Sensational adventure stories were all the rage in Shanghai in the early 20th century and Murder in the Maloo: A Tale of Old Shanghai represents an excellent example of this most popular of popular fiction categories. Translated into English and published here for the first time, this historical novel tells of the exploits of Ma Yongzhen, a martial artist and gangster who was ruthlessly murdered by rival gangs in 1879. The story takes the reader into the world of the Shanghai gangster and the opium dens, courtesan houses, and teashops they frequented. It is very loosely based on a true story, as Ma Yongzhen was in fact an historical figure, who rode the horses of his native Shandong province and walked the streets of Shanghai in late Qing dyansty China. The book follows Ma's rivalry with local gangland bosses, the unscrupulous Scrofulous Bai and the ruthless opium fiend and murderous mastermind, Cheng Zimin. For much of the story, Ma Yongzhen appears to be unstoppable in his quest to dominate the Shanghai underworld, until a dastardly plan is laid to attack him unawares. In addition to translating the novel, Paul Bevan has written an illuminating introduction and an essay that vividly describes the city of Shanghai as Ma Yongzhen would have known it.

Paul Bevan is a Sinologist, historian, researcher and literary translator. From 2020 to 2023 he worked as a Departmental Lecturer in Modern Chinese Literature and Culture at the University of Oxford. Before that, from 2018 to 2020, he was Christensen Fellow in Chinese Painting at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. His research focuses equally on the visual arts and literature, and concerns the impact of Western art and literature on China during the Republican Era and the late Qing dynasty, particularly concerning periodicals and magazines. Paul's first book, A Modern Miscellany - Shanghai Cartoon Artists, Shao Xunmei's Circle and the Travels of Jack Chen, 1926-1938, Leiden: Brill, 2015, was hailed as "a major contribution to modern Chinese studies"; his second, 'Intoxicating Shanghai': Modern Art and Literature in Pictorial Magazines during Shanghai's Jazz Age was published by Brill in 2020. John A. Crespi's review calls attention to the translations imbedded in the book: "Featured within the book's densely informative analyses are translations of four modernist short stories. [These] in themselves contribute significantly to modern Chinese literary studies...". These four short stories are: "The Girl in the Inky-Green Cheongsam", and "Camel, Nietzscheanist and Woman" by Mu Shiying, "Hai Alai Scenes" by Hei Ying, and "Attempted Murder" by Liu Na'ou.