My Hollow Earth Expedition campaign has been zipping along nicely the last few months. Set in Shanghai in late 1936, the characters have come together to find a legendary mellified man. In preparation, I did a little research on the city, some people of importance — including some of the major players in the Kuomingtang based in nearby Nanking.

Central is the Qing Bang or Green Gang — supported by the Kuomintang, the Nationalist government of China, but is itself rent by internal divisions based on politics — some are outright communists, some lean left, some are firmly in the camp of General (and president of the KMT) Chang Kai Shek. The leader of the Qing Bang is Du Yuesheng, or “Big Eared” Du. He is mainly concerned with smuggling weapons, drugs (especially opium and heroin) into China. Profits are shared with the KMT. Big Eared Du’s point of contact in the KMT leadership is the intelligence chief, Dai Li.

The Green Gang is influential throughout Shanghai, but it’s grip is weakest in Hongkew, the northeast section of the city, where the Japanese intelligence service and the Japanese squad of the Shanghai Municipal Police is strongest. They operate pretty much unopposed in the “old” Chinese City, where the native SMP officers are sympathetic. It is, in 1936, the single most-dangerous city in the world.

The Green Gang has its hooks into many of the cabarets and “singsong” houses on the northern edge of the Old City and seeding the neighborhood between the Avenue Edward VII and Nanking Road to the north, and along the Foochow Road. Off of Ave. Edward VII is the infamous “Blood Alley” a place where bodies were regularly dumped. they also acted as Nationalist intelligence agents and assassins, frequently clashing with communists (mostly along the Avenue Admiral Joffre, and the Japanese.

The most raucous night is Thursday — the day the American troops get paid.

Some of the big cabarets: Ciro’s, Paramount, Majestic (owner, Mr. Wong) and it’s neighbor Little Club (very popular with the USMC.)  Caveau Montmartre is owned by a Corsican admiral who was chief-of-staff for Wu Peifu. The second string were the Palais Cabaret, ‘Frisco, Mumms, Crystal, George’s Bar, Monk’s Brass Rail, New Ritz.

Attempting to keep the peace is the Shanghai Municipal Police — 4756 men, 457 in Foreign Branch, 558 in Sikh Branch, 258 in Japanese. These officers live an existence that is close to ’70s TV cops show violent…shoot-outs, fist fights, riots, spies, and other dangers lurking around every corner.  They are often at odds with the Nationalist-run City of Shanghai government, and corruption in the force, particularly the native contingent, is endemic.  SMP is supposed to concentrate on the International Settlement.

Leading the force is Commissioner Frederick Wernham Gerrard (until 1938).  Already (in)famous is William E Fairbairn, the 55 year-old assistant commissioner of the Reserve Unit — a first-rate squad that is the model for later SWAT teams. He is the creation of defendu, a martial art that is one part karate, one part aikido, and one part dirty tricks. (He would later train British special forces in WWII and invent the Sykes-Fairbarin knife.) By this time, he had been in over 500 reported gun, knife, and fist fights. He’s still here, and most of the city knows you don’t go directly against him. His top sniper is Eric A Sykes (also designed the knife), who is a part-time member of the “Specials”, but his day job is as a manager at SJ David & Co. Last of the big names in the SMP is the huge and dangerous Dermot “Pat” O’Neil, who would later aid in training American OSS officers.

The ranks of the SMP in order of hierarchy from the bootom: Constable, Sergeant, Sub-Inspector, Inspector, Chief Inspector, Superintendent, Ass. Commissioner, Deputy Commissioner, and Commissioner.  The stations:  Central on Foochow Road, Kouza on Nanking Road, Bubbling Well Road Station, Gordon Road, Chungdu Road, Pootoo Road, Hongkew and West Hongkew, Yangtszepoo, Wayside, Arnold Road, Yulin Road, and Dixwell Road.

A few of the major figures in the Nationalist government: Chiang Kai-Shek, the “Generalisimo” is head of the KMT in the 1920s. He only speaks Chinese. Also very influential, especially with the American government, is Soong Mai-Ling, his third wife — a charming and intelligent woman who other members of the Cabinet attempt to exclude when they can. William Henry Donald is an Australian newspaperman who is sometime friend, sometime interpreter, and sometime agent for Chang and his wife. Other members of her family circle the leadership, like Kung Hsiang-Hsi — sometime finance minister and prime minister, who is married to Soong Ailing (Chiang’s sister in law.) Soong Ailing is the oldest Soong girl.  Greedy and corrupt, she used her husband’s position to get rich. Soong Qingling is the middle Soong girl who was married to Sun Yat-Sen, the original head of the Nationalists.

General Chen Cheng is Chang’s chosen successor, although he has compeition for the favors of the generalisimo from the “Christian General” Feng Yuxiang (who has good relations with the European diplomats in Shanghai) and General Fu Zuoyi, who is usually in the north fighting the communists.

Very active and militant is the influential Minister of War He Yingqin, who makes power grabs whenever he can, but usually gets slapped down. He wants to hit the rebels that kidnap Chang Kai Shek for a few months in December 1936, and who Lady Chang jockeys to stop from getting Chang killed in foolish retaliation.

Zhang Xueling (The Young Marshal) — Controlled Manchuria until 1931 when the Japanese took it. Has been working his way back into power & will kidnap Chiang at Xi’an in December 1936.

Hu Hanmin chairs the legislative Yuan in Nanking and is often looking for a way to ingratiate himself to the generalisimo…or whoever looks to be getting the upper hand.

Mao Zedong — Leader of the communists in Jiangxi.

Wang Jingwei — KMT politician and potential heir to Sun Yat-Sen.  Also a Japanese collaborator.

Zhang Jongjiang  (Curio Chang) — Shanghai businessman who buys curios.

A good place to look for more, including maps of the city is the website Tales of Old Shanghai.