Marshall, General George M.: United States chief of staff during World War II who came to China in 1945 to arrange a ceasefire between Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Tse-tung.
Morrison, George Ernest ‘Chinese’: Geelong-born physician who became famous as The Times correspondent in Peking during the fall of the Manchu Dynasty and later joined President Yuan Shi-kai as political adviser only to die of pancreatic cancer in England in 1920.
Morrison, Ian: Peking-born son of ‘Chinese’ Morrison, who was a correspondent for The Times in World War II and who warned the West that Chiang Kai-shek would lose to the Communists. Killed in the Korean War in August 1950.
O’Hara, Dr William ‘Bill’: Captain-surgeon with the 7th Light Horse at Gallipoli, he built a successful medical practice in Shanghai and developed a reputation as one of the city’s biggest gamblers.
Proud, John: Former Royal Australian Navy officer who came to Shanghai as a secret agent to open talks with Chou En-lai aimed at preserving Britain and Australia’s interests following the Communist takeover. According to recently declassified files in the National Archives of Australia, Proud and his wife Roberta were wrongly suspected of being Communists.
Raymond, Alan Willoughby, Wynette Cecilia McDonald and John Joseph Holland: The treacherous trio who founded the Independent Australia League in Shanghai and who made anti-Allied broadcasts for the Japanese during the Pacific War. Raymond and McDonald went even further: Raymond spied for Japanese naval intelligence and McDonald concocted a plot to smuggle pro-Nazi propaganda material into Australia.
Rasmussen, Dr Otto Durham: Australian-born eye doctor who treated Chinese patients, including child factory workers, for trachoma and other ophthalmic diseases for 30 years and who became one of China’s most outspoken defenders with his book What’s Right with China.
Riley, (Frank) Basil: Rhodes Scholar and son of the Archbishop of Perth, who was murdered by Chinese soldiers in 1927 while reporting the civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists for The Times.
Smedley, Agnes (a.k.a. Marie Rogers, Agnes Brundin, Alice Bird, Alice Reed and Mrs Chattopadhyaya): Left-wing American journalist who was born in poverty on a tenant farm in Missouri and raised in mining camps in Colorado. Suspected of being a Comintern agent, she refused to join the American, Indian or German Communist parties and was denied entry into the Chinese Communist Party. She wrote on China for The Guardian and other newspapers, and her memoir Battle Hymn of China concerned her experiences with the Red Army.
Smith, (Addie) Viola: American diplomat and lover of Eleanor Hinder who was responsible for helping many Americans evacuate Shanghai at the outbreak of the 1937 war.
Snow, Edgar ‘Ed’: American author of Red Star over China, the first book about the Chinese Communists which he wrote after interviewing Mao Tse-tung and Chou En-lai in Yenan.
Snow, Helen Foster (a.k.a. Myn Wales, also known as Peg): Left-wing American writer and wife of Edgar Snow.
Soong, Ayling (Song Ayling): Eldest of the three Soong sisters and wife of H. H. Kung. She was noted for her corrupt financial dealings.
Soong, Charles Jones: Methodist preacher, businessman and father of the six Soong children (three girls and three boys). He was one of Sun Yat-sen’s main supporters until Sun married his middle daughter Chingling.
Soong, Mayling (Song Mayling): Youngest of the Soong sisters who entered into an arranged marriage with Chiang Kai-shek. With W. H. Donald’s help, she became an international symbol of China’s resistance to the Japanese.
Soong, Chingling (Song Qingling): Middle Soong daughter who married Sun Yat-sen and supported the Communists against Chiang Kai-shek.
Soong Tzu-wen (T. V. – Song Ziwen): Eldest of the three Soong sons, he was an ambitious financier and banker who rose to become China’s foreign minister and negotiate huge loans with the United States.
Sorge, Richard: Handsome Comintern agent sent to Shanghai in early 1930 to gather intelligence and foment revolution. He was later Stalin’s most successful spy in Japan although Stalin refused to believe his reports that Hitler was about to invade the Soviet Union. Captured by the Japanese and hanged.
Stilwell, General Joseph: American supremo in the China, Burma, India (CBI) theatre in World War II who clashed repeatedly with Chiang Kai-shek and was finally sacked by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Stokes, Henry: Australian chargé d’affaires in postwar Shanghai who tried unsuccessfully to have the Australian collaborators arrested.
Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan): The ‘Father of the Chinese Republic’ who asked W. H. Donald to write his manifesto for the Kuomintang and who later formulated the Three Principles of Democracy. Became the first president of China in 1912 but was forced to hand over to the warlord Yuan Shi-kai, heralding the start of the Warlord Era. Died in 1925 without ever realising his dream of a united China.
Taylor, Ruby: Proprietress of the Peter Pan School in Shanghai who hired Wynette McDonald and caught her spying.
Timperley, Harold John: Australian correspondent of The Guardian in China who reported on the Rape of Nanking and worked hard to alleviate the hardship of Chinese refugees.
Tong, Dr Hollington: Graduate of Columbia University who became China’s minister in the United States at 27 and later head of the Ministry of Information during the Sino-Japanese War.
Tu Yeuh-sheng (Du Yeusheng, a.k.a. Big-Eared Du): Boss of the Shanghai Green Gang (Qingbang), who helped Chiang Kai-shek wipe out trade unionists and left-wing agitators in the anti-Communist purge of 1927.
Tzu Hsi (Cixi): The Dowager Empress who became the de facto ruler of China under two emperors, one of whom she probably poisoned.
Venn Brown, Rose: Australian businesswoman and Red Cross worker who witnessed much of the fighting during the Chinese Civil War in the 1920s.
von Puttkamer, Baron Jesco: Head of German propaganda in Shanghai who turned down an offer from Wynette McDonald to smuggle German propaganda material into Australia.
Walker, Brigadier George: Salvation Army officer who was arrested and tortured by the Japanese for refusing to make pro-Japanese broadcasts on Shanghai radio.
Wang Ching-wei (Wang Jingwei): Chiang Kai-shek’s rival for control of the Kuomintang and puppet ruler of China under the Japanese. Suffering from diabetes, he died in Japan of natural causes on 10 November 1944.
Yuan Shi-kai: Chinese general who became president of the Chinese Republic in 1912 and who then attempted to restore the monarchy with himself as emperor.
Provinces:
Anhwei – Anhui
Kiangsu – Jiangsu
Chekiang – Zhejiang
Kirin – Jilin
Fengtiang – Lioaning
Kwangsi – Guangxi
Formosa – Taiwan
Kwangtung – Guangdong
Fukien – Fujian S
hansi – Shanxi
Honan – Henan
Shantung – Shandong
Hopeh – Hebei
Shansi – Shaanxi
Hupeh – Hubei
Shensi – Shaanxi
Kansu – Gansu S
inkiang – Xinjiang
Kiangsi – Jiangxi
Szechuen – Sichuan
Cities and towns:
Amoy – Xiamen
Chengtu – Chengdu
Anking – Hefei
Chihli – Zhili
Canton – Guangzhou
Chinkiang – Zhenjiang
Chapei – Zhabei
Chungking – Chungqing
Chefoo – Yantai
Dairen – Manchuli
Chengchow – Zhengzhou F
oochow – Fuzhou
Hangchow – Hangzhou
Saianfu – Xiangyang
Hankow – Hankou
&nb
sp; Shasi – Jinsha
Huashan – Hwasang
Sian – Xian
Kalgan – Zhangjiakou
Soochow – Suzhou
Kiukiang – Jiujiang
Swatow – Shantou
Kuling – Guling
Tientsin – Tianjin
Mukden – Shenyang
Tsinan – Jinan
Nanking – Nanjing
Tsingtao – Qingdao
Newchwang – Yingkou
Wenchow – Wenzhou
Ningpo – Ningbo
Whangpoo River – Huangpu
Pakhoi – Beihai River
Peitaiho – Beidaihe
Wusih – Wuxi
Peking (Peiping) – Beijing
Yunnan – Kunming
Port Arthur – Lushan
Yangtze River – Yanzi
The ‘Big Four’ department stores
Sincere – Xianshi
Wing On – Yong’an
Sun Sun – Xinxin
Sun Company – Daxin
Dollar values in Imperial China were quoted as ‘dollars mex’ after the Mexican silver dollar. The Chinese yuan was introduced in 1889 at par with the Mexican peso. In 1914, the Silver Dollar was established as the currency of the Republic of China. To make matters more complicated, the tael, equivalent to one ounce of silver, was the currency for banking and wholesale transactions for rentals and taxation (and indemnities) prior to 1935.
In November 1935 the fapi was introduced as a national currency and the circulation of Silver Dollar coins was prohibited to prevent the drain of silver from China. Most prices after that date were expressed in fapi or Chinese dollars. The present currency of the People’s Republic of China is the Renminbi (RMB), with the units Yuan and Jiao (1 Yuan = 10 Jiao).
The currency denoted by the $ sign in this work is the Chinese currency at the time. American dollars are represented as US$. No differentiation is made between pounds sterling and Australian pounds.
Distances and altitudes in the narrative have been expressed, where practicable, in (rounded) metric units; but in quotations from other works, the original units have been retained.
The displacements of ships – expressed in tons – are not converted because of the difficulty of knowing whether long (UK) or short (US) tons are referred to. A similar difficulty applies in the difference between British and international knots in referring to a vessel’s speed.
Metric equivalents:
1 inch = 25 millimetres
1 foot = 30 centimetres
1 yard = 0.914 metre
1 mile = 1.6 kilometres
1 pound = 0.45 kilograms
1 long (UK) ton = 1.016 tonnes
1 short (US) ton = 0.907 tonne
1 acre = 0.4 hectare
1 knot (distance in sea miles travelled in one hour) = approximately 1.85 kilometres per hour
Chapter 1: Barbarians
1 Bonavia and Hayman, p. 37
2 The Third Principle is often given as ‘people’s livelihood’ rather than the more pejorative ‘socialism’
3 Lindsay, H. H. and Karl Gutzlaff, ‘Report of Proceedings on a Voyage to the Northern Ports of China’, House of Commons, London, 1834
4 Hugh White, ‘Power Shift: Australia’s future between Washington and Beijing’, Quarterly Essay, Issue 39, 2010
5 ‘Davidson, Walter Stevenson (1785–1869)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966
6 ‘Union Insurance Society of Canton: 100 years of continuous progress’, The Times, 11 July 1935
7 Blake, p. 18
8 Asiatic Journal, December 1839. Walter Davidson left China in 1822 to invest his ill-gotten gains in Australia and Britain. He increased his land holdings in the Australian colonies and became a large investor in and director of the Australian Agricultural Company. He also imported Saxon merino sheep for his properties, notably the 5000-acre (2024 ha) property ‘Collaroi’, on the River Krui near Cassilis in NSW. His connections with Australia continued until his death in 1869. ‘Davidson, Walter Stevenson (1785–1869)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966
9 Deane, p. 47
10 British opium was grown in India, American opium in Turkey
11 Craddock, p. 6
12 Professor Griffith Taylor, ‘Shanghai and its environs’, Sydney Morning Herald, 5 March 1927
13 The Courier, Hobart, 25 November 1842
14 Crossley, The Wobbling Pivot, p. 80
15 Blake, p. 104
16 Murphey, p. 15
17 Douglas M. Peers, ‘Balfour, Sir George (1809–1894)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
18 George Lanning, A History of Shanghai, 1923, p. 134
19 Blake, p. 125; Hibbard, p. 289. The Ewo Building is now no. 27, The Bund
20 J. H. Haan, ‘Origin and development of the political system in the Shanghai International Settlement’, University of Amsterdam, undated
21 Wright, Arnold (senior editor), in Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong, Shanghai etc, p. 62
22 Keswick, p. 21. Jardines inherited ‘Ewo’ from one of its Cantonese compradors, the old hong of Howqua. Ewo also served as its China brand for beer and other products.
23 Crossley, The Wobbling Pivot, p. 82
24 Hibbard, p. 289
25 Foldout illustration of The Bund in 1849 in The Model Settlement (Shanghai Mercury editors, Shanghai, 1893)
26 Andrews, p. 4; Bickers, The Scramble for China, pp. 160–1
27 Deane, p. 55
28 Fenby, China, p. 19
29 Spence, God’s Chinese Son, p. 325
30 Hsu, p. 245
31 Ibid, p. 236
32 Henriot, p. 207
33 Crossley, The Wobbling Pivot, p. 102
34 Begley, p. 30
35 ‘A morning stroll through Shanghai’, Sydney Morning Herald, 3 March 1858 (reprinted from The Times of 15 December 1857)
36 Ibid
37 Rasmussen, The Reconquest of Asia, p. 319
38 The History of The Times, Volume 2: The Tradition Established, The Times, 1939, p. 292
39 ‘The statement of Mr Parkes’, The Times, 29 December 1860
40 Bonavia, p. 84.
41 ‘The War in China’, The Times, 15 December 1860, quoting the Overland China Mail of 29 October 1860
42 ‘China: The peace of Peking’, The Times, 28 December 1860
43 Warner, p. 61
44 Spence, China Helpers, p. 74
45 Victor Hugo letter to Captain Butler, 25 November 1861 (‘The Sack of the Summer Palace’, UNESCO Courier, November 1985)
46 ‘Visit of the rebel forces to Shanghai’, New York Times, 17 November 1860
47 ‘Visit of the rebel forces to Shanghai’, New York Times, 4 September 1860
48 ‘Visit of the rebel forces to Shanghai’, New York Times, 17 November 1860; Crossley, The Wobbling Pivot, pp. 112–3
49 ‘Progress of the Taiping Rebellion towards Shanghai’, The Argus, 27 December 1861
50 Hibbard, p. 217
51 Spence, God’s Chinese Son, p. 300
52 Mrs Archibald Little, Li Hung-chang, p. 17
53 ‘Visit of the rebel forces to Shanghai’, New York Times, 17 November 1860
54 Sir Halliday Macartney was related to Lord Macartney, the first British envoy to China in 1793 whose mission ended in humiliation and failure.
55 Mrs Archibald Little, Li Hung-chang, p. 24
56 Spence, God’s Chinese Son, p. 305
57 Warner, p. 79
58 ‘General Gordon obituary’, Syd
ney Morning Herald, 12 February 1885
59 Fairbank, The Great Chinese Revolution, p. 106; Fenby, China, p. 27
60 Spence, God’s Chinese Son, p. 325
61 ‘The Ever Victorious Army’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 October 1868
62 All About Shanghai, p. v
63 ‘China’, The Times, 12 September 1864
64 The Vagabond, ‘Chinese Sketches’, The Argus, 17 September 1881
65 Spence, God’s Chinese Son, p. 311; Carr, p. 97
66 Murphey, p. 11; Tales of Old Shanghai, p. 27
67 ‘China and Japan’, Hobart Mercury, 29 March 1865
68 Murphey, p. 7
69 The Vagabond, ‘Chinese Sketches II’, The Argus, 8 October 1881
70 John Fitzgerald, Big White Lie, p. 87; ‘Tomb of Ching rebel found in Hong Kong’, China Daily, 17 November 2004
71 John Fitzgerald, ‘Chinese Masons in Australian history’, Trans-National History Symposium, ANU, Canberra, 2004; Rodney Noonan, ‘Grafton to Guangzhou: The revolutionary journey of Tse Tsan Tai’, Journal of Intercultural Studies, Volume 27, Issue 1 & 2, February 2006
72 Crossley, The Wobbling Pivot, pp. 116–7
Chapter 2: Distorted Images
1 Andrews, pp. 5–6
2 Ibid, p. 47
3 John Fitzgerald, quoting Taiwanese scholars Liu Daren and Tian Xinyuan, 2004
4 John Daniel Fitzgerald, ‘A Celestial Gentleman’, in Ethel Turner (editor), The Australian Soldier’s Gift Book, 1918
5 John Fitzgerald, ‘Chinese Masons in Australian history’, Trans-National History Symposium, ANU, Canberra, 2004
6 Tse, p. 6
7 Ibid, p. 7. Tse calls this organisation ‘the Chinese Independence Party of Australia’.
8 Ibid, p. 6; Pearl, p. 280
9 Tse, p. 7
10 Margaret Tart, The Life of Quong Tart, pp. 1–2
11 John Fitzgerald, Big White Lie, p. 113; Willard, pp. 26–7
12 E. J. Lea-Scarlett, ‘Mei Quong Tart (1850–1903)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, pp. 234–5
Shanghai Fury Page 48