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Vorlage:Importartikel/Wartung-2024-11

Wang Lianying, a Shanghai courtesan, was killed on 9 June 1920.

Wang LianyingVorlage:Efn was a Chinese courtesan who was killed by Yan RuishengVorlage:Efn and his accomplices on 9 June 1920 outside of Shanghai in the Republic of China. Twenty-year-old Lianying had worked in Shanghai, known as the "Brothel of Asia", since 1916, gaining recognition as the "Prime Minister of Flower Country" during the 1917 courtesan election. Yan, meanwhile, was a university-educated youth deeply in debt due to his expensive habits and frequent gambling.

Seeking to escape his debt, Yan decided to rob Lianying, who was known to adorn herself with expensive jewellery. After some days gaining her trust, Yan convinced her to join him on a drive through the Shanghai countryside. On the trip, the pairVorlage:Sndash accompanied by Wu Chunfang and Fang RishanVorlage:Sndash stopped amidst a wheat field. The three men drugged Lianying with chloroform, after which she was strangled and her body dumped in an isolated location. Lianying's disappearance was noted later that night, and her body was discovered on 15 June. Investigators issued an arrest warrant for Yan four days later. In mid-1920, he was arrested at the Xuzhou railway station; based on his confession, Wu was detained soon after. Although Fang escaped, Yan and Wu were tried, convicted, and executed.

The killing of a famous courtesan by an educated man captured the imagination of Shanghai society. Newspaper coverage was extensive, lasting for months. By the end of July 1920, multiple books on Lianying and her killer had been published. Five theatre troupes staged performances based on the murder by the end of 1921, with a Pathé Orient pressing of arias from one Peking opera finding great commercial success. The case was adapted to film in 1921, with another retelling made in Hong Kong in 1938.

Background

Shanghai, a major port and the gateway to the Yangtze Valley, has long been a commercial hub and a crossroads of western and eastern cultures. In the mid-19th century, as China was experiencing extensive internal conflicts, the city saw an influx of migrants. Meanwhile, with its designation as a treaty port, Shanghai developed a sizable expatriate community.Vorlage:Sfn The city continued to grow rapidly through the 1890s and 1900s, with new factories and storefronts opening regularly.Vorlage:Sfn By the 1920s, the city was divided into three administrations: the Chinese city proper, the French Concession, and the predominantly British Shanghai International Settlement.Vorlage:Sfn Among contemporary Chinese, it had a reputation for modernity and cosmopolitanism, being a major centre of literary, filmic, and musical production.Vorlage:Sfn

In China, the practice of prostitution has historically been permitted,Vorlage:Sfn and at times licensed and taxed.Vorlage:Sfn Shanghai in particular gained a reputation as a centre of sex work, becoming known by the 1900s as the "Brothel of Asia";Vorlage:Sfn in 1915 some 9,700 women were active as prostitutes in the International Settlement.Vorlage:Sfn These women, known as "flowers" (Vorlage:Zhi) in Chinese and sing-song girls in English, ranged from well-respected entertainers to street prostitutes.Vorlage:Sfn The greatest beauties were lauded in guidebooks and tabloids regularly discussed the intricacies of the business.Vorlage:Sfn "Elections" of courtesans, based on their patrons' assessments of their singing prowess and beauty, were held sporadically from the 1860s through the 1910s.Vorlage:EfnVorlage:Sfn

Biographies

Wang Lianying

Wang LianyingVorlage:Efn was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, to a Manchu commander in the Plain White Banner and his wife.Vorlage:Sfn Her father died in her childhood, and Lianying's mother married the teahouse owner Wang Changfa.Vorlage:Sfn The family was rendered destitute following the 1911 Revolution, and Lianying dropped out of the girls' school in which she was enrolled.Vorlage:Sfn She thereafter entered prostitution, gaining a reputation for her singing voice and her beauty.Vorlage:Sfn She was reported to have been well-read.Vorlage:Sfn

In 1916, Lianying arrived in Shanghai with a woman identified as her mother.Vorlage:Efn She at first took residence with a popular courtesan, but after irreconcilable differences developed she left to establish her own brothel.Vorlage:Sfn She gained recognition following the 1917 courtesan election, winning fourth place and gaining the title "Prime Minister of Flower Country" (Vorlage:Zhi).Vorlage:Sfn In the following years she worked with several other courtesans, including the prominent madame Xu Di. She gave birth to a daughter in 1919. By her twentieth birthday, Lianying was working at a brothel in Xiao Huayan, one of Shanghai's major courtesan hubs.Vorlage:Sfn

The perpetrator, Yan Ruisheng

Yan Ruisheng

Yan Ruisheng,Vorlage:Efn the perpetrator of the killing, was a twenty-six-year-old man who lived in Qingpu with his widowed mother. The Yan family traced their roots to the Henan region.Vorlage:Sfn Yan was university educated, having enrolled at Aurora University at age sixteen. Finishing four years later, he spent time in Beijing and Hong Kong.Vorlage:Sfn He was reported to speak English and French fluently;Vorlage:Sfn he had also learned to drive, a rare skill at the time.Vorlage:Sfn During his trial, he identified as a Roman Catholic.Vorlage:Sfn

Yan worked variously as a translator for the Franco-Chinese Mining Company and as a clerk for the French Tramway Company, both in Shanghai.Vorlage:Sfn He had also been married, though neighbours said that the couple had been separated some time before the murder.Vorlage:Sfn By January 1920, Yan was unemployed.Vorlage:Sfn He was a man of expensive tastes, being known to frequent the cinemas, bet on horse racing, and hire prostitutes. Even while unemployed, he did not stop gambling or frequenting courtesans, and thus fell deep into debt.Vorlage:Sfn As the Dragon Boat Festival was approaching, Yan was under increased pressure; according to industry custom, all debts to courtesans were expected to paid in full by the date of the festival.Vorlage:Sfn

Murder

Planning

Seeking to escape his debt, Yan borrowed a diamond ring from Ti Hongguan (chinesisch 題紅館), his favourite courtesan. He pawned it for 600 yuan (equivalent to ¥ in 2019), which he subsequently lost betting on horses at the Jiangwan Racecourse. Facing pressure to return the ring, he chose to rob a courtesan. As his target, he chose Lianying. Although Yan had never been a client of hers,Vorlage:Sfn she had a reputation for wearing expensive jewellery. A friend had also described her as wearing a diamond ring and luxurious clothing during one of their encounters.Vorlage:Sfn

Using calling cards borrowed from friends, Yan met Lianying on 4 and 7 June 1920; a third attempt, on 5 June, received no response. During these interactions, Yan estimated that her diamond ring was worth 2,000 yuan (equivalent to ¥ in 2019). He brought several friends, including Zhu Zhija (Vorlage:Zhi)Vorlage:Sndash the son of the wealthy merchant Zhu BaosanVorlage:Sndash to her house on 8 June for a gambling session, thereby establishing himself as a man of wealth. At the end of their session, Yan invited her to join him for a mahjong game the following day.Vorlage:Efn Having arranged to pick Lianying up at the home of Xiao Lin Daiyu (Vorlage:Zhi), another courtesan, Yan subsequently asked to borrow Zhu's car.Vorlage:Sfn

On 9 June, Yan began to acquire the implements needed for the murder. He purchased chloroform from the King Sing Dispensary, then hired his acquaintance Wu Chunfang (chinesisch 吳春芳) as an accomplice. Promising to pay Wu 100 yuan (equivalent to ¥ in 2019) for his assistance,Vorlage:Sfn Yan sent him to purchase something with which to strangle Lianying.Vorlage:Efn Yan travelled to Zhu's house to retrieve his car. After dismissing Zhu's chauffeur by giving him money for a shave and haircut, Yan met Wu and a third man, Fang Rishan (Vorlage:Zhi), at a teahouse. He attempted to find Lianying, but she was not at Xiao Lin Daiyu's home and thus Yan returned to the teahouse.Vorlage:Sfn

Execution

Lianying arrived at the home of Xiao Lin Daiyu at approximately 6:30 p.m., adorned in numerous pieces of jewellery. Yan told her that the mahjong game had been cancelled, and offered instead to take her for a drive through the Shanghai countryside. Initially hesitant,Vorlage:Efn Lianying ultimately agreed to join him.Vorlage:Sfn They left Shanghai along No. 2 Hongqiao Road, with Yan driving, Lianying in the passenger seat, and Wu and Fang in the rear.

As dusk approached, Yan stopped the car amidst the fields outside Shanghai, ostensibly to light the lamp. He retrieved the chloroform from the trunk and poured it over a cotton pad, which was used to smother Lianying.Vorlage:EfnVorlage:Sfn When she struggled and begged for her life, they added more until she fell unconscious. At this point, the men separated. Yan, seeing that a peasant was approaching, distracted him by offering a ride in the car. Wu and Fang strangled Lianying, then stole her jewellery.Vorlage:Sfn

Lianying's body was loaded into the car, with the intent of dumping it in a more isolated area. As Yan drove, Wu and Fang divided the stolen goods, distracting him long enough to hit a tree and damage the vehicle. When they reached a suitably isolated area, Yan stopped. At this point, Lianying was still breathing, and he thus instructed his accomplices to kill her while he returned the car.Vorlage:Sfn By the time he returned at midnight, having paid off the chauffeur to conceal the damage, the other men were gone. Lianying's body was left exposed to the elements,Vorlage:Sfn and Yan went to sleep at the home of Ti Hongguang.Vorlage:Sfn

Discovery and investigation

Front page of the Shen Bao, 19 June 1920, offering a reward for the capture of Yan Ruisheng

As the night passed, Lianying's parents contacted Zhu to inquire about her; Zhu, assuming that the rendezvous had culminated in a sexual encounter, assured them that she would return soon and promised to look into the matter. However, after discovering the damage to his car on 10 June, Zhu became suspicious. He found Yan near the Tihong Pawnshop, attempting to redeem Ti Hongguan's ring, the following day. When asked about Lianying's whereabouts, Yan left, claiming that he needed to make a telephone call. Later that evening, he asked Wu to bury Lianying's corpse, though this request went unheeded.Vorlage:Sfn On 12 June, the supplemental Little Eastern Times and the tabloid The Crystal published notices that Lianying had disappeared,Vorlage:Sfn and the following day her father posted a 500 yuan (equivalent to ¥ in 2019) reward for her safe return.Vorlage:Sfn

Lianying's badly decomposed body was discovered, alongside the murder weapon, by farmers in a wheat field in Hui Township on 15 June. Initial coverage, carried in such newspapers as the Shen Bao and the Min Kuo Jih Pao, incorrectly reported that the body belonged to a forty-year-old woman.Vorlage:Sfn These reports described the body as wearing a striped shirt and pants, with bare feet that had not been bound.Vorlage:Sfn Further coverage, published the following day, identified the cause of death and suggested that the victim had been a prostitute.Vorlage:Sfn Lianying was identified in the press as the likely victim on 17 June, and the news that she had last been seen with Yan was released three days later.Vorlage:Sfn

As detectives with the International Settlement investigated the killing, Lianying's body was sent for identification. On 18 June,Vorlage:Sfn her corpse was identified based off a hair ornament.Vorlage:EfnVorlage:Sfn Rewards were subsequently offered for information leading to the arrest of the murderer.Vorlage:Efn One gold pin was recovered from a local pawn shop. Local authorities, seeking to prevent further murders, ordered that no calls for courtesans be allowed after midnight.Vorlage:Sfn By 20 June 1920 investigators had interrogated all of Lianying's clients. Zhu was identified as potentially involved in the murder as early as 18 June, and his father's prominence drew the public's attention.Vorlage:EfnVorlage:Sfn

An arrest warrant for Yan was issued on 19 June.Vorlage:Sfn He fled Shanghai, at first hiding with family, but later heading northward on the S.S. Yongchow bound for Qingdao.Vorlage:Sfn In late July or early August, he was spotted at the Xuzhou railway station by a police officer who recognized him from a photograph. Yan was promptly arrested, and during interrogation he named his accomplices;Vorlage:Sfn Wu was located in Zhabei and detained several days later, while Fang escaped. Several pieces of Lianying's jewellery were recovered, including a diamond ring and a pearl necklace;Vorlage:Sfn a large diamond was reportedly recovered from Yan's mouth at the time of his arrest.Vorlage:Sfn Other pieces were never found.Vorlage:Sfn

Trial

Announcement of the execution of Yan Ruisheng and Wu Chunfang, Shen Bao, 24 November 1920

On 9 August, Yan was sent back to Shanghai for trial,Vorlage:Sfn where he was remanded to the Shanghai Mixed Court in the International Settlement. Represented by Lawrence Kentwell, he was read his charges by Assessor A. D. Blackburn and Magistrate Kuan.Vorlage:Sfn Wu was charged before the same court later that week. At the time, the Chinese courts were claiming jurisdiction and asking that Yan be extradited.Vorlage:Sfn

The case was prosecuted by R. C. Faithfull, with Kentwell and Mei Hua-Chuen representing Yan and R. S. Haskell and J. Em. Lemière representing Wu.Vorlage:Sfn The trial was attended by numerous members of Shanghai society, men and women alike. Some stood for hours to gain entrance, and when the courtroom became full, they lined the streets. Although the defence challenged the admissibility, both men confessed to the crimes;Vorlage:Sfn Yan indicated that the idea had come from American cinema, but insisted that he had not meant to kill Lianying. Further testimonies were provided by Zhu, his chauffeur, Ti Hongguan, and another courtesan. The verdict was returned on 26 August, with Yan found guilty of murder and Wu of armed robbery causing death.Vorlage:Sfn

The prisoners were transferred to Chinese custody,Vorlage:Sfn the Mixed Court not being able to impose capital punishment.Vorlage:Sfn Although the civilian court claimed jurisdiction, on 11 September the Chinese military court began its own trial, with Major Tang presiding. Unlike the earlier trial, which had been well-publicized, these proceedings were held in secret.Vorlage:Sfn Neither Yan nor Wu confessed to the military court, instead blaming the killing on each other and Fang.Vorlage:Sfn Later, they were also interrogated as to the extent of Zhu's involvement in the case, as well as the whereabouts of the remaining items.Vorlage:Sfn In early October, the men were found guilty and sentenced to death.Vorlage:Sfn

On 23 November, Yan and Wu were executed at the Western Battery of the Vorlage:Ill in Longhua. After a short Catholic service, held upon Yan's request, the men were brought to a courtyard, blindfolded, read their crimes, and shot. The execution was widely attended, including by Shanghai's courtesans.Vorlage:Sfn The artist Chen Dingshan later recalled that throngs of people had travelled for the execution, some riding atop the train.Vorlage:Sfn Likewise, in an interview with The Paper, the historian Tang Weijie mentioned that more ten thousand people attended the executionVorlage:Sndash including Yan's favoured courtesan, Ti Hongguan.Vorlage:Sfn

Cultural impact

A caricature of Lianying by Jefferson Machamer, published in the New York Tribune (1920)

Press

The killing of a famous courtesan by an educated businessman immediately "scandalized and mesmerized the city's chattering classes". Newspaper coverage of the murder and trial was extensive,Vorlage:Sfn with tabloids focusing on the crime and larger papers prioritizing its aftermath. The Shen Bao, for instance, published more than seventy articles on the court trial, with another hundred related to the case, in six months.Vorlage:Sfn After the trial, the 5,000-word verdict and accompanying confessions were serialized in the Vorlage:Ill from 25 November to 8 December 1920.Vorlage:Sfn International newspapers also picked up the story.Vorlage:EfnVorlage:Sfn Chen linked this widespread interest and coverage with the instability of the Warlord Era, suggesting that the trial provided a distraction from other issues.Vorlage:Sfn

Rumours spread rapidly, and many were published by contemporary tabloids. Prior to the identification of Lianying's body, The Crystal publicized baseless claims that she had fled a life of debt, that she was continuing her career in northern China, and that her parents were aware of her location.Vorlage:Sfn During the investigation, the Little Eastern Times prematurely reported that Yan had been arrested, and conflated him with a person named Zhong Ruisheng.Vorlage:Sfn It was also claimed that Zhu Baosan had spent 3,000 yuan (equivalent to ¥ in 2019) to silence the press after his son came under media scrutiny.Vorlage:Sfn After Yan's execution, some claimed that he had not been killed, but rather that Zhu had provided his friend with a substitute.Vorlage:Sfn

Several publications highlighted the effect of the crime on Lianying's family while lamenting her death. Ten years after the murder, The Crystal published a retrospective;Vorlage:Sfn it narrated that Lianying's family had not buried her until 1929, and that her parents were raising her young daughter.Vorlage:Sfn Others examined the life of Yan Ruisheng.Vorlage:Sfn By mid-July there was a tendency for coverage to focus on the killer, who was framed not as a common criminal but as a "new man" who had been corrupted; the filmmaker Cheng Bugao later recalled that, due to Yan's background, the murder had been seen as "modern" and "fresh".Vorlage:Sfn

Critics decried the case as illustrating the erosion of public morality. Extensive discourse emerged over the influence of crime films on Chinese society,Vorlage:Sfn noting the case's similarities to such works.Vorlage:Sfn Some blamed the crime on the influence of greed, urging readers to abandon their ostentatious clothing and live simply.Vorlage:Sfn Others challenged the popularity of gambling.Vorlage:Sfn Discussing the case, a writer for the Shen Bao proclaimed that the darkness within the human heart had reached its peak, with savagery hidden behind a cultural veneer of modernity.Vorlage:Sfn

Although Lianying's occupation was recognized by contemporary commentators, few deemed it to have contributed to her murder.Vorlage:Sfn Most insinuations were only made obliquely. Nonetheless, there was a shift in discourses about prostitution. Major newspapers such as Shen Bao, following the New Culture Movement and Li Dazhao's arguments for abolishing prostitution, voiced concerns about the practice and its place in Chinese society. Tabloids, meanwhile, framed Lianying sympathetically and supported the continued practice of courtesanship.Vorlage:Sfn In the 1920s, authorities in the British Concession closed one-fifth of the area's brothels using a lottery system, with plans to eliminate the remainder by 1925.Vorlage:Sfn

Literature

The Tragic History of Lianying (Vorlage:Zhi), Vorlage:Ill, 1920

Several works of "news fiction" (Vorlage:Zhi) based on the case were published by the end of the year. On 1 July 1920, the Vorlage:Ill made a call for stories about Lianying and her murder. Four days later, it published The Tragic History of Lianying (Vorlage:Zhi), advertised as delivering an illustrated and comprehensive recount of her life and career.Vorlage:Sfn By the end of the year, it had published two more books about the murder: A Secret History of Yan Ruisheng (Vorlage:Zhi) and The Autobiography of Yan Ruisheng (Vorlage:Zhi). The latter, published before Yan's sentencing, provided a first-person narrative that denied culpability and highlighted the difficulties of prison life. Some of these publications were re-issued multiple times, with The Tragic History of Lianying known to have been reprinted as late as 1925.Vorlage:Sfn

Other publishers also capitalized on the murder. An Account of the Murder of Lianying, Prime Minister of Flower Country (Vorlage:Zhi), first announced on 1 July, provided a narrative of Lianying's life that was framed through Confucian values such as filial piety.Vorlage:Sfn This fifty-eight page booklet presented her as staying in prostitution only to support her family, and attributed her death to Yan feeling unrecognized for his contributions to her 1917 election. Two later books drew primarily from newspaper coverage but also included rumours: The Miserable History of Lianying (Vorlage:Zhi) and The Miserable History of Lianying, the Prime Minister of Flower Country (Vorlage:Zhi). The former contained several dream sequences, including one in which Lianying foresees her own death, while the latter included the trial verdict in its entirety.Vorlage:Sfn

Aside from such works, the literati of Shanghai produced an abundance of elegiac couplets praising Lianying's virtues, as well as various works of fiction. Surveying the newspaper coverage of the case, Jiang Xingpeng of Central China Normal University notes that one story had Lianying return to haunt a debtor, while another depicted her spirit in conversation with the deceased courtesan Lu Baoshen.Vorlage:Sfn Zhang Henshui's 1929 novel Two Stars in the Milky Way (Vorlage:Zhi) referenced the case, with the female protagonist Li Yueying becoming uncomfortable upon realizing that the movie star Yang Yiyun has brought her to the murder location for a romantic tryst.Vorlage:Sfn

Theatre

In contemporary Shanghai, stage adaptations of salacious news stories were common.Vorlage:EfnVorlage:Sfn Consequently, efforts were soon made to bring the murder to stage. In mid-September 1920, the Qianku Great World Theatre applied to the Shanghai Municipal Council for permission to perform its adaptation.Vorlage:Sfn This application was denied, and the Council subsequently issued an injunction against any stage adaptations. This injunction was lifted in November 1920, following the executions of Yan Ruisheng and Wu Chunfang.Vorlage:Sfn

Advertisement for Lianying is Hard to Remember (Vorlage:Zhi, 1920), one of several stage adaptations based on the murder

By then, the city's five major theatre companies all had plans to adapt the story.Vorlage:Sfn The Qianku Great World Theatre brought its adaptation to the stage on 25 November 1920.Vorlage:Efn Starring Fen Juhua as Lianying and Han Jinkui as Yan, it retold the events in three acts, with one act performed per day. It interspersed depictions of the murder and hunt with dream sequences in which Lianying's ghost visits her lover before confronting her killers at Senluo Temple.Vorlage:Sfn

Also on 25 November 1920, the Laughter Stage troupe led by Zheng Zhengqiu launched a "civilized drama" (Vorlage:Zhi) version of the story. Advertisements emphasized the verisimilitude of the performance, touting extensive research that included attendance at court sessions.Vorlage:Sfn Stages were decorated to simulate the wheat field, courtroom, and railway station where key events occurred, and cast members spoke different dialects depending on their characters' place of origin.Vorlage:Sfn Performances of the adaptation, which starred Mao Yunke as Lianying and Zhao Ruquan as Yan,Vorlage:Sfn continued through January 1921. Special showings featuring Lianying's mother and her sweetheart Yang Xigui were advertised as raising funds for the family.Vorlage:Sfn

Shortly afterwards, Peking opera troupes began presenting their own takes on the story.Vorlage:Sfn One troupe, the Great Stage, premiered its adaptation on 27 November 1920. For this run, which starred Zhang Wenyan and Lin Shusen,Vorlage:Sfn it advertised "rich and colourful" settings that included foreign mansions, brothels, and the courtroom. Another troupe, the Co-Stage, initially presented its story as being retold by Lianying's parents "with their own mouths" and featuring her sister Yuying.Vorlage:Efn The Co-Stage production was highly successful, selling out tickets for the two months of its run.Vorlage:Sfn

A third Peking Opera troupe, the New Stage, began performing its adaptation in mid-February 1921. Again emphasizing its ability to retell the story accurately, the troupe used a real car on stage. It also added new scenes, including an escape through a river.Vorlage:Sfn This adaptation, which was based on Peking opera but starred "civilized drama" actor Wang Youyou,Vorlage:Sfn was a success. During the initial eighty-day run, tickets were regularly sold out, with the best seats being reserved in advance. In 1923, the New Stage brought its adaptation on tour, finding popular acclaim in Hangzhou.Vorlage:Sfn

Throughout the 1920s, travelling troupes adapted the story to the stage, with performances in Taiwan noted as late as 1926.Vorlage:Sfn Performances based on the story have continued into the 2000s. The comedian Guo Degang developed a crosstalk routine based on the case,Vorlage:Sfn and a pingtan adaptation was staged by the Shanghai Pingtan Troupe in 2013 as part of a series on Shanghai's history.Vorlage:Sfn

Music

As the people of Shanghai followed the trial, numerous folk songs were recorded in contemporary newspapers. Such works often retold the lives of Lianying and Yan, using a combination of narrative and lyrical elements to present themselves as coming from the persons involved in the case.Vorlage:Sfn Many were also recorded in mass-produced songbooks, some of which also included songs from the stage adaptations or original compositions based on the same theme.Vorlage:Efn One folk song, published in The New World on 18 September 1920, concluded:

Recordings of songs associated adapted from the case were also pressed. In 1921, Pathé Orient issued a phonographic recording of two arias by Lu Lanchun that had originated from the Co-Stage production.Vorlage:Sfn Collectively titled Awakening from a Dream (Vorlage:Zhi),Vorlage:Sfn these were immensely popular, such that entertainers were often asked to give live acapella performances.Vorlage:Sfn One of the arias, sung by Lianying in a dream sequence, became so pervasive that the essayist Miu Chongqun described it as representing "the very sound of Shanghai as both an attractive and an evil city."Vorlage:Sfn Several further phonographs were released, including a cover by Yan Qilan as well as the songs "Shoot to Kill" (Vorlage:Zhi) by Lu Shushen and "The Shooting Death of Yan Ruishen" (Vorlage:Zhi), recorded variously by Zhang Yijin and Wang Jifan.Vorlage:Sfn

The murder of Lianying as depicted in Yan Ruisheng (1921)

Film

The murder of Lianying has served as the inspiration for several films. In 1921, a group of Shanghai youths from the Chinese Cinema Study Society made a feature film based on the events.Vorlage:Sfn Directed by Ren Pengnian and released under the title Yan Ruisheng, this adaptation was commercially successful. However, due to its focus on a courtesan and a murderer, it was criticized as failing to promote the public morality. In 1923, the film was banned in Shanghai,Vorlage:Sfn and backlash against it and Zhang Shichuan's Zhang Xinsheng (1922)Vorlage:Sndash another film based on a notorious murder caseVorlage:Sndash resulted in the drafting of censorship policies targeting films that "disturbed social order, damaged social mores and (in the case of foreign films particularly) were offensive to Chinese sensibility", publishing them in 1926.Vorlage:Sfn

In 1938, the case was again adapted to film, this time by Kwan Man-ching in Hong Kong. Starring Yip Fat-yeuk as Yan Ruisheng and Fa Ying-yung as Lianying, this version was given the English-title Woe to the Debauched! but known in Chinese as Yan Ruisheng.Vorlage:Sfn The case later served as an inspiration for Jiang Wen's Gone with the Bullets (2014).Vorlage:Sfn The film, in which Jiang starred alongside Ge You and Shu Qi, followed a mafioso in 1920s China who arranged to launder money by staging a beauty pageant.Vorlage:Sfn Viewer reviews were generally negative, with particular focus on its slow pacing and loose narrative;Vorlage:Sfn in The Paper, Shi Jianfeng wrote that the film was not as exciting as the events that inspired it.Vorlage:Sfn

Works cited

• Jianhua Chen: ? (Memento des Originals vom 22 October 2024 im Webarchiv archive.today) (Originaltitel: zh:《阎瑞生》摄制与剧照之百年回观, deutsch: A Century-long Review of the Filming and Stills of "Yan Ruisheng") In: The Paper, 24 August 2021 (chinese). 
• Hsiao-yuan Cheng: ? (Originaltitel: zh:被搬演的真實: 1920 年代上海時事戲《槍斃閻瑞生》, deutsch: Reality on Stage: Executing Yen Ruisheng, a 1920's Topical Drama in Shanghai). In: Journal of Chinese Ritual, Theatre & Folklore. Nr. 223, 2024, S. 49–89 (chinesisch, airitilibrary.com). 
• Director Pays Homage to Famous Films In: Shanghai Daily, 26 December 2014. Vorlage:ProQuest. Abgerufen im 22 October 2024 
• Gone With the Bullets In: Shenzhen Daily, 26 December 2014. Vorlage:ProQuest. Abgerufen im 22 October 2024 
• Sue Gronewold: Selling Sex in the City: A Global History of Prostitution, 1600s–2000s (= Studies in Global Social History. Band 31). Brill, Leiden 2017, ISBN 978-90-04-34625-3, Prostitution in Shanghai, S. 567–593, doi:10.1163/9789004346253_023 (brill.com). 
• Kristine Harris: History in Images: Pictures and Public Space in Modern China (= China Research Monograph. Band 66). Institute of East Asian Studies, Berkeley 2012, ISBN 978-1-55729-155-4, Two Stars on the Silver Screen: The Metafilm as Chinese Modern, S. 191–244. 
• Qiliang He: Newspapers and the Journalistic Public in Republican China: 1917 as a Significant Year for Journalism. Routledge, New York, London 2018, ISBN 978-0-429-79669-2 (google.com). 
• Gail Hershatter: Dangerous Pleasures: Prostitution and Modernity in Twentieth-Century Shanghai. University of California Press, Berkeley 1999, ISBN 978-0-520-20439-3. 
• Xing-peng Jiang: ? (Originaltitel: zh:20 世纪 20 年代上海的传媒生态探究: 要要以莲英案为中心的历史考察, deutsch: A Study of the Media Ecology of Shanghai in 1920s: A Historical Survey of the "Lianying Case"). In: Journal of Chaohu University. 23. Jahrgang, Nr. 1, 2021, S. 94–100, 107, doi:10.12152/j.issn.1672-2868.2021.01.013 (chinesisch, edu.cn). 
• Yaochang Pan, Li Xu: ? (Originaltitel: zh:上海早期都市文艺先锋 —《真相画报》, deutsch: Shanghai's Early Urban Art Pioneer – "The True Record"). In: Journal of Shanghai University. 2011, S. 131–140 (chinesisch, yrdcpcn.com [PDF]). 
• ? (Originaltitel: zh:第三节 娼妓, deutsch: Section 3: Prostitution). In: Shanghai Chronicles. Government of Shanghai, 4. Juli 2008, archiviert vom Original am 22. Oktober 2024; abgerufen am 22. Oktober 2024 (chinesisch). 
• ? (Originaltitel: zh:上海大辞典: 人物篇, 附录, deutsch: Shanghai Dictionary: Characters, Appendix). Band 2. Shanghai Dictionary Publishing House, Shanghai 2007, ISBN 978-7-5326-2330-3 (chinesisch, google.com). 
• Jianfeng Shi: ? (Memento des Originals vom 27 December 2014 im Internet Archive) (Originaltitel: zh:《一步之遥》原型: 1920年上海滩媒体围观的"阎瑞生案", deutsch: The Forebearer of "Gone with the Bullets": the "Yan Ruisheng Case" Watched by the Media in Shanghai in 1920) In: The Paper, 12 December 2014. Abgerufen im 24 October 2024 (chinese). 
• Telling Stories about Shanghai In: Shanghai Daily, 6 September 2013. Vorlage:ProQuest. Abgerufen im 25 October 2024 
• The Murder of Lien Ying In: The North-China Herald, 14 August 1920, S. 437 
• The Murder of Lien Ying In: The North-China Herald, 28 August 1920, S. 573–575 
• The Murder of Lien Ying In: The North-China Herald, 18 September 1920, S. 751 
• The Murder of Lien Ying In: The North-China Herald, 27 November 1920, S. 606 
• ? (Originaltitel: zh:香港影片大全: 卷. 1913–1941, deutsch: The Complete Collection of Hong Kong Films: Vol. 1913–1941). Hong Kong Film Archive, Hong Kong 1997, ISBN 978-962-8050-03-1 (chinesisch, google.com). 
• Kaiho Wang: Critics Target Gone with the Bullets In: China Daily, 25 December 2014. Vorlage:ProQuest. Abgerufen im 22 October 2024 
• Carrie Warra: Inventing Nanjing Road: Commercial Culture in Shanghai, 1900–1945. Cornell East Asia Program, Ithaca, New York 1999, ISBN 978-1-885445-63-6, Invention, Industry, Art: The Commercialization of Culture in Republican Art Magazines, S. 61–90 (google.com). 
• Morris R. Werner: Pretty Lien Ying - Chinese Sing Song Girl - Strangely Slain In: The New York Tribune, 3 October 1920, S. 5 
• Zhiwei Xiao: The Oxford Handbook of Chinese Cinemas. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2013, ISBN 978-0-19-998331-5, Policing Film in Early Twentieth-Century China, S. 452–471, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199765607.013.0025. 
• Jen-Yu Yin: ? (Originaltitel: zh:有關「閻瑞生謀殺王蓮英案」俗曲研究, deutsch: The Research of Popular Tunes about the Murder Case "Yen Ruey Sheng"). In: Chinese Literature Chronicle. 12. Jahrgang, Nr. 18, 2008, S. 233–271, doi:10.6973/CJ.200812.0233 (chinesisch, airitilibrary.com). 
• Yingjin Zhang: Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. Routledge, New York, London 1998, ISBN 978-0-415-15168-9, Censorship and Film, S. 109–110. 

External links

[[Category:1920 murders in China]] [[Category:1920 in Shanghai]] [[Category:Deaths by strangulation]] [[Category:Female murder victims]] [[Category:Violence against women in China]] [[Category:Prostitution in China]] [[Category:20th-century Chinese women|Wang Lianying]]