a
in large barrels to grabbing food from
problem with vermin.
be emptied into the vendors on the
carts of “night dirt street. Clover
Rats are a constant sight in the streets near the
women” who Butter is also a
canals and river, but the real problem — and one
collect the waste to thing…and worth
frequently commented on by travelers — is the
sell to chemical trying!
flies. From April to September, the city sees
factories and farms. more than its fair share of the pests.
The stench of urine A popular beverage
and excrement is in Clover Beer,
The humidity of the area also means mosquitoes
thick in some areas made locally. It is a
are a major nuisance and health issue. Malaria is
of the city. light red malt ale
a very real problem for the Shanghailese.
with a floral note
This is often made and a slightly sweet
worse by the dead undertone. It had
fish, animals, and occasionally people, found competition in Golden Valley, another lager
in the canals. The smell of decomposition is brewed with clover honey. Clover Beer is
an ever-present undertone of the olfactory available only in Shanghai and Nanking.
experience of the city, as is the scent of Another local beer is Peiping, a light lager.
exhaust from diesel and steam vessels. Imports commonly found include Kingfisher
Lager out of India, Foster’s from Australia,
Mixed with these smells are the unique Pilsner Urquell from Germany, and Kirin
fragrances of food from dozens of cuisines, from Japan.
but predominantly Mandarin. The native food
tends to focus on fish and shrimp, stir fry, and Due to Prohibition in the United States,
Yankee beer is absent from the Chinese

!81
market, and even after repeal, American beer
Pinyin (Pidgin English) & Chinese
was rare.
Slang
Spirits from all over the world are popular in Both European and Chinese Shanghai-
the city. Plum wine and sake from Japan, landers often speak in a patois of
Canadian whiskey, American bourbon (but Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi and English
only after 1934); Scottish whiskey and gin, known as “pinyin.” Here are some
French wines and champagne, Russian and highlights of pinyin, with their English
Norwegian vodka, even Mexican tequila — meanings:
the cabarets and restaurants were flooded
with alcohol. Blong — Is, are, belong to
Bottomside — Downstairs
It’s the 1930s. People smoke. Point of fact, Bim-bye — Bye-bye, goodbye
almost everyone smokes, men and women, Catchee — Get, catch, or bring
and young children are frequently seen Chop chop — Quick!
puffing away. Cigars and pipes tend to been Chow — Food
seen mostly in the European clubs; cigarettes Cumsha — a tip
are the most popular form of tobacco. How — OK or good
How Fashion? — What for?
Popular brands of cigarettes included Largee — Much or great
American brands like Lucky Strike and Look-see — To look or see
Camels — both unique for their use of a Makee — To make, to do, or to cause
cellophane “humidor” (cellophane wrappers Maskee — Never mind
to prevent drying out.) Luckies were More Better — Better
particularly popular with Americans and were Muchee — Very
marketed for their “… the exclusive No can — I cannot
“TOASTING” process which includes the use Number One — Very good, the Best
of modern Ultra Violet Rays — the process One piece — An or one
that expels certain harsh, biting irritants Plenty — Very much
naturally present in every tobacco leaf.” No savvy — Don’t know
Camels, on the other hand, proudly rejected Savvy — To know
toasting or “parching” their sun-ripened Sheow shing — Watch out
tobacco. Chesterfields were “purer than the Side — Place or country
water you drink…” and the ads featured Solly — Sorry
singers (to show how easy they were on the Talkee — To tell, ask, or say
throat) or outdoorsy people. Topside — Upstairs
Walkee — To go
Turkish tobacco was advertised as more mild Wanchee — To want
and better quality than the ubiquitous Wei wei — Hello
American brands. Cigarettes like Medina den What for? — Why?
Milde were, of course, German-owned. The What fashion no can — Why not?
most popular German smoke, however, was What side? — Where?
Trommler, owned by the Sturm company (in Yeah sho’ — Maybe
turn owned by the Nazi party.)

!82

Low-class British smokers tended to favor the
Wills’ Wild Woodbine or Gold Flake brands.
Players and Players Navy Cut were also
wildly popular as a highly-quality, but still
inexpensive pack. Craven A’s had a cork filter
and were popular with ladies, as were Pall
Mall.
The short and fat Gauloises were unfiltered
and loaded with Turkish and Syrian tobacco
— these were highly popular with French and
Italian smokers, as were Gitanes ( or “gypsy
woman.”) Piast cigarettes were made with
Cuban tobacco and expensive, but considered
to be of very high quality. Italian brands like
Modiano had a hard time breaking into
international markets and were fairly rare.
Those looking for true gaspers could always
resort to the execrable Prosperity brand, made
in Shanghai with tobacco that is of
questionable quality.
Many cigarette brands had gift certificates in
the packs that could be redeemed for free
cigarettes, but there were also special offer-
type certificates that could get one of kinds of
prizes. (One British brand would give away a
car every few years.
Make the Setting Part of the Plot
When crafting adventures in Shanghai, use
the city and its environs lend character to the
scenes. An action sequence on the docks of
the Bund will have a different quality than
one in Yangtsepoo — the Bund would see
more traffic, more Europeans, and more
chance of encountering police or gaining aid
from bystanders; Yangtsepoo is more likely to
have dark wharfs and criminal activity.
Here are a few seeds to build an adventure
around:
!83
• Someone has murdered a night dirt woman
near the Soochow Canal. Could this be a
turf war between a few of the female-led
gangs that control the sanitation market?
Obvious elements for scenes: set them
along the foul smelling, contagion-laden
canal in the middle of the night (fog or rain
optional…), investigating one the chemical
plants in Yangtsepoo with its vats of nitrate
and other dangerous material, or the den of
the queen of the crap collectors.
• The Green Gang has learned that a courier
with plans for Japanese military
movements is coming to Shanghai.
Intercepting the courier would require
picking him up or following him from the
Bund, where he is coming through
customs. A car chase through the crowded
streets of the Bund and perhaps an
encounter with the kempeitai in Hongkew
could highlight the various kinds of traffic
or shift from a European flavored city to a
Japanese one. Perhaps they know he is
making the handoff at the infamous Pearl
of the Orient nightclub. Can they get the
material the courier is carrying without
getting the club’s guards into the mix?
• Smuggling something into Shanghai has
brought the wrong sort of attention from
one of the Green Gang franchises. This
could lead to a nighttime boat chase
through the heavy shipping on the
Whangpoo, or an encounter in the marshes
of Pootung. Perhaps their cargo is stolen,
requiring them to raid a shikumen loaded
with gangsters.
• A young woman goes missing, and her
scam artist boyfriend might be to blame.
Did he sell her to a brothel, requiring the
characters to stage a rescue? Perhaps he
got her hooked on drugs and a tour of the
 opium dens in the International Settlement
or Chapei would be in order. Or perhaps
she saw something she shouldn’t have, and
is in hiding. Can they find her before the
bad guys do?
• The characters are hired to protect a rich
businessman or movie star from a threat.
Settings could be a swanky nightclub, with
a fist fight in the bathrooms set to the jazz
music playing in the main room. Maybe
they lose their client at the horse races, and
have to scour the sporting club to find
them before their stalker does.
• The Orient is traditionally a place of
mysticism in the comics and pup novels of
the 1930s. From “Chinese black magic” to
dragons, yeti, and people trained by monks
to “cloud men’s minds” through the power
of concentration, there are many ways to
approach the supernatural in this setting.
• The characters might find themselves
caught up in a search for the rumored
tombs of red-headed mummies in the
Tarim Desert on the border with Mongolia.
But instead of 5000 year old Celts, they
might find something more hazardous —
perhaps an opening into the Hollow Earth,
or an ancient burial site of creatures not
quite human.
!84
• High in the mountains of Tibet is a
monastery that trains noble warriors…
except one of their students turned to evil.
Now he is loose in Shanghai and looking
to overthrow the leadership of the Green
Gang and make himself the master of the
city (and perhaps all of China..?) How does
someone hunt a man that can bend men’s
minds to his will?
• An tomb raider has returned to the city
with his latest find — a silver coffin with
gorgeous relief work. Inside, the body of
the First Sovereign Emperor, who has been
hibernating for millennia, kept alive by an
elixir he stole from the ancient sorcerer
Anqi Sheng on the mythical Penglai
Montain. Now a secret society is bent on
aiding the emperor’s return to life, and
hopefully, his rule over China! On the
other side, the characters and another
secret society, or perhaps Anqi Sheng
himself!
8. Shanghai Confidential
This adventure is a classic noir-styled mystery and designed for a small number of players. The
best sort of characters would be law enforcement or private detectives, however, with a bit of
tweaking it could easily accommodate established characters. The adventure takes place during
the summer of 1935, but could be anytime before the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1937.
Scene 1: Peele & Chu Agency
It’s a hot and muggy morning in Shanghai.
There’s a decaying smell from the nearby
canal that is lingering everywhere. Even the
desk fans can’t blow the air around enough to
make the offices of the Peele and Chu Agency
comfortable. The flies have been particularly
bad this week.
It’s a small agency, with a half dozen private
detectives working the city. Their offices take
up one of the buildings in a shikumen in the
International Settlement just off of Museum
Road, just to the right of the fancy carved
gate with a dragon and a phoenix dueling
around the portal. Peele & Chu is on the
phoenix-side. Their public offices are on the
ground floor with windows facing the
alleyway; on the second floor are private
rooms for the detectives to bunk down, and a
small kitchen; the upper floor is storage and
small rooms for let or for clients, if needed.
In a place like Shanghai , there’s always work
for a private dick: infidelity, drug use,
kidnappings, extortion… The Peele & Chu
Agency has a good reputation for
professionalism and discretion, and this has
made them fairly successful.
They receive a client that morning: Ming Jin,
a real estate agent with the E.D. Sassoon
Banking Company. Known as “Jimmy” Ming
in the Western circles of the Settlement, he
has been instrumental in the redevelopment of
Chapei after the 1932 war. He wants to hire
!85
them to find and warn off a stalker of his
girlfriend, Han Mei — an up-and-coming star
at Tianyi Studios. He’s been sending gifts,
turning up at places they do, and there was
even a trespassing incident two nights ago at
their place in the French Concession. He’s an
American, either a sailor or someone working
on one of the docks.
Jimmy reported the incidents to both the
Shanghai Municipal Police and the Garde
Miunicipale but they didn’t actually see
Denister well enough when he was on the
property to properly identify him and he
hasn’t actually threatened her in any way.
This is a pretty standard job for the agency.
Actors and actresses draw creeps like dead
fish do flies… The SMP and the Garde tend
to look the other way if one of these
overzealous fans gets roughed up as a
warning.
He’ll pay their fee of $20 a day plus expenses
without question. They can start looking for
the man, but also should probably talk to Han
Mei, first.
Scene 2: Tianyi Studios
The film studios of Tianyi are in Chapei — a
sprawling collection of large buildings and
fake streets to shoot movies in. There are
performers in costumes of Chinese folklore or
modern clothing; flats with scenery painted
on them; riggers, grips, crew members doing
carpentry. Getting onto the studio grounds is
easy; Peele and Chu do a lot of contract
work for the studio, keeping issues from
developing for their stars, providing Han Mei
protection, or other services. (If the players
chose characters not connected to Peele & ATTRIBUTES:
Chu, they may have to have make a Body: 2 Charisma: 3
connections check or bribe the guard.) Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 2
Strength: 2 Willpower: 2
They can easily get in to see Andrew Tighe, Secondary Attributes:
the assistant to Mr. Runme Shaw (real name Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 4
Shao Renmei), to ask about Han Mei and the Initiative: 4 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
stalker situation. Ordinarily, Shaw would be Health: 4
present to talk to them, but he is in Canton
with his brother, Run Run Shaw, setting up SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
the Nanyang Studio in Hong Kong. Con 2 CHA 5
Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
Tighe has not been informed of any fans Performance
going beyond the usual love letters and gifts Acting 2 CHA 5
that many of their stars receive. It is not Singing 2 CHA 5
uncommon — as they well know — for
some viewers to imagine a connection with
their performers that isn’t there. He will get Howard Lin
them onto the set where Han is filming to
ask her about the situation. ATTRIBUTES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
The movie is a lightweight romantic farce, Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 2
the kind of film Tianyi tosses out quickly for Strength: 2 Willpower: 2
the Chinese and general Asian markets. Han Secondary Attributes:
Mei is making a name for herself in these B Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 4
films for her excellent comedic timing. The Initiative: 4 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
director is in the process of blocking a scene Health: 4
in a nightclub set that does an credible job of
looking like a generic high-class joint in SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
Shanghai, save for the missing fourth wall, Athletics 2 STR 4
the lighting overhead, and the wall being Brawl 1 STR 3
cheap flats. Carpenters are putting the Con 2 CHA 5
finishing touches on the sets, and the grips Diplomacy 1 CHA 4
are adjusting lighting. Han Mei and her co- Gambling 1 INT 3
star, Howard Lin, a Chinese-American that Performance
came to Shanghai because he couldn’t find Acting 2 CHA 5
work in the States, are at the craft table, Singing 1 CHA 4
grabbing tea. Other extras are milling about.
When they introduce themselves, Han has
heard of them, and when she finds out

!86
they’ve been hired by Jimmy, she will remark
that she “wishes he hadn’t done that…” She
doesn’t want any undue attention, right now,
as she is vying for a role in one of Tianyi’s
signature historical costume dramas set in
mythic China. Lin will also take an interest in
the conversation and her safety, but she will
shoo him off and want to take the
conversation to her dressing room. It is
obvious that there’s some history between the
two, but that Han also doesn’t want him
involved.
Once alone, she will confirm that Denister
has been sending her flowers and trinkets. It’s
not an uncommon thing, but he started
showing up at the nightclubs she and Jimmy
frequent, and once turned up a store she was
shopping at. As for the intruder on their
grounds, neither she nor Jimmy got a good
look at the person, so she can’t say it was
him.
Locke, is a third-generation Shanghailander.
The business has been around since 1872,
according to the sign outside. The place is
noisy and very busy with dozens of people
working on the large floor.
He will confirm that Denister works for them,
is a good employee who turns up on time and
has never given them any trouble. He’s an
American from California (he thinks) and he
suspects that man came out to Shanghai to get
away from trouble back home…but that’s a
common enough story in this city. They will
have to convince him to give up anything else
beyond that. If they tell him why they are
looking for him, he will not be overly
surprised. Denister strikes him as a lonely
fellow, a bit of a dreamer. He doesn’t want his
man injured; he needs all his mechanics
working.
Karl Denister

If they get the sense she was holding back and ATTRIBUTES:
get a successful test to question her, she will Body: 2 Charisma: 2
reveal that it could have been someone Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 2
interested in Jimmy’s business. His real estate Strength: 2 Willpower: 2
business means he deals with a lot of people Secondary Attributes:
connected to Du Yuesheng, the head of the Size: 0 Move: 4 Perception: 4
Green Gang. The mobs have a lot of money
plowed into Chapei. That brings a lot of other Initiative: 4 Defense: 4 Stun: 2
kinds of attention. Health: 4

Scene 3: Locke Maritime Repairs SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

Athletics 2 STR 4
Working the docks with take a day or so, and Brawl 1 STR 3
they will find that Denister is actually a Craft,
mechanic who works for a small company, Mechanics 3 INT 5
Locke Maritime Repairs, all along the
waterfront, from the Bund to Woosung.
Locke’s business address is in a Yangtsepoo If they wait around, they can easily make
warehouse converted into a machine shop, contact with and bribe another worker to
just off of Broadway, only a few minutes point him out when he comes back from his
walk from the riverfront. The owner, Morris job on a freighter. Denister is a smallish man

!87
and not a bad-looking fellow, but he has a sad
air to him. He’s also not looking for trouble,
so they can easily catch him off-guard on his
way to his apartment in a shikumen building
in Hongkew, north of the Soochow Canal and
not far from the Japanese quarter.
He will deny stalking her, or being a threat;
he loves her! It’s an old story, and one they’ve
heard before. They can attempt to intimidate
him by threat or violence, and he will promise
to leave her alone.
Afterward, they can report the contact to
Ming by telephone and he’s glad to hear it.
He wants to keep them on retainer for a few
more days, just in case it doesn’t take.
Scene 4: Peele & Chu Agency
Two days later, they are reading the Evening
Post and Mercury about the death of actress
Han Mei, who was discovered by her maid
this morning savagely murdered with a knife
in the New Concession home she shares with
real estate agent Ming Jin. Jin was detained
for questioning on returning to his home. The
reporter has learned that Ming was alleged to
have been gambling all night with business
associates.
The characters will be visited shortly
afterward by a detective from the French
Concession, Edouard Martin. He is in charge
of the Han investigation and Ming is the most
likely suspect. Most murders of this sort are
the spouse or lover. The house was turned
over like a robbery gone bad. They will need
to work with Ming to see if anything is
missing. He claimed to be with some business
associates all night. They have corroborated
his alibi, but they are also gangsters…so
there’s that.
!88
However, he understands that they were
working for Ming investigating a man who
might be of interest to his case — an
American named Carl Denister. He wants to
get a sense of the man. could he have
murdered a woman in cold blood, do they
think? (He doesn’t seem the type, but these
obsessed fans can be unpredictable.)
He is going to have to go through the
Shanghai Municipal Police to get him
questioned. This will take some time, and
there are all sorts of jurisdictional issues.
Since it is their client who is currently cooling
his heels in the main station, perhaps they
might see fit to find and escort this man into
the Concession? (Technically, that’s
kidnapping, but once he’s in French territory,
Martin is sure that won’t be an issue.)
They are still taking Ming’s money…
Scene 5: Locke Maritime Repairs
They can run over to Yangtsepoo to look for
Denister. His boss, Locke, read the news
about Han Mei in the Shanghai Times. Do
they really think Carl did this? He’s never
showed any signs of violence or temper. He
also didn’t show up for work this morning.
Scene 6: Denister’s Apartment
Denister lives on the third floor of a
shikumen, and as they tromp up the steps,
they will encounter a pair of Oriental men,
dressed in decent suits, on their way down.
They will brush past, but what were they
doing up here?
If they question them, they will be told
brusquely to mind their business. They call
them gaijin…that’s Japanese, not gweilo, like
the Chinese might. If they press it, the men
will fight, but only to escape to a waiting A pair of Chinese SMP constables arrive to
1934 Ford which conveniently doesn’t have secure the scene and question them, but they
its license plate. are quickly replaced by a Japanese SMP
detective, Inspector Haru Togomi. Togomi
will press them on the identity of the men
Mooks they saw — they’re positive they were
Japanese and not Chinese? Why were they
ATTRIBUTES: here? The suicide note seems to wrap this up
Body: 3 Charisma: 2 quite neatly. Their client will be off the hook.
Dexterity: 2 Intelligence: 2 Case closed. He tells them will continue to
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3 look into the matter, of course, but that’s not
Secondary Attributes: the impression they get.
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 5
Initiative: 4 Defense: 5 Stun: 3 Scene 7: Lokawei Police Station
Health: 6
They head for the French Concession to pick
SKILLS LVL BASE RATING up Ming. The station is a neo-classical pile
Athletics 2 STR 5 near the Zhoujiabang canal. They will find
Brawl 2 STR 5 that Sir Victor Sassoon’s lawyer has already
Firearms 2 STR 5 relayed Inspector Togomi’s findings and paid
Melee 2 STR 5 the bail, and Ming is being released on his
Stealth 1 DEX 3 own recognizance. Ming will want an update,
but Detective Martin wishes to speak to them.
Martin will invite them to come to the house
If they rush upstairs, they will find Denister, afterward.
lying face down in a puddle of vomit in the
kitchen/main room. A cup and tea pot are on Martin was looking over Togomi’s report and
his small dining table (with a single chair) just wants to confirm what happened in
and a suicide note, expressing his love for Hongkew. They saw two men leaving the
Han Mei and his remorse at stabbing her. On apartment but were unable to identify them?
the kitchen stove, there is a kettle, tea bags, If they state they were Japanese, he will not
and a small bottle of rat poison. be surprised. The Hongkew stations are
notorious for looking the other way when
What are they into!?! They can either leave their people are involved. If they relate the
the scene, or call the SMP and report the facts, he will ask them: Do they think
murder. If they want to get their client out of Denister was killed by yakuza? And why set
jail, the second option is probably the best him up for the murder of Han? Perhaps the
way to go. Besides, they were seen coming up two are unrelated — Denister kills Han,
here; it would look suspicious if they don’t commits suicide and is found by these men,
call it in. Denister doesn’t have a telephone, or they kill him and make it look like a
so they’ll have to toss a few coins at a local suicide for an unrelated reason? Or perhaps
street urchin to run to the Hongkew Station. their client hired the Japanese to kill Denister
and make it look like he killed Han. Was there
someone else?

!89
But that’s just conjecture at this point, and it
doesn’t take one thing into account. During
his survey of the Ming household, Martin
noted the house had been turned over.
Whoever had killed Han was also searching
the house, but for what? Mr. Ming was
unhelpful in this regard. He trusts they will
keep him apprised of any information
important to his investigation.
Scene 8: Ming’s House
Jimmy Ming is beside himself in the house.
His office and their bedroom — the floor still
stained with her blood covered with flies —
were ransacked by the assailant. What is
going on? If they bring up the Japanese angle,
he will tell them he doesn’t deal with the
Japanese unless Sassoon specifically asks him
to; it’s a matter of honor. The Japanese
invaded China, annexed Manchuria illegally.
He’d never treat with them!
He can’t think of anything he’s into that the
yakuza would be after him. And Mei? She
was an actress. What would they want with
her?
At some point, they should bring up the
possibility she was cheating on him, he will
be angry, but if pressed — she did have a
relationship with Howard Lin, but that was
while they were having an argument. He
threatened to throw her out and break it off,
and she tossed Lin aside. Ming will consider:
maybe Lin did it?
It might be worth looking into. The other
option is to follow up with Togomi, but if he
is covering for the yakuza, or whoever did
this, is there really a point? (If they try, he
will be singularly unhelpful.)
Scene 9: Tianyi Studios
!90
It’s getting late in the afternoon by the time
they can go question Lin at the studio in
Chapei. They will again be taken to meet with
Andrew Tighe. The production has been shut
down, but fortunately, they are insured. The
studio won’t incur much loss, but replacing
Han Mei will be difficult.
If they ask, he knows there were rumors that
Lin and she had a thing, but that it cooled
quickly. Losing her sugar daddy might have
been enough. She was close to the big money
in the Shanghai cinema, but not just yet. He
can’t see Lin killing someone over being
jilted.
They will get his address, however. He’s in
the very swanky, just opened Park Hotel on
Bubbling Well Road.
Scene 10: Park Hotel
Just across the street from the Sporting Club
and the large Recreational Grounds — from
which they can hear the sounds of people
cheering the horse racing — is the tallest
building in Shanghai: the fabulous Art Deco
Park Hotel. Two hundred five of the most
expensive apartments in the city, and the
rooftop dining room is already one of the top
restaurants.
The doorman will inform them that Mr. Lin is
not receiving visitors. He is most firm about
not providing them his room number, or
allowing them access. He is also not stupid
enough to allow them to go up to the
restaurant (but will allow them to patronize
the Grand Orient Grill on the ground floor.)
If they wait in the grill or in their car, they
will eventually see the actor leaving about six
in the evening. When they approach him,
however, they will be attacked by men in the
same ’34 Ford, but this time they’ve gone
Chicago on them, firing a Thompson from the
back seat as they drive by!
Lin is hit, but not severely. They can retreat
into the lobby and wait for the police, or give
chase in their car. The police should be here
swiftly. They can do first aid and try to get
Lin to talk before the cops show up.
Scene 11:
This time, they get one of the Reserves, a sub-
inspector named Rainey, and a Sikh sergeant
named Singh. Both men are armed with
pistols, but seem pretty confident.
Rainey will question them and in about the
attack, but it’s obvious that Lin is holding
something back. Worse, a call from
headquarters tells Rainey that Inspector
Togomi is coming to take over. If they notice,
this had Lin terrified. Can they get him to
spill it?
Can they convince Subinspector Rainey to go
over Togomi's head? Rainey is suspicious that
one of their detectives is bent, as the Japanese
cops are notoriously harsh on crime…but if
this ties to the death of Denister and Han,
that’s a lot of jurisdictional nonsense. He will
place a call to the Central Station and finds
out that Superintendent Fairbairn is coming to
take over. The old man is a legend in
Shanghai — with hundreds of gun and knife
fights under his belt, he is arguably the most
dangerous man in the most dangerous city in
the world.
And he doesn’t like people firing automatic
weapons on a busy street.
If they get Lin to talk he will tell them that his
relationship with Han started during their last
!91
comedy together. She was having a rough
patch with Ming and he took advantage. For
him, it really wasn’t much of anything, and
she was just using him to punish Ming for his
own indiscretions. But that wasn’t why she
broke it off. She found something while at his
old apartment. Something she shouldn’t have.
He was packing to move and she came across
some papers…
…papers that prove he’s a Japanese spy. They
got into him due to his gambling debts. The
kempeitai bought his debts from one of the
bookies, and they’ve been pressuring him to
get as much from his friends in the Green
Gang as he can. If they find out, they’ll kill
him. If the Japanese don’t first!
He had to do something…she was going to
talk! He had his Japanese associates kill her.
Since he knew about the Denister man, he
figured that he solve his problems by putting
the frame Denister or Ming for her murder.
The man that has been his handler is Akira
Hanada. He’s kempeitai, but he’s posing as a
banker with the Imperial Bank of Tokyo.
When Fairbairn arrives, he can take Lin into
protective custody while they move him to
the hospital. He won’t stay there long,
however, he’ll be extradited to the French
Concession for processing, but under the
Concession Treaty, he’ll be transferred to
Chinese authorities for trial. As a Japanese
spy, Fairbairn doubts the man will live long
enough to see the inside of a prison.
As for Hanada, that’s a matter for the SMP. If
the Japanese don’t spirit him out of the city
before the police find him, but treaty they’ll
have to hand him off to the Japanese consular
courts. Good luck getting them to convict one
of their own spies.
It’s a raw deal, but this is Shanghai…
Scene 12: Peele and Chu Agency
The next day, Ming has arrive to settle up
with them and get their report. He’s relieved
that they got to the bottom of it. With three
different groups of police, he doubted it could
have been done. It’s a shame that nothing will
happen to this Hanada, and that the murderers
are unlikely to be found, if they’re even still
in Shanghai.
Scene 13: Pearl of the Orient
The evening, following a tough couple of
days, the characters can grab a drink at one of
the better cabarets in town. The fancy art
deco-meets-faux “authentic” Chinese decor
place has an excellent black American jazz
singer, backed by a competent band of
Russian musicians. The statuesque Russian
servers and dancing girls make this a popular
Characters
The following pre-generated characters were designed to allow the players to jump right into the
action with some connection to the setting. They were created using the Hollow Earth Expedition
and Secrets of the Surface World sourcebooks.
!92
place for the military types.
While there, they will receive a bottle of real
French champagne, complements of the
house. Accompanying it is the owner, Roland
“Boss Banana” Kessik — allegedly an
illegitimate half-brother to the famed
Kesswick brothers.
The bottle is complements of some of the
other guests, and he will gesture toward the
table of wealthy gangsters headed by “Big
Eared” Du Yuesheng, himself. Their hard
work saved their friend Jimmy Ming from
charges, and rooted out a Japanese spy ring. If
they mention that the Japanese are unlikely to
turn over their spy, Kessik will tell them to
check the papers. The unfortunate Lieutenant
Hanada had a fatal car accident just this
evening with a delivery lorry.
This is, after all, Shanghai…

John Peele

Known as “the serious one” of the detective Con 2 CHA 4

agency, John Peele is an American national Diplomacy 2 CHA 4
who came to the city with his father, a Ford Drive 2 DEX 5
salesman, while still a boy. He was educated Firearms 2 DEX 5
at the American School and was a policeman Investigation 2 INT 5
in the International Settlement for several Linguistics 2 INT 5
years, before quitting over a corruption Martial Arts,
investigation that was squashed to become a Defendu 3 DEX 6
private detective with another policeman, Stealth 2 DEX 5
Harold Chu. Streetwise 2 CHA 4

He is married to Angela Peele, a former RESOURCES & TALENTS:

actress and member of the agency. He is Contacts 2: +4 social tests with the Shanghai
always impeccably dressed and professional Municipal Police.
in demeanor. Wealth 2: $500/mo. income

PRIVATE DETECTIVE FLAWS:

Motivation: Money Nationality: American Curious

ATTRIBUTES: LANGUAGES:
Body: 2 Charisma: 2 English (native), Mandarin
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3 WEAPONRY:

Colt 1911A1 .45 pistol
Secondary Attributes: Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 7L Range: 50’
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 6 Capacity: 7(m) Rate: M Speed: A
Initiative: 6 Defense: 5 Stun: 2
Health: 5 Style: VEHICLE:

Ford Model 48
SKILLS LVL BASE RATING Size: 2 Def: 4 Str: 8 Spd: 80 Han: 0
Athletics 2 STR 4 Crew: 1 Pass: 4
Bureaucracy 1 INT 3
Police 4

!93
Howard Chu

A native Shanghailander, he is the youngest SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

of eight children. His father works for Jardine Acrobatics 3 STR 6
Matheson as a clerk. He joined the Shanghai Athletics 2 STR 5
Municipal Police after the death of his mother Bureaucracy 1 INT 3
a bystander in a drive-by shooting between Con 2 CHA 5
rival gangs. Diplomacy 2 CHA 5
Firearms 3 DEX 6
He is a cheerful man, who uses his good Investigation 2 INT 4
humor to put suspects off-guard. Under that Linguistics 2 INT 5
smile, however, is a man capable of real Martial Arts,
violence. He was a member of Fairbairn’s Kung Fu 3 STR 6
Special Branch, and is a skilled martial artist. Stealth 2 DEX 5
Streetwise 2 CHA 5
Chu is the friendly face of the Peele & Chu
Detective Agency. He has no clue how to RESOURCES & TALENTS:
drive, preferring to bum a ride or catch a Agile
rickshaw. He prefers a Colt Model 10 with a Contacts 2: +2 social tests with the Shanghai
snub-nose barrel and the trigger guard cut off. Municipal Police and the Chinese business
community.
PRIVATE DETECTIVE Wealth 2: $500/mo. income
Motivation: Truth Nationality: Chinese
FLAWS:
ATTRIBUTES: Addiction, tobacco
Body: 2 Charisma: 3
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2 LANGUAGES:
Strength: 3 Willpower: 3 Mandarin (native), English

Secondary Attributes: WEAPONRY:


Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 6 Colt Model 10 .38 revolver
Initiative: 6 Defense: 5 Stun: 2 Damage: 3L Attack Rating: 7L Range: 50’
Health: 5 Style: Capacity: 6(r) Rate: M Speed: A

!94
Angela Peele

The daughter of a British customs clerk and a SKILLS LVL BASE RATING
Shanghailese socialite, Angela is half- Acrobatics 2 DEX 5
Chinese. She was schooled at the McTyerie Con 2 CHA 6
School for girls, and at the age of 16 became Diplomacy 2 CHA 6
a actress for the Tianyi Studios, mostly during Investigation 1 INT 3
light comedies. Linguistics 2 INT 4
Performance
Her light blue eyes, mahogany-colored hair, Acting 1 CHA 5
and Chinese features made her famous around Singing 1 CHA 5
town. She acted under the name Angela Chen, Stealth 2 DEX 5
although her maiden name was Stephens. She Streetwise 1 CHA 5
left the industry after marrying Peele, a
private detective who was doing security for RESOURCES & TALENTS:
the studio at the time. Attractive
Contacts 2: +4 social tests with the Shanghai
Enticed by the idea of action and adventure film industry.
(for real!), she cajoled him into letting her Fame 1: +2 social tests in China
join the agency. Her contacts with the film
industry are very useful in their work. FLAWS:
Curious
PRIVATE DETECTIVE Impulsive
Motivation: Escape Nationality: British
LANGUAGES:
ATTRIBUTES: English (native), French, Mandarin
Body: 2 Charisma: 4
Dexterity: 3 Intelligence: 2 WEAPONRY:

Strength: 2 Willpower: 3 Colt “Pocket” .32 pistol
Damage: 2L Attack Rating: 5L Range: 50’
Secondary Attributes: Capacity: 8(m) Rate: M Speed: A
Size: 0 Move: 5 Perception: 6
Initiative: 6 Defense: 5 Stun: 2
Health: 5 Style:

!95
Guo Pin

Guo Pin is known around town as hutong RESOURCES & TALENTS:

mao or “the alley cat.” She is a street urchin Finesse Attack and Defense, Kung Fu
that somewhere along the way got involved Kip Up: Can get to her feet as a reflex action
with the a small gang called the Canal Boys. Refuge 1: She always has some bolt hole to
She is a master of disappearing into the hide.
scenery — no one notices another dirty,
young Chinese street girl around Shanghai. A FLAWS:
master con artist and pickpocket, when caught Criminal
she is a handful. Illiterate
Something to Prove
Harold Chu used her as an informant after
arresting her a few years back, and brought LANGUAGES:
her on with the agency after he left the force. Mandarin (native), English (bad)
She is their top surveillance person and has
really mastered the art of photography. WEAPONRY:

Length of Chain
PRIVATE DETECTIVE Damage: 1N Attack Rating: 5N
Motivation: Escape Nationality: Chinese **Can entagle

ATTRIBUTES: VEHICLE:
Body: 2 Charisma: 2 Bicycle
Dexterity: 4 Intelligence: 2 Size: 0 Def: 6 Str: 4 Spd: 12 Han: +2
Strength: 2 Willpower: 3 Crew: 1 Pass: 1

Secondary Attributes:
Size: 0 Move: 6 Perception: 5
Initiative: 6 Defense: 6 Stun: 2
Health: 5 Style:

SKILLS LVL BASE RATING

Acrobatics 2 DEX 6
Athletics 2 STR 4
Con 3 CHA 5
Investigation 2 INT 4
Linguistics 1 INT 3
Martial Arts,
Kung Fu 3 DEX 6
Melee 2 STR 4
Stealth 2 DEX 6
Streetwise 2 CHA 4

!96