Policing Shanghai, 1927-1937

✍ Scribed by Frederic Wakeman

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 527
• Edition: Reprint
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Prewar Shanghai: casinos, brothels, Green Gang racketeers, narcotics syndicates, gun-runners, underground Communist assassins, Comitern secret agents. Frederic Wakeman's masterful study of the most colorful and corrupt city in the world at the time provides a panoramic view of the confrontation and collaboration between the Nationalist secret police and the Shanghai underworld.

In detailing the life and politics of China's largest urban center during the Guomindang era, Wakeman covers an array of topics: the puritanical social controls implemented by the police; the regional differences that surfaced among Shanghai's Chinese, the influence of imperialism and Western-trained officials. Parts of this book read like a spy novel, with secret police, torture, assassination; and power struggles among the French, International Settlement, and Japanese consular police within Shanghai.

Chiang Kai-shek wanted to prove that the Chinese could rule Shanghai and the country by themselves, rather than be exploited and dominated by foreign powers. His efforts to reclaim the crime-ridden city failed, partly because of the outbreak of war with Japan in 1937, but also because the Nationalist police force was itself corrupted by the city.

Wakeman's exhaustively researched study is a major contribution to the study of the Nationalist regime and to modern Chinese urban history. It also shows that twentieth-century China has not been characterized by discontinuity, because autocratic government-whether Nationalist or Communist-has prevailed.

✦ Table of Contents

Policing Shanghai 1927–1937
CONTENTS
AUTHOR'S NOTE
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
1— THE CONTEXT
1— Law and Order
Perceiving Crime and Disorder
Crime and Entertainment
Crime and Extraterritoriality
2— From Constabulary to Police
Early Reform Efforts
The Issue of Gentry Control
3— Foul Elements
Organizing Crime
Huang Jinrong, Criminal Boss and Police Chief
Opium and Criminality
Opium and Rule
2— NEW POLICING CONCEPTUALIZATIONS
4— Policing the New Civic Order
Creating a New Civic Order
Reorganizing the Police Administration
Civic Funding of Reform
Professionalizing the New Police
Creating "Modern," Rationalized Structures
Modernizing for Mastery
5— Asserting Sovereignty through Policing
Policing by the Shanghai Municipal Police
Controlling the Extra-Settlement Roads
Reclaiming Sovereignty on the Roads and in the Courts
A Reformed Public Security Bureau to Rule Everyone
6— Crime and Social Control
Perceptions of Crime
The Public Security Bureau and Crime Control
Refugees and Vagabonds in the New Civic Society
Police Paternalism and Social Control
3— ORGANIZED "CRIME"
7— Vice
Gambling as Entertainment and Crime
Chinese Efforts to Control Gambling
Chinese Organization of Leisure and Gambling
Prostitution in Shanghai
Chinese Prostitutes
8— Narcotics
Playboys, Gangsters, and Warlords
The Reorganization of Crime
Crime and Politics
Policing the Opium Trade
9— Reds
Policing as Political Control
New Collaborations—The PSB and the SMP
Imperialism and Anti-Communist Policing
Intelligence Gathering as Part of Shanghai Life
The Noulens Affair
The Gu Shunzhang Affair and the White Terror
Aftermath of the Gu Shunzhang Affair
Law Enforcement Alliances
4— IMPLICATIONS OF POLITICAL CHOICES FOR POLICING
10— Making Choices
Contradictory Pressures
The Political Threat of Dissent
New Police Collaboration to Control Dissent
Questions of Legality in Policing Dissent
The PSB's Shifting Priorities
Advent of the Japanese
Governmental Chaos
Choosing a Position Regarding the Japanese
Intelligence Efforts against the Japanese
11— The Impact of the Japanese on Municipal Policing
Japanese Control of Shanghai
Removing Du from the French Concession
The End of the Puppet Police
Resumption of Chinese Authority
12— A Second Chance: The Administration of Mayor Wu Tiecheng
Visions of Shanghai's Future
Elite Alliances for Governance
Anti-Communist Collaboration
Suppressing Anti-Japanese Protest
5— THE LIMITATIONS OF THE NEW CIVIC ORDER
13— The New Life and National Salvation Movements
Renewed Police Reform
The New Life Movement
National Revival and Fascism
Annei Rangwai
14— Nationalizing the Police and Making Criminality Respectable
Local Control and a National Police System
The Impact on Shanghai
Creating a Secret Police
Expansion of the Shanghai Station
Criminal Respectability
Intermingling Criminality and Patriotism
15— Criminalizing the Government
Chiang's Drug Policy
Double-Dealing with Chiang's Government
The Fujian Rebellion and Mayor Wu's Survival
Drug Use and the New Life Movement: The "Six Year Plan"
Japan's Role in the Drug Trade
CONCLUSION
Resolutions
The Citizens' Militia
The End of an Era
TABLES
APPENDIXES
Appendix One— Shanghai Public Security Bureau Regulations for Eradicating ''Huahui" Lotteries 1927–1...
Appendix Two— Shanghai Municipality Peace Preservation Corps in December 1932
Appendix Three— The Shanghai "Silver Orgy" and the Effect of the Great Depression on Shanghai's Poli...
REFERENCE MATTER
Abbreviations
Notes
Chapter 1— Law and Order
Chapter 2— From Constabulary to Police
Chapter 3— Foul Elements
Chapter 4— Policing the New Civic Order
Chapter 5— Asserting Sovereignty through Policing
Chapter 6— Crime and Social Control
Chapter 7— Vice
Chapter 8— Narcotics
Chapter 9— Reds
Chapter 10— Making Choices
Chapter 11— The Impact of the Japanese on Municipal Policing
Chapter 12— A Second Chance
Chapter 13— The New Life and National Salvation Movements
Chapter 14— Nationalizing the Police and Making Criminality Respectable
Chapter 15— Criminalizing the Government
Conclusion: Resolutions
Appendix 3
Bibliography
Photo Section
Glossary-Index
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