Y. K. Pao: My Father

5: Shanghai Banking Days

89 5 Shanghai Banking Days My parents moved to Chongqing during the war when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese. Father worked in a bank and helped Elder Uncle Lu cash cheques into used small denomination currency. However, during all the dealing, Father had no suspicion that Elder Uncle Lu was a Communist, let alone an underground party cadre. Father was twenty-two years old when he started his banking career in Chongqing. He was quickly promoted to be the manager of a branch of the Bank of Industry and Mining. He remained in the post until he moved back to Shanghai when the war ended. With his charm and interpersonal skills, Father soon developed a network in the Shanghai banking world. He earned the trust of many clients and garnered a large amount of deposits for the bank. Within a short time, the Bank of Shanghai became one of the most prestigious institutions in the city. As a result, he was known at the municipal government, and to the mayor at that time, Dr. K. C. Wu (吳國楨).1 At the end of the war in August 1945, the National government wanted to re-establish Shanghai as the financial capital of China. Ten young bankers were selected to go to Shanghai. Father, who was twenty-seven, was one of them. He was flown to Shanghai in a military plane. He started work as the deputy manager in charge of credit at the Bank of Shanghai, a bank directly under the municipal government of Greater Shanghai. Here, Father became known for his astute judgement and his fast mental arithmetic. He was a good banker, especially in client relations. He was also a good-looking young man with a presence. One could say he was handsome. It was not without reason that he was nicknamed “Mei Lanfang of the Shanghai Banking World”.2 Y. K. Pao, My Father 90 In the autumn of 1948, the political climate of Shanghai was extremely unstable .Inflation was rampant and the value of money declined by the hour. What was “money” in the morning would become literally waste paper by the afternoon . There was much social chaos and unrest. Anxiety ran high. Father’s only aspiration was to do his best in always striving to succeed. He never considered any task too difficult or any jobs too onerous. He diligently discharged his responsibilities. From time to time he encountered dubious members of the black societies who tried to extort money from businessmen. But Father was cautious and upright. He treaded on a fine line between honesty and making enemies. One journalist recorded Father saying: “The greatest pride of my professional career was during my tenure as deputy manager of the Bank of Shanghai. I saw three managers come and go. But office politics never affected my job, and I provided continuity for the bank. I must have done something right.” This was not a matter of Father blowing his own trumpet. Thirty years later, Mayor K. C. Wu, who migrated to the United States after 1949, spoke about Father as one of the brightest young men he knew in Shanghai at that time. He had suggested to the writer Henry Liu (whose pen name was Jiang Nan 江南) then in exile from Taiwan, that he write Father’s biography. Unfortunately, Jiang Nan was assassinated in California before he could carry out the task.3 Uncle P. C. Lee was an important witness of Father’s work during the Shanghai days. During the war, Uncle P. C. worked at the Bank of Hunan where he was a colleague of the father-in-law of Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基), later premier of the People’s Republic of China.4 Uncle P. C. did not know about this relationship until Zhu, then mayor of Shanghai, greeted him at a dinner and told him about it. Uncle P. C., like Father, was among the ten young bankers sent to the Bank of Shanghai after the war to take over the assets of the bank which had been seized by the Japanese and the Wang Jingwei (汪精衛) clique.5 For more than forty years, Father and Uncle P. C. worked together in Shanghai and in Hong Kong, and during this period became close personal friends as well. Father invited him to join World-Wide. He later married Father’s sister and so became my uncle. Shanghai Banking Days 91 Uncle P. C. told...