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Saturday November 7, 2009

Triads of the old Shanghai

MADE IN CHINA:BY CHOW HOW BAN


How a simple youth from Pudong rose to become a most feared gangland leader a century ago.

IN the spring of 1902, a greenhorn from a village in Pudong arrived at the bustling Shanghai Bund by boat. Carrying a letter of recommendation from his grandmother’s village friends, the 15-year-old boy walked west to the busy harbour of Shiliupu.

In high spirits, he moved through streets filled with shops and people as he embarked on his journey to become old Shanghai’s most powerful godfather.

Nicknamed “Big Ears Du,” Du Yuesheng is no stranger to Shanghainese who have either heard of him from the older generation or read about the mobster’s life story in school. Du represented the outrageous, brash and lawless world synonymous with the Shanghai of the 1920s and 30s which is perhaps most remembered by the world.

In his book Sin City, former North China Daily News journalist Ralph Shaw (1913-1996) described Du as the opium magnate wielding such power over an empire of crime as to outdo even Al Capone in Chicago.

Come back to where it all started: according to the Biography of Du Yuesheng by Yang Fan, at Shiliupu Du headed straight to the Hong Yuan Sheng fruit stall.

The stall owner took a look at the recommendation letter and Du’s slim figure, and hired him as a coolie.

Du was paid nothing for his work except two yuan (RM1) a month for trimming his hair and washing himself.

He went through his first acid test when his boss’ wife seduced him at his boss’ house. The woman who was not much older than Du intentionally changed her dress in front of him and coaxed him to fondle her.

But he knew he could not make any further move because his job would be at stake.

“Yuesheng, where are you? Come and carry the goods!” his peer Wang Guosheng suddenly shouted from the stall. Shocked and anxious, Du pushed away his boss’ wife, sprinted out to the stall and survived what could have been a disastrous start of his career.

After months of running between the harbour and fruit retail stores, Du learned the trade fast and became familiar with every nook and corner. But at the same time, he was exposed to the dark underworld of gambling, opium-smoking and prostitution that got him excited.

Du had a track record of trading off anything in his village house to gamble. Finally, he could not control himself and frequented the gambling dens whenever he got the chance.

One day, he walked out of a parlour winning some money, but several men from the parlour stopped him and beat him up. Then the saviour came calling: “Ah Gen, what are you doing?”

“Ah Jie (sister), please help me!” Du shouted. On hearing the woman’s instruction, the man called Ah Gen and his comrades stopped the beating.

“Nothing, nothing. I didn’t know that you actually know him,” Ah Gen told the woman who was fondly known as Da Ah Jie (Big Sister). Ah Gen, aka Gu Jiatang, later became Du’s bosom friend while Da Ah Jie, a senior prostitute, was not only the first woman Du had an affair with but also the matchmaker for Du and his first wife.

One-and-a-half years later, Du was fired by his boss and used his savings to open his own fruit stall. He banded with several brothers to do the business, and he would share whatever he earned with them and sometimes even endured hunger himself for them.

Soon Du discovered a better way to earn more money by robbing or stealing fruits coming to the harbour, before selling them in the streets and at teahouses, smoking houses and gambling dens.

He then met his other bosom friend Zhang Xiaolin, and they became business partners whose first deal was to protect a shipment of tinfoil paper from Hangzhou. But they did not anticipate the shipment to be the target of so many pirates, and Du and his men could not ward off the attack so lost all of the goods.

From the series of events that happened, Du deeply understood that to have a stronghold in Shanghai he not only had to have followers but also someone who could back him up. So he decided to join the Green Gang, one of the main underworld societies of old Shanghai of which he would rise to be leader.

After becoming a Green Gang member, Du reunited with his good friend Wang during his Hong Yuan Sheng fruitstall days. Wang just opened his own Pan Yuan Sheng fruitstall and roped Du in as his partner.

Determined to do well in the business, Du kicked away his habits of gambling and prostitution. But as the saying goes, it’s hard to change one’s innate nature; he started gambling again after meeting his old friend Gu.

The addiction and irregular sleeping hours and diet took a toll on Du, as he fell sick and became bedridden, leaving behind a big debt for Wang. But little did Du expect that Wang would be at his bedside when he woke up from a coma.

Du’s condition deteriorated until he was on the brink of death. Wang and other sworn brother, Yuan Shanbao, thought it was time to make arrangements for Du’s impending death.

“Yuesheng, do you have any family or relatives whom we can inform in your village to take care of you?” Wang asked. Du was an orphan and his grandmother died not long after he came to Shanghai; his closest relative was his aunt.

Wang brought the old woman out of the village to see Du. His aunt gave him some medicine made from tadpoles to drink, and it worked wonders as Du eventually got up and recovered from a long battle against illness.

Wang and Yuan saved his life, and Du knew that he would have to treat them well if he attained fame and wealth one day. Finally, Du’s life-turning point came when fellow Green Gang brother Huang Zhengyi introduced him to Shanghai tycoon Huang Jinrong, who would raise Du into a triad king and between them they would run the whole French concession.

The writer will continue the phenomenal story of Du Yuesheng and his rise from a servant to Huang Jinrong’s most reliable assistant, in future columns.

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