Nights in Shanghai: a Kaiserreich Noir Audio Drama
Project Overview
Nights in Shanghai is an ongoing audio drama series set in an alternate 1920's timeline. In the widely popular Kaiserreich universe, a German victory in WW1 has completely altered the world as we know it. The Entente's defeat in the Great War has led to the collapse of British and French colonial empires. In her place, new and old great powers have brokered a fragile balance of power in the war-torn China. The old Qing Empire remains, but only at the grace of massive German financial and military support. Much of the former treaty ports of France and Britain have been united in an independent federation known as the Legation Cities: A hub of international trade and commerce under international governance, warded off from the violent civil war raging in the rest of China.
However, German, Japanese and Russian influence keep the Legation Cities in a constant state of cold war. In Shanghai, non-government actors, spies, mafia families and petty thugs struggle for control of the city's vast wealth and influence. In this city of sin, deals are brokered by so-called 'compradors', experienced and well-connected individuals that forge their own path in the sweltering chaos. Nights in Shanghai follows the adventures of one such comprador, the American Frank Duncan, as he navigates a world of grey morality and chaos.
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A Shanghai native in her mid-twenties, Chen is an informant and messenger for the Green Gang. The fourth daughter of a wealthy Chinese entrepreneur who got on the bad side of the green gang, Chen was de-facto adopted at a young age by her fathers’ killers. Thanks to her background, she is better educated and more capable than she appears, and speaks English with an American or British accent.
CHEN: Alright boys, game’s over. He’s coming with me.
Looking for you, and apparently saving your ass.
The barber, he keeps an eye on things. Now come on, follow me and get in, you’re needed somewhere.
You’ll find out soon enough, and hey, it seems you owe me one. [Teasingly] Besides, don’t you trust me?
Looks like you picked up quite a bruise.
I heard you nearly got one just like it a few weeks back, a run-in with some German officer?
Asshole or angel, seems you were really going out on a limb. Honestly, my employer respects a stand like that, but picking fights with German officers doesn’t seem so healthy to me.
Zhang is almost a caricature of warlordism; crude, violent, debauched, and inconceivably wealthy. Interpersonally, he is known for an unpredictable mix of bad temper, crass humor, and generosity. At an imposing 2 meters tall, his voice is fairly deep, and his unsophisticated Shandong accent betrays his impoverished origins.
All of his lines are in Chinese. A Shandong accent is not required, merely preferred.
ZHANG: [Distant, shouting in Chinese, a bit drunk] Hey! Fuck them! Fuck your mother! I don’t want to see them! Bring the girls back out!
(喂喂喂！干他娘的！操你妈！老子不想看到他们！快把那些耐看的小妞儿 们给俺找回来！)
You look like you’ve been in a fight.
Nice. Did you win?
Fuck the debt, put him on the job. The one with Sun.
A representative for Zhang Zongchang’s interests of British origin. Upper class and slightly snobby, likely a former bureaucrat or other official displaced by the collapse of the British Empire.
REPRESENTATIVE: Then you’ll be pleased to learn that this is a fairly straight-forward matter. You owe quite a substantial debt, I’m afraid, which we cannot allow to remain unpaid.
Sir, even if that were an option, I wasn't finished. As I’m sure you’re aware, gambling over mere money would have been meaningless to both parties, so instead they bet against the contents of their hotel suites. The monetary loss was of course immaterial, but a wound to pride is not so easily remedied. The job my employer is offering you, is to arrange the return of the entire contents of the Cathay Hotel’s Japanese suite. Most items are already on the open market. I have a comprehensive printed list right here.
[Dismissively] I think you’re over-selling your position, sir. I am offering the job as-is, and that’s final. Either you take it here and now, or I cannot guarantee the continued good behavior of my employer. What will it be?
HOST
A Chinese showman with an American accent and the voice of a classic radio announcer.
HOST: [Distant] Next, we'll be hearing from the magnificent Swingin’ Sevens! Come on out boys!
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