grasshoppers, Russian caviar, Camembert cheese, and Hormel's soups.”
In order to negotiate her way, Harkness began to pick up the bastard language known as pidgin English, a trading tongue that mixed English, Chinese, Indian, and Portuguese and followed the pronunciation, idiom, and grammar of Chinese. Pidgin English solved one problem, that of basic communication, while creating another, making Chinese speakers seem simpleminded. According to the guidebooks, “Catchee one piece rickshaw” meant “get a rickshaw.” “Talkee my” was “Let me know.” “Chop chop” meant “quickly.” “How muchee?” was “How much is that?”
In all of her rambles, Harkness was never afraid, although some crimes, such as armed robbery, were so commonplace that Ralph Shaw, a British journalist in Shanghai, reported that they weren't worth coverage. Kidnappings too were so frequent that most wealthy Chinese employed bodyguards—often big, strapping Russians—for protection. There were “more gangsters in Shanghai than Chicago ever saw in the heyday of Capone,” Shaw claimed.
The headlines in the city's papers screamed of suicides and gruesome crimes, and while Harkness was in town, there were plenty. Within days of her arrival, an American military officer leaped to his death from her hotel. A Chinese man's head was found near the Moon Palace Hotel. And the headless, nude body of a Chinese woman was discovered chopped up and stuffed into a leather suitcase near the Shanghai Rowing Club.
Drugs, gambling, prostitution. Chinese gangsters in pinstriped suits carrying tommy guns. Triad bosses displaying long, opium-stained nails and wearing silk brocade gowns. International con men who found refuge in the city that didn't require a passport. Shanghai was a hideout for criminals of all countries. In this wild town, the top bad guys were colorful celebrities, with schemes that could exist only in Shanghai. Huang Jinrong, or “Pockmarked Huang,” not only ran the biggest racket going—the notorious Green Gang—he was also a high-ranking Chinesedetective with the French police. He and his associate Du Yuesheng, or “Big-Eared Du,” wielded power equally with municipal officials, gangster kings, and more. With their henchmen they were guns for hire in the massive political upheavals that would change China forever. When Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government wanted to teach a lesson to organized labor or Communists, Huang's bone breakers were called in.
Along with crime, there were ample doses of vice. Shanghai boasted the longest bar in existence. And by 1930, it possessed more prostitutes per capita than any other city in the world. Here, the most depraved people from all walks of life came to satisfy their urges. One particularly twisted warlord from Shandong Province, a six-foot-seven maniac with a shaved skull, loved to sweep into Shanghai surrounded by soldiers numbering in the thousands. Fond of decapitating enemies and posting their heads on telegraph poles, Chang Tsung-chang played as hard as he butchered. He was said to keep forty-two concubines, and he once sodomized a teenage boy during a dinner party as all the guests and singsong girls looked on.
Shanghai debauchery was legendary, but for the foreigners the city was not quite its lively self in the summer of 1936. Western residents traditionally decamped to cooler country places for the hot season, and the exodus was especially noticeable in this brutally steamy year. Harkness saw that “everyone who can afford to leaves Shanghai during July and August; they go to the hills, they go to Japan, they go North.” The deflated party scene, though, was of no consequence to her. Harkness had already begun losing interest in it all anyway. Something surprising was happening. As the hard-drinking dress designer became more and more intoxicated with China, she found herself indulging less and less in cocktails. She wanted to keep fit for the expedition, and she was
In order to negotiate her way, Harkness began to pick up the bastard language known as pidgin English, a trading tongue that mixed English, Chinese, Indian, and Portuguese and followed the pronunciation, idiom, and grammar of Chinese. Pidgin English solved one problem, that of basic communication, while creating another, making Chinese speakers seem simpleminded. According to the guidebooks, “Catchee one piece rickshaw” meant “get a rickshaw.” “Talkee my” was “Let me know.” “Chop chop” meant “quickly.” “How muchee?” was “How much is that?”
In all of her rambles, Harkness was never afraid, although some crimes, such as armed robbery, were so commonplace that Ralph Shaw, a British journalist in Shanghai, reported that they weren't worth coverage. Kidnappings too were so frequent that most wealthy Chinese employed bodyguards—often big, strapping Russians—for protection. There were “more gangsters in Shanghai than Chicago ever saw in the heyday of Capone,” Shaw claimed.
The headlines in the city's papers screamed of suicides and gruesome crimes, and while Harkness was in town, there were plenty. Within days of her arrival, an American military officer leaped to his death from her hotel. A Chinese man's head was found near the Moon Palace Hotel. And the headless, nude body of a Chinese woman was discovered chopped up and stuffed into a leather suitcase near the Shanghai Rowing Club.
Drugs, gambling, prostitution. Chinese gangsters in pinstriped suits carrying tommy guns. Triad bosses displaying long, opium-stained nails and wearing silk brocade gowns. International con men who found refuge in the city that didn't require a passport. Shanghai was a hideout for criminals of all countries. In this wild town, the top bad guys were colorful celebrities, with schemes that could exist only in Shanghai. Huang Jinrong, or “Pockmarked Huang,” not only ran the biggest racket going—the notorious Green Gang—he was also a high-ranking Chinesedetective with the French police. He and his associate Du Yuesheng, or “Big-Eared Du,” wielded power equally with municipal officials, gangster kings, and more. With their henchmen they were guns for hire in the massive political upheavals that would change China forever. When Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist government wanted to teach a lesson to organized labor or Communists, Huang's bone breakers were called in.
Along with crime, there were ample doses of vice. Shanghai boasted the longest bar in existence. And by 1930, it possessed more prostitutes per capita than any other city in the world. Here, the most depraved people from all walks of life came to satisfy their urges. One particularly twisted warlord from Shandong Province, a six-foot-seven maniac with a shaved skull, loved to sweep into Shanghai surrounded by soldiers numbering in the thousands. Fond of decapitating enemies and posting their heads on telegraph poles, Chang Tsung-chang played as hard as he butchered. He was said to keep forty-two concubines, and he once sodomized a teenage boy during a dinner party as all the guests and singsong girls looked on.
Shanghai debauchery was legendary, but for the foreigners the city was not quite its lively self in the summer of 1936. Western residents traditionally decamped to cooler country places for the hot season, and the exodus was especially noticeable in this brutally steamy year. Harkness saw that “everyone who can afford to leaves Shanghai during July and August; they go to the hills, they go to Japan, they go North.” The deflated party scene, though, was of no consequence to her. Harkness had already begun losing interest in it all anyway. Something surprising was happening. As the hard-drinking dress designer became more and more intoxicated with China, she found herself indulging less and less in cocktails. She wanted to keep fit for the expedition, and she was
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