Shanghai Policeman Back on the Shelves

EW Peters’s classic account of being a Shanghai copper, Shanghai Policeman, in the 1930s is now reprinted thanks to Earnshaw Books. Shanghai Policeman is a problematic book – Peters is a highly complicated and conflicted character who’s actions and motives are often strange and not always fully explained satisfactorily in the book. Still, it is an interesting mix of kidnappers, robbers, the Shanghai riot squad, beggar boats and English blokes get themselves into some messes in Shanghai (usually female related as ever). The book also sheds a lot of light on Shanghai’s old Eastern District, what is now Yangpu, an area that remains terra incognito to 99.9% of foreigners who ever come to China these days but used to be well known to the older Shanghailanders. There’s a new introduction by Robert Bickers too, so well worth picking up.