Exploring Shanghai’s Literary Heritage: Murder in the Maloo

//by Susan Blumberg-Kason//

April 2025 Book Club selection. Paul Bevan, who translated the novel, will join us for the discussion on April 27. To book, click here.

Paul Bevan is the one of the most prominent scholars of early 20th-century Shanghai, and it is thanks to his works like A Modern Miscellany and ‘Intoxicating Shanghai’ that English-language readers have learned of the contributions of Chinese illustrators, writers, publishers, and other artists in late-Qing and Republican-era Shanghai. Bevan is also an adept translator, bringing English-language readers early 20th century adventure novels The Adventures of Ma Suzhen: An Heroic Woman Takes Revenge in Shanghai, published in 2021, and last summer, the prequel, Murder in the Maloo: A Tale of Old Shanghai, from Earnshaw Books.

Murder in the Maloo, by Qi Fanniu and Zhu Dagong, was written in the 1920s. Loosely based on real events, it tells the story of Ma Yongzhen, a horse trader and accomplished martial artist from Shandong who travels down to Shanghai in 1878 to sell horses. Once Ma arrives in Shanghai, he embarks on a series of adventures typical of early 20th century Shanghai popular fiction, even though the story is set several decades earlier. From time to time, the reader is brought back to 1920s Shanghai, identified in the text with italics:

Fair reader, the Shanghai of forty years ago was nothing like as lively as it is now. The area around the British Nanking Road did not yet bustle with excitement and the area around North Nicheng Bridge had yet to be leveled out. 

The narrators also–helpfully–start each chapter with a two-line summary of what’s to happen in the pages that follow. Most chapters also start with a quick recap of what happened in the previous chapter and each chapter usually ends with a teaser for what’s to happen next. This style of storytelling works well with the large cast of characters and Bevan does a great job of relaying the lighthearted tone of the narrators. Qi Fanniu and Zhu Dagong wrote the original novel together, Qi penning the first half and Zhu the second. Instead of subtly transitioning from one author to the other, the narration pauses to inform the reader of this change.

In the first volume, Mr Qi Fanniu told us about the fight in the teashop between Ma Yongzhen and Scrofulous Bai, which resulted in everyone being arrested and taken down to the police station. Gentle reader, please do not grumble that Mr Qi Fanniu has been in some way remiss, by leaving you in suspense. It is simply due to a question of length that the first volume had to end where it did. The author is aware that you, oh, gentle reader, are anxious to read about what happens next. Therefore, I have taken the liberty of continuing to write the story, blow by blow.

Perhaps because the plot undergoes a shift when Zhu Dagong takes over or maybe the style of the authors differs a little, but when this change in authors/narrators happens, the story takes on a more somber tone. From the excerpt above it’s evident that Ma Yongzhen has gotten into trouble. When he travels down to Shanghai from Shandong, he finds a city full of adventure and frequents teahouses, gambling establishments, and courtesans in the red light district, painting a portrait of 19th century underworld Shanghai.

The original Chinese novel’s title translates to Ma Yongzhen: A Historical Romance, but in his introduction to the book, Bevan explains that he selected the title Murder in the Maloo to better reflect the story. The title itself comes from a newspaper article in the North-China Herald on Ma’s death, which occurred at a teashop on Nanking Road. The English translation of maloo 马路 is “horse road,” which in 1870s Shanghai meant Nanking Road, the International Settlement’s major thoroughfare. In the novel, though, the teashop is located on Pakhoi Road (Beihai Lu). The title Bevan chose stays true to the sensational adventure stories of Qi Fanniu and Zhu Dagong’s era.

Bevan goes above and beyond typical translation work, providing a comprehensive introduction and an essay at the end to further explain the story. There’s also a list of characters, an appendix, a note on the language, and a short essay on changes to the text.

While the story of Ma Yongzhen is not a complicated one, Bevan’s translation of the original novel, along with the supplementary material he includes in his book, provides a unique look into early 20th century Shanghai literature that is sure to be a treat for anyone interested in Old Shanghai.

Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China, Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong and When Friends Come From Afar: The Remarkable Story of Bernie Wong and Chicago’s Chinese American Service League.

First published in Asian Review of Books and used with permission.