Upon The Sea

By Mark Morey

Fantastic setting, beautifully drawn characters – certainly the best novel I have read for quite some time – five stars. Alice Pickard – author.

Gorgeously constructed, beautifully written, Upon The Sea is one of the best and most original novels I have ever read. Kate Baldwin – author.

Upon The Sea is one of the most entertaining novels I have ever read. Leon Carter - author

Shanghai 1935, Paris of the East, Whore of the East. Young expat Matthew Clark, having learned the language and some customs, arrives in Shanghai determined to conduct business honourably.

Newly released from jail, Li Yunhe changes her name to Lan Ping and sets out to become a professional actor. She gains lead role in a play to rave reviews, meets and dates a young rising star, and soon finds herself acting in movies. But Ping's an unconventional young woman, even by Shanghai's hedonistic standards, where her life becomes ever more chaotic as she struggles to keep her head above water.

Matthew falls in love with taxi girl Mai Jing and they soon become part of the expat social scene of Shanghai, attending balls and functions. But when Jing's sister Binbin has problems with her gangster husband, Jing and Matthew have no choice but to descend into Shanghai's dark underworld with all the danger that entails.

Upon The Sea is a story of relationships, set Shanghai in its heyday.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mark Morey
• Release date: Aug 27, 2022
• ISBN: 9780645180497

Mark Morey

Writing a novel didn't cross my mind until relatively recently, when I went to the local library and couldn't find a book that interested me. That led me consider a new pastime. Write a book. That book may never be published, but I felt my follow-up cross-cultural crime with romance hybrid set in Russia had more potential. So much so that I wrote a sequel that took those characters on a journey to a very dark place.Once those books were published and garnered good reviews I wrote in a very different place and time, and my two novels set in Victorian Britain and published in July and August of 2014. I followed those up with various novels set in various places at various times, with the most recent being a story set in the Syrian Civil War.

Book preview

Prologue

Zhucheng, China, September 1919

Shumeng sat on her bed in her room, while in the living room her father drank baijiu and cursed his misfortunes. Shumeng didn't know why Father was what he was, but she knew most other fathers in Zhucheng didn't drink as much and weren't as poor. Shumeng squirmed to get comfortable while she heard glass smashing when her father finished his bottle. Later her mother, his concubine, would clean up that broken glass.

The door of Shumeng's room burst open and her father stood there, his face blotchy red while he held the doorframe.

You, Shumeng, you're the problem!

Why, Father? What have I done?

Your mother wants you to go to school.

Shumeng's heart ran fast as she watched Father glaring at her, while swaying as he held the doorframe.

I won't go to school if you don't want me to.

Your mother insists that you go to school. He approached Shumeng's bed. Come here.

Father grabbed Shumeng's shoulders to pull her to her feet and dragged her into the living room. Shumeng bent down, trying to make herself as small as possible, while he shoved her to the centre of the room. Just then the front door opened for Mother to come into the living room; carrying a basket with bread and some fruit.

What are you up to? Mother asked Father.

You want her to go to school but I can't afford her books.

There aren't any books in the first year of elementary school.

Books will come soon enough, and she's only a girl.

Father grabbed Shumeng's shoulders and shook her.

Don't do that! Mother snapped at him.

Father hit Shumeng with the back of his hand; that stung and her mouth hurt too. She felt something loose in her mouth and spat it out. Her jaw ached.

You bastard, you knocked her tooth out!

Don't you swear at me!

Then Father hit Mother, like he often did.

Mother stood straight. I've had enough of you.

I've had enough of you, giving me a daughter instead of a son. My life is cursed with too many daughters!

You've gotten what you deserve.

Father punched Mother, who stumbled while Shumeng backed away. When Shumeng reached the wall she stopped, frightened to go into her room. Again Father punched Mother who fell, and then he kicked her. Mother staggered to her feet while holding her left hand where her little finger was bent sideways.

I'm leaving you, Tiwen, and I'm taking the daughter you don't want with me.

Take her, see if I care.

Mother crossed the living room while looking at Father, to take Shumeng's hand and lead her into her room.

Pack your things and we'll go.

Go where Mother?

I'll find a place.

What's wrong with your finger?

I think he broke it. I'll see a doctor but first we have to leave. I'll get a bag for your clothes.

Mother left the room, to return a moment later with a calico bag. Shumeng put her clothes, old and worn leftovers from her older brother from Father's wife, into the bag. Her mother took the bag, took Shumeng's hand, and led Shumeng out the door. Sitting in his chair, Father drank baijiu.

* * *

Mother and Shumeng walked past the open gates of Zhucheng Elementary School, and across an asphalt square to a large building of whitewashed brick. Mother opened one of a pair of dark brown wooden doors for Shumeng to go inside. In a white corridor with signs, mostly numbers, Mother led Shumeng through an open doorway with a sign Shumeng couldn't read. Inside, sitting behind a big desk, was a man about Father's age but nicely dressed. After introductions, Mother told this man, Xian Su, that Shumeng was starting school today. After Xiang Su wrote in a register book, Mother wrote her name before leaving. Xian Su led Shumeng to a door with the sign 'One'. There were about 30 children, all seated at individual wooden desks, while a teacher stood at the front next to a blackboard with a rack of chalk. Shumeng was introduced to Teacher Yang, quite a young man, and the rest of the class, and was told to take a seat while Xian Su left. There were two empty desks near the back of the room where Shumeng sat at one of those. Each desk had a slate in a timber frame with a pencil. Teacher Yang then used the blackboard to teach the class how to write numbers, Shumeng could read up to 10 but she couldn't write so well, and now she learned to write using the slate and pencil.

This went on for some hours until a bell clanged outside and the children left. Teacher Yang told Shumeng it was time for their morning break of 15 minutes. Shumeng went outside to where the children in her class were in several groups. She went to a group of four girls but they made fun of her ragged clothes. Shumeng sat alone on a wooden bench until the bell clanged. They all went inside to the classroom for a different lesson on writing words rather than numbers. This went on for quite some time until the bell rang again, this time for a lunch break, where some children had pottery containers of food, some mothers brought bowls of food into the school grounds, and some children had nothing, like Shumeng. Shumeng sat on a bench with the other children who had nothing to eat. Shumeng decided to tell her mother she needed something to eat each day at school, even if it was simple like vegetables in a pottery bowl. They talked about how it would take time to get used to school, while Shumeng said she wanted to learn to read and write, and learn other things.

Why?

So that I can be better than what women are.

Even if you can read and write, you're still a woman.

Well, I want to be better than that.

They laughed but not at Shumeng. After quite a while the bell rang to go into class again. There, Teacher Yang took Shumeng to one side.

Why are you named Li Shumeng? (Dim Woman).

My father named me Shumeng because he didn't want another daughter. My father didn't want me to go to school and we don't live with him anymore.

In that case I can give you a new name. You're tall for your age and I'm sure you'll be tall when you get older. I name you Li Yunhe. (Crane in the Clouds).

Yunhe smiled. Thank you Teacher Yang.

Sit at your desk and we'll do this afternoon's lesson.

Yunhe sat while Teacher Yang faced the class.

I've changed Li Shumeng's name to Li Yunhe, because she's tall. From now, your new classmate is Li Yunhe!

Some murmured and some glanced at her, while Yunhe was pleased with this. When Yunhe got home from school she would tell her mother, and she was sure her mother would be pleased too. Teacher Yang came to Yunhe's desk to write Li Yunhe on her slate, and asked Yunhe to copy that, which she did. Yunhe was even more pleased as Teacher Yang started their afternoon class, which was reading. Teacher Yang handed out books which they had to share, and together they read out loud while tracing characters, until the bell clanged for the end of the day's lessons.

They filed out of the classroom and across the school ground, some boys running, with Yunhe alone but pleased she had a new and good name, and pleased she'd learned so much in her first day at school. Yunhe couldn't wait to tell her mother her new name and all about what she'd learned, but when she got to their room her mother wasn't there. Her mother cleaned, and sometimes when she cleaned for men, she had so much cleaning that she had to stay the night. Yunhe was disappointed that she couldn't tell her mother about her day, but her mother left some pork, some rice and some cabbage, which Yunhe took down to the kitchen to cook. Yunhe spoke with Tang Lin who was also in the kitchen, and told Tang Lin her new name while she cooked her meal. When her food was ready Yunhe would eat, which would take away her hunger, and later she would sleep. Tomorrow she would go to school to learn more from Teacher Yang and that would be good. Yunhe was pleased to be age five, at school, and learning so much.

Other Works by Mark Morey

The Red Sun will Come - June 2012

Souls in Darkness - August 2012

The Governess and the Stalker - July 2014

Maidens in the Night - September 2014

One Hundred Days - September 2015

The Last Great Race – April 2016

The Adulterous Bride – October 2016

No Darkness – March 2017

In Our Memories – November 2017

Blood Never Sleeps – March 2018

Ketsumeidan – October 2018

Yuejin – Aim High! – July 2019

Wenge – Destroy The Old! – July 2019

Ice – February 2020

Across the Border – July 2020

Burrangong Creek – January 2021

Overreach – May 2021

Thunderbolt – November 2021

Into Smoke – March 2022

Chinese names are always expressed as family name – given name.

Hanyu Pinyin has been used to transliterate Mandarin Chinese to our Romanised alphabet. Most names and places in this story are pronounced phonetically, except words commencing with 'X' sound more like Zh but not exactly, and words commencing with Q are more like Ch.

Hanzi – Literally Han Characters or logograms developed for writing Chinese languages.

Shikumen – a Chinese variation of 19th Century British and European terrace houses, two or three storeys with courtyards, and always built along lanes. Shikumen are unique to Shanghai.

Chapter One

Shanghai, China, February 1935

Yunhe walked under the gold-painted arch of the main lane, and along this paved lane to the third side lane on the right. There she walked to the second pair of gates of the side lane, painted black, which she opened. She entered the small courtyard, closed the gates behind her, and opened the front door to the living room. Inside, Huang De and Duan Ru relaxed while drinking rice wine.

Ni hao, Yunhe greeted. (Hello).

Ni hao Li Yunhe.

I'll go to my room, she said in Mandarin.

Yunhe climbed the timber staircase at the far end of the room, up to the first floor where she entered her room, the tingzijian. On the north side of the shikumen, this room, or actually space, was freezing cold in winter despite having the kitchen directly beneath. But without money, what could she do? Newly out of jail and fortunately taken in by the family of her ex-husband, all she could do was get by. Yunhe also hoped they could live together as husband and wife again; they were good together before Jing was arrested, but Jing's parents never approved of Yunhe knowing her own mind and he was too weak to go against them. Always men lead and women follow; always filial piety. Confucianism, or interpretations of Confucianism, was China's greatest failing.

Yunhe sat on her bed while thinking she was a good actor, and better that a woman was equal to a man on a stage or on screen. But after being jailed for three months as a communist, Li Yunhe had no hope of acting professionally. No, she needed to start again. A new name, a new start. One of her friends from school had the family name Lan, blue, which she'd admired. Blue what? Something distinctive, something people would remember. Lan Ping – Blue Apple. People will remember this name. The richest and most advanced city in China, Shanghai had many theatres and was home to China's movie industry, where there were opportunities now that talkies had sidelined quite a number of silent movie stars. As a stage actor, Ping was perfect for talkies. Now she had to find a role, to make her name and to move to bigger things. Ping could do this, she knew she could, and there were roles out there.

* * *

Ping sat in the dressing room of Nanking Theatre, one of the finest theatres in the International Settlement of Shanghai, smoking while re-reading the last part of act three of A Doll's House, a play written in Denmark in 1879 about a married woman belatedly finding her way in life, translated to Hanzi and to be presented in Mandarin. As old as this play was, it was as relevant in the year 1935 as the year it was written. It was a role that Ping wanted to win in order to establish her reputation, but more that her mother suffered grievously for doing just this. The other women actors talked and laughed and gossiped, while Ping refreshed her lines and pictured how she would present them. If she won this role, of course she would be directed by Zhang Min. For now, though, she had to direct herself.

Lan Ping? a man called.

Yes.

Please come this way.

Ping butted her cigarette, before following this man down the stairs to the stage of the rehearsal theatre in the basement, where she stood facing the auditorium with two men and one woman. Zhang Min stood.

Lan Ping, Liu Ai will read the part of Torvald Helmer while you'll play Nora. When you're ready.

Ping faced Liu Ai, with her senses calm as the footlights came on.

TORVALD.

Before all else, you are a wife and a mother.

NORA.

I don’t believe that any longer. I believe that before all else I am a reasonable human being, just as you are—or, at all events, that I must try and become one. I know quite well, Torvald, that most people would think you right, and that views of that kind are to be found in books; but I can no longer content myself with what most people say, or with what is found in books. I must think over things for myself and get to understand them.

TORVALD.

Can you not understand your place in your own home? Have you not a reliable guide in such matters as that?—have you no religion?

NORA.

I am afraid, Torvald, I do not exactly know what religion is.

TORVALD.

What are you saying?

NORA.

I know nothing but what the clergyman said, when I went to be confirmed. He told us that religion was this, and that, and the other. When I am away from all this, and am alone, I will look into that matter too. I will see if what the clergyman said is true, or at all events if it is true for me.

TORVALD.

This is unheard of in a girl of your age! But if religion cannot lead you aright, let me try and awaken your conscience. I suppose you have some moral sense? Or—answer me—am I to think you have none?

NORA.

I assure you, Torvald, that is not an easy question to answer. I really don’t know. The thing perplexes me altogether. I only know that you and I look at it in quite a different light. I am learning, too, that the law is quite another thing from what I supposed; but I find it impossible to convince myself that the law is right. According to it a woman has no right to spare her old dying father, or to save her husband’s life. I can’t believe that.

TORVALD.

You talk like a child. You don’t understand the conditions of the world in which you live.

NORA.

No, I don’t. But now I am going to try. I am going to see if I can make out who is right, the world or I.

TORVALD.

You are ill, Nora; you are delirious; I almost think you are out of your mind.

NORA.

I have never felt my mind so clear and certain as tonight.

TORVALD.

And is it with a clear and certain mind that you forsake your husband and your children?

NORA.

Yes, it is.

TORVALD.

Then there is only one possible explanation.

NORA.

What is that?

TORVALD.

You do not love me anymore.

NORA.

No, that is just it.

TORVALD.

Nora!—and you can say that?

NORA.

It gives me great pain, Torvald, for you have always been so kind to me, but I cannot help it. I do not love you any more.

TORVALD.

[regaining his composure]. Is that a clear and certain conviction too?

NORA.

Yes, absolutely clear and certain. That is the reason why I will not stay here any longer.

TORVALD.

And can you tell me what I have done to forfeit your love?

NORA.

Yes, indeed I can. It was tonight, when the wonderful thing did not happen; then I saw you were not the man I had thought you were.

TORVALD.

Explain yourself better. I don’t understand you.

NORA.

I have waited so patiently for eight years; for, goodness knows, I knew very well that wonderful things don’t happen every day. Then this horrible misfortune came upon me; and then I felt quite certain that the wonderful thing was going to happen at last. When Krogstad’s letter was lying out there, never for a moment did I imagine that you would consent to accept this man’s conditions. I was so absolutely certain that you would say to him: Publish the thing to the whole world. And when that was done—

TORVALD.

Yes, what then?—when I had exposed my wife to shame and disgrace?

NORA.

When that was done, I was so absolutely certain, you would come forward and take everything upon yourself, and say: I am the guilty one.

TORVALD.

Nora—!

NORA.

You mean that I would never have accepted such a sacrifice on your part? No, of course not. But what would my assurances have been worth against yours? That was the wonderful thing which I hoped for and feared; and it was to prevent that, that I wanted to kill myself.

TORVALD.

I would gladly work night and day for you, Nora—bear sorrow and want for your sake. But no man would sacrifice his honour for the one he loves.

NORA.

It is a thing hundreds of thousands of women have done.

TORVALD.

Oh, you think and talk like a heedless child.

NORA.

Maybe. But you neither think nor talk like the man I could bind myself to. As soon as your fear was over—and it was not fear for what threatened me, but for what might happen to you—when the whole thing was past, as far as you were concerned it was exactly as if nothing at all had happened. Exactly as before, I was your little skylark, your doll, which you would in future treat with doubly gentle care, because it was so brittle and fragile. [Getting up.] Torvald—it was then it dawned upon me that for eight years I had been living here with a strange man, and had borne him three children—. Oh, I can’t bear to think of it! I could tear myself into little bits!

TORVALD.

[sadly]. I see, I see. An abyss has opened between us—there is no denying it. But, Nora, would it not be possible to fill it up?

NORA.

As I am now, I am no wife for you.

TORVALD.

I have it in me to become a different man.

NORA.

Perhaps—if your doll is taken away from you.

TORVALD.

But to part!—to part from you! No, no, Nora, I can’t understand that idea.

NORA.

[going out to the right]. That makes it all the more certain that it must be done. [She comes back with her cloak and hat and a small bag which she puts on a chair by the table.]

TORVALD.

Nora, Nora, not now! Wait until tomorrow.

NORA.

[putting on her cloak]. I cannot spend the night in a strange man’s room.

TORVALD.

But can’t we live here like brother and sister—?

NORA.

[putting on her hat]. You know very well that would not last long. [Puts the shawl round her.] Goodbye, Torvald. I won’t see the little ones. I know they are in better hands than mine. As I am now, I can be of no use to them.

TORVALD.

But some day, Nora—some day?

NORA.

How can I tell? I have no idea what is going to become of me.

TORVALD.

But you are my wife, whatever becomes of you.

NORA.

Listen, Torvald. I have heard that when a wife deserts her husband’s house, as I am doing now, he is legally freed from all obligations towards her. In any case, I set you free from all your obligations. You are not to feel yourself bound in the slightest way, any more than I shall. There must be perfect freedom on both sides. See, here is your ring back. Give me mine.

TORVALD.

That too?

NORA.

That too.

TORVALD.

Here it is.

NORA.

That’s right. Now it is all over. I have put the keys here. The maids know all about everything in the house—better than I do. Tomorrow, after I have left her, Christine will come here and pack up my own things that I brought with me from home. I will have them sent after me.

TORVALD.

All over! All over!—Nora, shall you never think of me again?

NORA.

I know I shall often think of you, the children, and this house.

TORVALD.

May I write to you, Nora?

NORA.

No—never. You must not do that.

TORVALD.

But at least let me send you—

NORA.

Nothing—nothing—

TORVALD.

Let me help you if you are in want.

NORA.

No. I can receive nothing from a stranger.

TORVALD.

Nora—can I never be anything more than a stranger to you?

NORA.

[taking her bag]. Ah, Torvald, the most wonderful thing of all would have to happen.

TORVALD.

Tell me what that would be!

NORA.

Both you and I would have to be so changed that—. Oh, Torvald, I don’t believe any longer in wonderful things happening.

TORVALD.

But I will believe in it. Tell me! So changed that—?

NORA.

That our life together would be a real wedlock. Goodbye. [She goes out through the hall.]

TORVALD.

[sinks down on a chair at the door and buries his face in his hands]. Nora! Nora! [Looks round, and rises.] Empty. She is gone. [A hope flashes across his mind.] The most wonderful thing of all—?

Silence until Ping heard clapping, and then the others applauding. She turned to face the auditorium while dazzled by footlights.

Lan Ping that was wonderful! Zhang Min exclaimed. Why haven't I heard of you before?

Ping shaded her eyes as she looked to Zhang Min, and of course she had to leave out her previous Shanghai amateur acting past. I performed in amateur productions in Jinan, and later in Qingdao, before recently relocating to Shanghai.

You must have studied.

I studied at Jinan Drama School for a year, and then I was selected to join a drama club in Beijing. Ping thought she ought to tell the truth. This part means a lot to me. I feel it here, as she put her fist on her heart.

He smiled. You're old for age 20, almost 21.

Ping didn't want sympathy so merely nodded her head.

We have two more actors to audition for Nora, so please wait in the dressing room, and we'll let you know.

Thank you.

Ping returned to the dressing room, oddly calm despite knowing she had this role. A big-budget production of an internationally-known play, performed in countless languages and for the first time to be performed in China. Ping sat on the chair she occupied before, dedicating her performance to her mother. Ping knew her mother would have, for once, been proud of her. Better that her mother would have learned that, as an actor, a woman can be equal to a man.

Chapter Two

Meng, with Wang Lian by his side, approached the gates of Du Yuesheng's mansion on Avenue Joffre, for a Russian bodyguard to step out and intercept them. Those Russians were big and ruthless, good for bodyguards, but they didn't speak Mandarin or Shanghainese. Meng spoke some English, though, and well enough for this.

Ye Meng and Wang Lian, he said.

The Russian gestured for another to open the bullet-proof gates and allow them inside to the grounds of the mansion, where at the front door another Russian led them to the reception room on the right. Du Yuesheng, wearing a white changshan, was at the table with two Westerners and Gong Lin. Du Yuesheng gestured for Meng and Wang Lian to sit.

Daniel Wiseman from New York and Aaron Epstein from Shanghai, here for business deal.

We want to buy 100 kilograms of opium and 2,000 Cadillac Pills a month, to smuggle to New York, Daniel Wiseman said. Our first order will be for three months.

Cadillac Pills were methamphetamine, processed from ephedrine and readily available in China. This made sense.

The opium is no problem, Du Yuesheng said in Mandarin. "The Cadillac Pills we'll make at our factory near the fire station by Suzhou Creek. Gong