Shanghai Massacre, 1927

After labour organisations seized much of Shanghai during the Northern Expedition, Chiang Kai-shek moved to destroy Communist influence within the revolutionary coalition. On 12 April 1927, armed forces and allied criminal groups attacked union offices and detained or killed organisers.

The purge spread beyond Shanghai and ended the First United Front. It divided the Kuomintang, drove Communists underground and marked a decisive beginning of the Chinese Civil War.

The Emperor’s Bones uses Shanghai’s political underground and the collapse of the alliance to turn friendships and romantic loyalties into matters of survival, betrayal and ideological commitment.