People · Green Gang leader, French Concession Chinese Councillor
Zhang Xiaolin
张啸林Zhāng Xiàolín · 1877–1940
Green Gang leader and French Concession Chinese Councillor, one of Shanghai's three 'big shots' with Huang Jinrong and Du Yuesheng; shot dead in 1940.
Zhang Xiaolin (张啸林, Zhāng Xiàolín) was a Green Gang leader of the French Concession who held an official seat on the concession’s council.
Born in Cixi, Zhejiang, he came to Shanghai in 1912 and joined the Green Gang as a disciple of Fan Jincheng, building a following of his own. Together with Huang Jinrong and Du Yuesheng he was counted among the city’s three leading gang figures. In 1920 the three founded the Sanxin Company, which the gazetteer describes as an opium-trading business. Zhang also opened a hotel, a bullring and teahouses.
After the April 1927 coup he received advisory posts with the Nationalist army and became president of the French Concession’s Chinese Ratepayers’ Association. From 1928 he was repeatedly elected one of the Chinese Councillors of the concession. After the Japanese occupation he organised the purchase of army supplies and, in late 1939, planned a pro-Japanese Zhejiang government. He was shot dead in Shanghai on 14 August 1940.
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Du Yuesheng杜月笙Business partner in the Sanxin Company; one of the three Shanghai gang leaders
Huang Jinrong黄金荣Business partner in the Sanxin Company; one of the three Shanghai gang leaders