City of Lost Souls Brings Old Shanghai to Life
Martin Petersen is an expert on China and a former senior executive with the CIA. He has extensively written about Asia and national security issues. His first novel, City of Lost Souls, and released by Earnshaw Books, is set in 1930s Shanghai, a city he has studied and admired for decades. Petersen holds a Master of Arts in Asian Studies with a focus on modern Chinese history, which influenced his interest in Shanghai’s dynamic past. Petersen currently resides in the Texas Hill Country, where he continues his research while enjoying his signature Bombay Sapphire martini.
What led you to choose 1930s Shanghai as the backdrop for City of Lost Souls?
I have always been fascinated by China, and I have a Master of Arts in Asian Studies with a concentration in modern Chinese history. Shanghai is at the center of that history. I first visited the city in the early 1980s just as Deng’s economic reforms were being launched. People were still wearing the padded Mao suits and cars were relatively rare. I spent two full days just wandering the city and marveling at the art deco buildings and the lilongs. I walked through the old French Concession, Nantao, and the International Settlement imagining what life must have been like then for the ex-pats and for the poor Chinese who suffered so much. I had some knowledge of the city and its history before, but that trip turned an interest into a passion and a hobby. I began to collect books, mostly ones written about life in Shanghai and published before 1949, maps, and articles. I have never made an exact count, but I must have over 500 items.
What role does the city itself play as a character in City of Lost Souls?
I wanted the novel to be as much about the city as the characters in my story. I tried hard to capture the time and sense of place—January 1932 when escalating tensions between China and Japan broke out into urban warfare and marked the beginning of the end for Shanghai. The novel opens with a description that I think does that and sets the mood for the story that follows. The early reviews have all commented that City of Lost Souls captures an era. The events in the novel are real and I have populated the story with people that actually lived there at the time. Their interactions with Jack Ford, the detective hero of the story, are entirely fictional and a product of my imagination, but I tried to be true to their character, drawing on their real-life experiences and the records they left. I include at the end of the book thumbnail sketches of the real people Jack encounters and relate what happened to them. Some of the stories are quite tragic.
What inspired you to create the character of Jack Ford, and how does he reflect the complexities of living in an environment as politically charged as 1930s Shanghai?
Because I wanted the novel to be about the city and all the different types of people living there—the rich and poor, East and West, Chinese and Japanese, gangsters and patriots—I needed a character that could reasonably move across the layers of Shanghai society. And because it is a mystery, the detective was the natural choice. When I thought about Jack Ford the character, I had Bogart and Dick Powell of 1940s film noir in the back of my mind. Jack is an outsider, an orphan, and someone who has been living in China for over a quarter century. Although an American, he thinks of Shanghai as his home, and is a bit of a lost soul himself. He can be cynical, but he has a tender side too and somewhat of a spiritual nature. He cares and tends to judge the ex-pat community harshly while displaying compassion for the Chinese. He is not given to violence but is capable of rising to the occasion when the occasion calls for it.
Can you discuss the role of Father Jacquinot in the story? How did you draw from historical figures to shape his character and actions?
Father Jacquinot is one of the real people in the novel and he is central to how the story unfolds. He is friend and confidant to Jack, and his connections are instrumental in solving the mystery. Father Jacquinot was a Jesuit and taught English at Aurora University. He was also chaplain to the Shanghai Volunteer Corps and was an incredibly brave person whose actions saved literally hundreds if not thousands of Chinese lives. He is mentioned in several of the books written at the time, and Marcia Ristaino wrote about his life and remarkable work with the Chinese poor and refugees in The Jacquinot Safe Zone: Wartime Refugees in Shanghai. I used these in imagining his actions and interactions with Jack. The climax of the novel—I’ll say no more about what it is—is based on an event that actually happened in 1927.
Shanghai is depicted as a city full of contrasts. How did you go about researching and authentically portraying the city’s mix of western and Chinese influences during the period?
I mentioned that I collect books and maps and articles on Shanghai, some of them in Chinese. My bibliography runs to almost 600 entries and the notes on what I’ve read comes to 1,015 pages. I have also built a timeline of Shanghai that is over 250 pages, and then there are street guides and address books. So, I’ve done my research, and the events described in the City of Lost Souls are accurate to the best of my ability. There are a number of picture books that I drew on to describe buildings and streets. I never lived in Shanghai, but I travelled quite a bit through China and East Asia, and those experiences helped me with the “feel of things.” A couple of books were especially useful in capturing the time. China’s Trial by Fire by Donald Jordan is a great source for the maneuvering preceding the outbreak of fighting in 1932 and the fighting itself. Old Shanghai Gangsters in Paradise by Lynn Pan and Paul French’s City of Devils are great for the lowlife part of Shanghai. Memoirs written at the time by ex-pats describe a lifestyle that certainly was unique. I mention a number of these books in the thumbnail sketches of people at the end of the novel.
How did you approach depicting the brutality and humanity amidst war and turmoil in the novel?
There were descriptions of the fighting like Jordan’s book, but old Life Magazines were very helpful too. The 1930s were a great era for picture journalism. In my travels, I have seen the aftermath of fighting, and when I was in the government, I worked on issues related to Vietnam and Cambodia and the fighting between China and Vietnam. I am also a veteran. I was drafted in 1969 and served two years in the Army and did a tour in Vietnam. I think as an author you also have to draw on your personal experiences and imagine how you might react in certain situations. The characters in City of Lost Souls are ordinary people, not superheroes. They are trapped in a horrible situation; they have strengths and weaknesses; they have successes and failures. I tried to write them from that perspective.
What was the most significant challenge in writing about the complex relationships between Chinese Nationalists, Japanese militarists, and foreign expatriates?
Not making them cartoon characters. I tried to give them individual personalities, but some of the minor figures Jack encounters are intended to reflect certain attitudes, especially among the ex-pat community, at the time. I want the reader to feel like they would like to know not only Jack and Connie, but also Phil Bowman, Michael Finley, Mikhail, Chan, and some of the others. Once I decided on their basic character and traits, I tried to imagine how such a person would react in the situations I placed them in.
Are you currently working on any new novels or projects that continue to explore historical settings like the City of Lost Souls, or are you venturing into new genres or themes?
I have written a number of articles on Asia and intelligence, and I do periodic book reviews for the Cipher Brief. City of Lost Souls is my first novel, but I have an idea for a second one. It too will be set in Shanghai in the 1930s and Jack Ford will face a new challenge that will once again take him across the city and through its many complex layers of people, motives, and values.
Photos courtesy of Martin Petersen
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