The famous Shanghai Bund

My dead pixels, format, book was a modest 325-pages which included appendices and a glossary. It had a US 2018 copyright.

Paul French is a British journalist and author. He is the author of eight (8) books on eastern Asia. This was the first book I’ve read by the author.

Firstly, this book was listed as non-fiction. In the book’s Preface, the author states that, “City of Devils is based on real people and events”. In several respects it fails to conform to the standards of a history book. In general, there was not a proper description of sources. For example, there was no proper: footnoting, bibliography, or index. In addition, there appears to be a considerable amount of historical license in the narrative. Vivid descriptions of certain events contain details that could not have survived in the historical record. I considered this book to be Historical Fiction, despite its publicity.

Secondly, a familiarity with the Eastern Asian history of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century would be helpful. This includes the western trader and missionary “opening” of China (The Opium War), and the 2nd Sino-Japanese War leading into the early months of the Pacific War.

In addition, readers may experience some culture shock from some of the almost 100 year old description of events.

TL;DR Summary

The backbone of French’s narrative was a traditional chronological account sketching the historical characters and the events of the frantic heyday of the Anglo-demimonde attached to western colonialism in Eastern Asia and peripherally in South-East Asia between the mid-1920’s and the early 1940’s. The geographical focus of this story was the international treaty port of Shanghai. Shanghai was called, The Paris of the East during this period, which included The Roaring 20’s and the Great Depression. The story’s protagonists were two, historical, gangsters, Joe Farren and Jack Riley who rose through different paths to become wealthy, notable, figures in the city’s demimonde. Some chapters pause the action, to provide illustrative and in some cases Illustrated, historical newspaper articles to supplement the narrative. The story ends with the Japanese occupation of the city’s foreign concessions in late 1941 shortly after Japan’s declaration of war on the US.

The effect of reading this book was a very concentrated form of edutainment . Properly its historical, crime fiction with very detailed world building. It can’t be considered a history book due to the purposeful addition of embellished details and unnoted content by the author.

The Long Review

French is a good writer. The narrative was entertaining. The writing had an exclusive 3rd Person POV, although at times it was objective and others it was omniscient. Descriptions of the players, the Shanghailese lifestyles of the rich and famous and the Anglo hoi polloi, the criminal activity, and the activity of law enforcement were clear. I generally found his narrative was imaginative and in places amusing. It had a rather hard-boiled feel to it. For example, he used the Shanghai vernacular in his narration. That was a mishmash of: Shanghainese (a Chinese dialect), Yiddish, English early 20th Century gangster-ese, French, German and Russian.

The story contains: sex, drugs, gambling, Jazz music and violence. In general French described them in a modern, edgier version of 1920-30’s hardboiled. The sex was not graphic. Urban Shanghai and its Chinese hinterland were patriarchic cultures. Much of it involved, prostitution, “Kept Women”, and the generally loose morals of Anglo show business folks. Sex was not all heteronormative. Paraphilia was also described. There were a large number of functional drug addicts as well as alcoholics in the story. Drug usage and abuse was pervasive. Quite a few rackets involved the smuggling and their distribution. These included: opium, heroin, cocaine, and the abuse of pharmaceuticals. Amphetamines were more popular than barbiturates. The antique product names seemed quaint. (Benzedrine was registered in 1936.) I noted that alcohol usage among the characters was at the high-levels I’ve come to think of during the period. Gambling was a pervasive theme in the story amongst all races. I recognized some of the music mentioned that was played in the Shanghai clubs, bars, and casinos. Life was cheap in certain parts of Shanghai and for a long period it abutted a war zone. Also, gunrunning was a racket that contributed, particularly in the early 1940's to the lawlessness described. Violence was moderately graphic, but not disturbing. (I may have a high tolerance.) It included: edged weapons, physical, firearms usage and weapons of mass destruction. Torture was graphically described. Body count was near genocidal.

There were no: maps, diagrams, or charts used to describe Shanghai at the time of the book. There were no photographs provided in the book either. (A picture can be worth a thousand words.) These omissions reinforce my opinion that this was a work of fiction and not a history.

US Army Shanghai Map produced by the 1930's garrison

The narrative was mostly from the perspective of Farren and Riley. Both men were expatriate chancers who had changed their identities when finally arriving in Shanghai. Farren was an Austrian Jew escaping the European fascism. He was a “hoofer” who worked his way up over several years; first as traveling, dance troupe, show manager, and later a nightclub owner. Riley was an American, ex-Marine and escaped convict. He was a “hard man” who worked his way up over several years; first as muscle, then a bar owner and finally through cornering the slot machine gambling concession in Shanghai. Over several years they gravitated toward each other through the complicated shifting network of Shanghai: Chinese, western foreign, underworld elements and eventually the Japanese secret police and their stooges. They partnered more than once with each other with similar ill effects in casino gambling and drug running operations that eventually placed them in the highest echelons of the Shanghai demimonde. The zenith of their influence coincided with the Japanese investment of the city.

While the story was truly entertaining for its hardboiled crime genre aspect, I thought French missed a lot of opportunity with the historical aspects of the story. There was a no sustained sense of what life was like for the Chinese population of Shanghai. This included the very rich Chinese who were near-equals to the white taipans, rubbing elbows with them in Shanghai’s business and entertainment venues; the powerful triad gangsters; and the peasants who performed all the services and provided staple supplies needed to keep the concession operating. There was likewise a void in the story of the Japanese players. The Japanese military secret police, the Kempeitai’s (similar to the Nazi's Gestapo) crude machinations, their minions and Japanese sympathizers abetted both Farren and Riley’s success and fall. They were faceless. In general, this book remained very much a white man’s story.

However, I did come away with good grasp of the Shanghai-kulture and the late history of the trade concession.

The trade concession had a very weak central government and little regulation by intent. It was a peculiar form of internationalism. This allowed for an unfettered exploitation of the labor and physical resources of Shanghai's hinterland. The capital for these industries and the resulting trade was controlled by a very wealthy, white foreign and Chinese elite. The city was awash in wealth, although it was concentrated in a small part of the population. They were the one percenters of their time. Their surfeit of money provided for luxuries and services for a luxurious lifestyle for the few. The larger foreign white and Chinese population of Shanghai suffered a meager trickle down from this.

A large, Chinese and white foreign demimonde sprung-up around this wealth, weak international government and a culture of corruption. Pass times and addictions that would never be condoned in the native countries of the trade concession were available. What happens in China, stays in China. The demimonde also supported rackets such as: gambling, controlled substances, human trafficking, and gunrunning in export/import operations with China and the western concession countries. For example, opium and heroin were exported and unregistered firearms were imported.

When the Imperial Japanese army's progress in conquering China arrived at Shanghai, they drove off the Nationalist Chinese and invested the city. They then setup conditions to siphon-off the city's wealth and further weaken its structure by creating a plausibly deniable siege. This soft siege was so as not to arouse the western partners in the concession. The wealth of Shanghai went into the personal fortunes of the Kempeitai's leadership and to finance Japan's continuing war on China. (As a part of this, is where Farren and Riley saw their greatest success.) The movement of people and goods was constrained. Fuel and food became scarce in Shanghai. This caused great hardship during the winter months. Businesses in the Japanese occupied hinterland were subjected to arbitrary and extortionate "taxes". Fortunately for the Kempeitai, their greed and corruption finished leaving Shanghai picked clean, at almost the same time Imperial Japan declared war on the concession's primary western powers, the USA and Great Britain.

Summary

This was a peculiar hybrid of a book. I've never read anything like it.

This book contains some good crime writing. Its historical aspect used for world building is also deep. A reader with an interest in Eastern Asian history of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century, particularly the 2nd Sino-Chinese War would gain additional context. However, its history is deeply flawed. This reader could not always be certain of the fact from fiction within the narrative. I personally thought that I had to discard a large portion of the book's historical aspect and to just enjoy it as fiction.

Still, this would be a good read for an interested and prepared reader. Most books set in Asia at this time period focus on Hong Kong or Singapore. Those also don’t adopt the crime genre perspective. I enjoyed the difference and I was entertained. I am putting French’s Midnight in Peking: How the Murder of a Young Englishwoman Haunted the Last Days of Old China, a similar book on my to read list.