Overview

Shanghai, 1931. Lady Sylvia Allington is the beautiful, young American-born wife of an aged British diplomat. She and her husband travel to Shanghai to persuade a notorious Chinese warlord, General Gong Fei, to donate a priceless antique jade bust to the British Museum. Lady Sylvia, a former carnival cooch dancer from Chicago, falls headlong into a fatal love affair with the mysterious Gong Fei, getting hooked on opium and antagonizing the general’s chief adviser, the elderly Doctor Wu, and his enigmatic mistress, Mah Li. A scandal involving a local bordello madame, Mrs. Carroll, and a cockney drug runner named Pug Talbot leads to tragedy. Gong Fei blames Sylvia for his troubles, and in a mad fit, brands her on the buttocks. She shoots him and finds herself on trial for his murder. She is acquitted but still imprisoned in her loveless marriage, so she knowingly sniffs a poisoned chrysanthemum and dies. Shanghai Moon is an homage to movie and stage melodramas.

Keywords

• Asian Experience
• Not Applicable