French Concession Green Gang Leader Boss of Zhou Haoran
History
Huang Jinrong (黃金榮/ 黄金荣, Huáng Jīnróng) (1868-1953), son of a Suzhou policeman, benefitted from a classical education in Shanghai. Huang was victim of small-pox as a child, leaving him with scars at the origin of his nickname “pockmarked Huang”. Owner of a print-mounting business he launched in 1887, the man spent considerable with gangsters in teahouse. In 1892, he became a detective constable in the French police after successfully seating the exam. Huang began using his policeman influence to build connections with the underworld. He was in bed with the Green Gang long before he eventually formally joined it in 1927.
Being a police officer, Huang was always careful not to get directly involved in illegal businesses. His de-facto wife, Lin Guisheng – ‘Miss Gui’ or Sister Hoodlum – looked after these activities for him. She was particularly famous as the head of the Mahjong Ji Nightsoil Hong company in the French Concession. Some 400 night soil carts were earning her a net profit of CH$10,000-12,000 a month from this activity!
Initially the one true master of the French Concession gang, he was outpowered as the 1920s progressed by his sworn borthers Zhang Xiaolin and Du Yuesheng. His relative decline is dated to 1924 when he was arrested by the Chinese Shanghai garrison for having publicly beaten Shanghai’s warlord Lu Yongxiang’s son, Lu Xiaojia. Zhang Xiaolin and Du Yuesheng intervened and paid to have him freed. This led Huang to resign from his position as chief of the Chinese Detective Squad of the French Police and turn his empire over to Du. Despite the immense loss of face and power, he remained an influential mobster, protected by Du Yuesheng, acting as a balance toward Zhang Xiaolin.