Paul Bevan is the one of the most prominent scholars of early 20th-century Shanghai and it’s thanks to him that English language readers have learned of the contributions of Chinese illustrators, writers, publishers and other artists in late-Qing and Republican-era Shanghai. A few years ago, he translated a novel titled The Adventures of Ma Suzhen: An Heroic Woman Takes Revenge in Shanghai. This novel was originally written in the early 1920s, but takes place several decades before that.
Bevan now has a new translation of the prequel, Murder in the Maloo, written by two novelists, Qi Fanniu and Zhu Dagong. Bevan goes above and beyond typical translation work and provides 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.
The story of Murder in the Maloo is loosely based on real events. Ma Yongzhen is a horse trader and accomplished martial artist from Shandong who travels down to Shanghai in 1878 to sell horses to an interested party. Once Ma arrives in Shanghai, he engages in a series of adventures typical of Shanghai novels of the early 20th century even though his story takes place several decades earlier. As Bevan points out in his introduction, sometimes the authors bring the 1920s Shanghai into their narration, which Bevan put into 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 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 a 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.
The original Chinese novel’s title translates to “Ma Yongzhen: A Historical Romance”. Bevan explains in his introduction why he used the title Murder in the Maloo. The English translation of maloo is “horse road” and it’s a euphemism for Nanking Road in the International Settlement, where Ma Yongzhen gets into a deadly fight, as indicated in the title of the book. At the end of the book in his essay on changes to the text, Bevan writes that the teashop where the real Ma Yongzhen was murdered was reported in the North-China Herald to be on the Maloo, but in both the novels about Ma Suzhen and Ma Yongzhen, the teashop is located on Pakhoi Road, the current Beihai Lu. The title Bevan chose for this English translation stays true to the sensational adventure stories of Qi Fanniu and Zhu Dagong’s era.
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.