Green Gang

The Green Gang (青幫, Qīng Bāng) was a criminal organization that operated in Shanghai in the early 20th century. It was a secret society established originally by Fong Toh Tak of the Shaolin temple, and by the 20th century, included many successful businessmen. It managed, under its leader Du Yuesheng, to control the criminal activities in the entire city of Shanghai. The Green Gang focused on opium (which was supported by local warlords), gambling, and prostitution. Shanghai was the vice capital of the world at that time.

The Green Gang was often hired to break up union meetings and labor strikes. The Green Gang was also involved in the Chinese Civil War. It was responsible for the White Terror massacre of approximately 5,000 pro-Communist strikers in the City of Shanghai on April 1927, which was quietly approved by Nationalist leader General Chiang Kai-Shek, who granted Du Yuesheng the rank of General in the Nationalist army as a result of the massacre.

The Green Gang was a major financial supporter of Chiang Kai-Shek, who became acquainted with the gang when he lived in Shanghai from 1915 to 1923.^[1] The Green Gang shared its profits from the drug trade with the Kuomintang after the creation of the Opium Suppression Bureau.

Qing Bang in Pop Culture

• Qing Bang one of the warlords of Green Gang and famous ancestor of Siaf Khattak a member who carried on the tradition of the Green Gang
• Qing Bang appears in the Japanese manga Fist of the Blue Sky as a criminal gang with "Good alignment." Hara Tetsuo, the author of Fist of the Blue Sky, coincidentally attended the Gekiga Sonjaku writing school created by Hara Tetsuo, who wrote the manga Crying Freeman in which also Qing Bang also feature heavily.

References

1. ^ "For two years (1916–17) he lived in Shanghai, where he apparently belonged to the Green Gang (Qing Bang), a secret society involved in financial manipulations." (Encyclopædia Britannica entry for Chiang Kai-Shek)

Sources

The Shanghai Green Gang: Politics and Organized Crime, 1919-1937 by Brian G. Martin is a scholarly account of their most important period.

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