Elizabeth Cheung and Billy Robertson from Cache Antiques in Sydney uncover the story of ‘The Yellow Way Society’.
This article first appeared in the Spring 2024 issue of Antiques to Vintage Magazine. Written by Elizabeth Cheung and edited by Julie Carter.
Behind this set of four early 20th century Chinese export silver spoons lurks a fascinating story of war, assassins and covert operations in Japanese-occupied Shanghai. The set was made by Feng Xiang Yu Ji, a branch of the Chinese retail silversmith Feng Xiang who was active from 1880 to 1930. Both were fine silver retailers based in Tientsin, but Feng Xiang Yu Ji also had its own workshop supplying other retail silversmiths. Such fine silver items were popular not only with European and American expats, of which there was a thriving community in Tientsin, but also with members of the Chinese upper and middle classes.
Another thriving community was of course in Shanghai, where these spoons would later travel. During the Roaring Twenties new heights were reached on the glittering Bund, cementing Shanghai’s reputation as the Pearl of the Orient. J.G. Ballard remarked, “Anything was possible, and everything could be bought and sold.” Yet despite the heady fervour and determination to forget the hardships of the Great War, the encroaching Japanese threat hinted that these halcyon days were soon to end and as Japanese forces overwhelmed Shanghai in late 1937 the city fell under occupation, a situation that would last until the end of WWII. It was during this chaotic time that these spoons came into the possession of the Yellow Way Society, whose name is inscribed upon each stem.
During this time pro-Japanese organisations emerged to indirectly support the occupation. Two of the most prominent were the Rehabilitation Society, which focused on a more diplomatic approach, and the other, far more notorious organisation of the Huangdaohui, i.e. the Yellow Way Society. The original Yellow Way Society of the 17th century aimed to overthrow the Manchu-led Qing dynasty to restore the Ming Dynasty.
The newly-formed Society had different aims; the so-called Imperial or Yellow Way they intended to establish was the puppet ‘empire’ of Manchukuo, which was controlled by the Japanese. Led by Japanese imperial military agents and Chinese collaborators, this new Yellow Way Society sought to stamp out the Chinese resistance in Shanghai
through any means necessary. Chang Yuqing (2884-1946) was a prominent Green Gang member, one of the largest triad societies in Asia that by the early 20th century had begun to smuggle salt, opium and run various vice dens.
Thus Chang began his rise to power. He participated on the side of the Japanese in the January 28 conflict of 1932, which sparked heavy fighting between Chinese and Japanese forces in the Shanghai International Settlement and marked the beginning of the second Sino-Japanese War. Pursued by Nationalist authorities, Chang fled to Japan where he made the acquaintance of underworld elements as well as the Japanese secret police.
In 1937, Chang was directed by Colonel Kusumoto Sanataka, a senior figure in the Kokuryūkai or Black Dragon Society, to found the Yellow Way Society to facilitate Japanese control of Shanghai. While the Black Dragon Society was nominally a paramilitary organisation, Colonel Kusumoto was the head of the Japanese secret service in Shanghai. The Black Dragon Society functioned as the monkey’s paw of Japan’s military police during World War II and had ties to Japanese cabinet ministers as well as the ruling party of Japan. Chang set up headquarters in the then recently built glitzy New Asia Hotel from where the society operated openly as a pro-Japanese pseudo security force, but in reality carried out far bloodier work for the Japanese by removing Chinese resistance within Shanghai.
The Yellow Way Society soon escalated; police files at the time indicate they were behind a spree of bombings and assassinations, often carrying out several terror attacks in a single night.
In May and June of 1938 alone, bomb attacks were attempted by agents of the Yellow Way Society on Chekiang Road, the Central Trust Bureau, the British-owned Chinese newspaper Morning Leader and the Hwa Tung Broadcasting Station. Among these attacks, that upon the Morning Leader was the most notorious. From newspaper reports of that time, the two assailants (surnamed Zao and Wu), armed with hand grenades, threw the explosives into the office, wounding a police constable and three others who sustained shrapnel injuries to the face, legs and throughout their bodies.
Despite Zao and Wu confessing to Chang’s role in the Yellow Way Society he continued to operate with impunity. Perhaps these spoons were engraved as a way to boast that the Huangdaohui was untouchable in the settlement.
The Yellow Way Society’s reign of terror gradually came to an end in 1941, with Japanese interests in Nanking diverting time and resources away from Shanghai. Chang Yuqing was transferred there along with other prominent triad and pro-Japanese figures to form the China Anqing General Association. When America joined the war against Japan, most of the Han Chinese Japanese collaborators, including Chang, were rounded up and the notorious triad leader was executed on August 20, 1946. The Yellow Way Society, once a ruling force in the Shanghai underworld, became a footnote in history with only a few lingering mementos left of their activities in wartime Shanghai.
Billy Robertson is the proprietor of Sydney business Cache Antiques. He and his social media director and research partner, Elizabeth Cheung, will be researching pieces of scandalous silver for Antiques to Vintage on a regular basis. www.cacheantiques.com.