https://youtu.be/fLyBaY7JjAs?si=jAm9sqwWb8OXp1sE
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/17Ko85Pw0Jr0pMin747aIj?si=e6630ac549654dad
Modern China was born almost accidentally, in part due to the collapse of the dynastic system which had ruled the country for millennia, but also as a consequence of the continual interference of external imperial powers and the fallout from the Great War. For its nominal assistance during the war, the 1919 Treaty of Versailles generously handed Japan all of Germany’s rights and possessions in China’s Shantung (Shandong) province, in accordance with agreements wrung from China by Japan under duress in 1915.
Since China had agreed to support the Allies during the conflict on the understanding that these territories would be returned to her if they were victorious, this patronizing insult galvanized Chinese intellectuals into action. The Peking (Beijing) demonstrations of May 4, 1919, led to the formation of the May Fourth Movement, used to describe the nationwide outbursts that followed. The movement not only launched the Chinese Communist Party but also revivified Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist KMT party. The two parties became implacable enemies as they grew in strength, and their internecine wars paralyzed China for the next half-century.
In July of 1926, Chiang Kai-shek finishes intricate negotiations and officially launches the military Northern Expedition, which is intended to vanquish local and regional warlords and to unify central China with Canton (Guangzhou) and the south. The effort meets considerable success, and Chiang takes Shanghai in March 1927.
Throughout 1926 and 1927 local fighting ravages Kiangsu (Jiangsu) Province, and great strikes rage in Shanghai, as well as in Hong Kong and Canton. In late 1927, Chiang attacks the Communist and leftist leadership, executing many of them. Among those barely escaping Shanghai is Chou En-lai, a future premier of China.
Originally a quiet backwater, Hong Kong rose to prominence as a result of British forces annexing the island in 1841, during the First Opium War. The Treaty of Nanking, which ended the conflict, ceded the island to the British in perpetuity. The rest of the Kowloon Peninsula soon followed as a result of its occupation during the Second Opium War, and the New Territories, the third and final part of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, was granted to Queen Victoria under a 99-year lease in 1898.
Hong Kong began to flourish under the British thanks to its status as a free port, and the colony grew slowly but steadily throughout the early 20th century on the back of trade and commerce; it also became a major financial center, along with Shanghai. Besides English, the main language spoken in Hong Kong is Cantonese.
Originally an undistinguished small city in Kiangsu Province, the British opened Shanghai to occupation and trade as a result of the Treaty of Nanking (1842), which brought a humiliating conclusion to the piratical opium wars, at least as far as China was concerned. First British, then French and American, representatives took possession of certain areas adjacent to the Chinese city. These areas of extraterritoriality, within which no Chinese law pertained, became known as “the concessions.”
In 1854, the three concessions formed the Shanghai Municipal Council (SMC) to jointly oversee their affairs. By 1863, the British and American Concessions had joined together to form the Shanghai International Settlement. The French Concession, directly between the British Concession and the old, original Chinese walled city, was never formally amalgamated, preferring to see to its own management. (When Japan later received a small concession in Shanghai, Chinese public opinion was much inflamed, for this opened up the prospect of further pillaging of the Middle Kingdom.)
Under the terms of extraterritoriality (frequently shortened to “extrality”), citizens of Britain, France, and the USA, along with those of the other favored treaty powers (Denmark, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Peru, Spain, and Switzerland) could only be tried under the laws of their native country, whether their crimes were committed in the concessions or not. Chinese citizens and those of non-favored treaty countries, such as Germany, were prosecuted according to Chinese law in local courts.
Together, the side-by-side French, British, and American zones formed the financial and industrial heart of the mushrooming city. By the 1920s, Shanghai had acquired two nicknames: “the Pearl of the Orient” and “the Paris of the East,” in honor of its opulence and decadence.
The Chinese adopted dollars, in the form of the yuan, as their official currency in the late 1880s. As a result, Mexican silver dollars are widely accepted, as they are in other locations around the world. Each yuan is split further into 10 jiao or 100 fen (cents). For game purposes, treat one British pound sterling as worth five US dollars or ten yuan (so one US dollar is the equivalent of two yuan).
Due to the chaotic nature of China’s infrastructure during the 1920s, national and regional currencies were minted, as were regional and national bank notes. While national coins and notes are accepted in most places, regional currency is valid only in the area it comes from.
Despite the fact that foreign powers held tight control over Shanghai, there were remarkably few actual expatriates living in the city. In 1923, out of 1.6 million Shanghai residents, slightly more than 20,000 were non-Chinese—mostly Japanese. (Cairo, in comparison, had 850,000 residents, of whom more than one tenth were foreign.) In Shanghai, the bosses may well have been European, Japanese, or American, but everyone else—shopkeepers, cab drivers, laborers, teachers, lawyers, etc.—was Chinese.