James M. Zimmerman

The overall title of this book is a bit of an oversell. Yes, there are bandits, whose leadership wanted to use the hijacking as a means of challenging the local warlord. Yes, there were enough elite Western passengers on the train in question (including, of all people, John D. Rockefeller's sister-in-law) to grab international attention. As for whether it broke the Republic of China, well, the government was really a dead man walking, due to the rise of the warlords reaching its zenith, though this event did torpedo a conference to address the issue of extraterritoriality and the citizens of Western states in China.

Seeing as Zimmerman is something of a modern "China Hand," you can see why he would want to tackle this story, as he can no doubt relate to the foreign adventurers, journalists, and operators who were the core of the hostages, and whose personal accounts provide the foundation for his book. So, even if his treatment does seem a little shallow, the author has done the heavy lifting, including tracing the route the hostages were dragged on once the train was abandoned, so I have to grant Zimmerman respect on that point. Finally, as for the title, Zimmerman does make a good argument that the 1932 film "Shanghai Express," which featured Marlene Dietrich, was probably a cultural memory of this incident.… (més)