Three Major Underworld Gang Leaders

The gangs in modern China were the product of the contradictions in the semi-feudal and semi-colonial society. As the gathering point of the contradictions in the semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, Shanghai's gangs were the largest in scale and the most rampant in their activities. They reached an unprecedented level in the history of Chinese gangs and had a particularly profound impact on society. Shanghai gangs began to flourish after the Opium War when Shanghai was opened as a port and the concessions were established. They developed and took shape during the Revolution of 1911 and reached their peak in the 1920s. Afterwards, when Shanghai was liberated in 1949, Shanghai gangs gradually declined and disappeared. The rise and fall of gangs in Shanghai is almost consistent with the modern history of Shanghai and is connected with the history of semi-feudal and semi-colonial society in modern China. The rise and appearance of a historical figure is naturally inseparable from the era in which he lived. In a sense, it was the social nature and social environment of old Shanghai, the invasion of colonial forces and the coexistence of various political forces that promoted the development of modern gangs and created underworld gang leaders such as Huang Jinrong, Du Yuesheng, and Zhang Xiaolin.