Du Yuesheng - Biography - Rise To Power

Rise To Power

Du was soon introduced by a friend to "Pockmarked" Huang Jinrong, the highest-ranking Chinese detective on the French Concession Police (FCP) and one of Shanghai's most important gangsters. Huang's wife was a notable criminal in her own right, and took a shine to the young Du herself (some say their relationship was sexual). Even though Huang was not a Green Gang member, Du became Huang's gambling and opium enforcer. A stickler for fine clothing and many women, Du Yuesheng was now cemented; he wore only Chinese silks (a superstitious streak meant he also had three small monkey heads, especially imported from Hong Kong, sewn to his clothes at the small of his back), surrounded himself with White Russian bodyguards, and frequented the city's best nightclubs and sing-song houses.

Du's prestige led him to purchase a four-storey, Western-style mansion in the French Concession and entertain dozens of concubines, four legal wives and six sons, but his meteoric rise as Shanghai's most famous mobster only came after Huang Jinrong was arrested in 1924 by the Shanghai Garrison police. Huang had publicly beaten the son of Shanghai's current warlord, and his arrest required Du's diplomacy and finances to get him released. He stood down almost immediately after his release, turning his criminal empire over to Du, who became known as the "Jung-shi" (宗師) or "Boss of the Underworld." Du now controlled gambling dens, prostitution and protection rackets, as well as setting up a number of legitimate companies including Shanghai's largest shipping corporation and two banks. With the tacit support of the police and colonial government, he also now ran the French Concession's opium trade, and became heavily addicted to his own drug.