Huang Bamei (; 1906 – 4 May 1982), also known as Huang P’ei-mei or Huang P'emei, was a Chinese pirate leader who served as a naval commander in the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) and the second phase of the Chinese Civil War (1945–1949), aligned with the Republic of China but at times of dubious allegiance. At the height of her power she commanded a force of 50,000 people and 70 ships and was considered the most famous pirate in China. She earned the nickname "Two Guns" owing to her use of two guns in battle.
Born near Shanghai into a poor peasant family, Huang helped her father in transporting and selling salt which only government has monopoly. She began her career in 1931, raiding along the coasts of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Though she was arrested and sentenced to death in 1933, Huang was released from prison through the intervention of her family and their contacts among the authorities. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, Huang was among the local gang leaders recruited by the National Revolutionary Army Secret Services for guerrilla warfare purposes. Her loyalties throughout the war were suspect, frequently shifting between China, Japan, and various local groups as the balance of power in the war changed. From 1940 onwards she was fighting for the Nationalist Chinese army. Her participation most often amounted to pirate attacks and raids, though she also participated in battles and was in contact with the United States Office of Strategic Services. During WW 2 she saved the life of an American bomber flier to Chungking and was rewarded by US Intelligence with automatic rifles and rocket launcher.
After the end of World War II, Huang returned to transport and selling illegal salt, raiding around Lake Tai, though she was defeated by government forces. Pardoned, Huang was later recruited by the military again in 1948 to fight against the communists in the Chinese Civil War at the suggestion of Nationalist Chinese Defence Minister Yen. She launched multiple raids inside China from offshore Islands in Zhoushan. As she lost her soldiers by People Liberation Army regular forces. She aided in the defense of the Dachen Islands and Taiwan but largely shifted away from military operations. She later became an influential member of a women's organization founded by Soong Mei-ling, wife of the nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, and worked to take care of refugees in Taiwan. Many respected her contribution as leader of a guerilla forces outside of Shanghai and Hangzhou Bay.
Early life
Huang Bamei was born in 1906 to a poor peasant family in Jinshan County, Jiangsu, near Shanghai. Huang had twelve siblings. Her mother's name was Huang Xiuzhu (黄秀珠). Huang's hometown was either Fuwangdai or Hehengdai. Her name was actually Cuiyun (翠雲), but she was more widely known as Bamei (八妹), which meant "eight" or "eighth sister". This nickname derived either from being the eighth daughter in the family or from having downward-sloping eyebrows that resembled the Chinese character for "eight" (八).
Huang's family was involved in smuggling and piracy. From an early age she assisted her father in transporting and selling illegally acquired smuggled salt. Her family were also businesspeople; Huang's mother owned a dram shop at which her father operated a gambling table. Huang was reportedly strong from an early age. She had started practicing with guns as early as at the age of twelve and had mastered using two guns simultaneously at the age of fifteen.
There exist several unverified stories of Huang's exploits in her childhood and youth. One such story is that Huang while still a child was to be married off to a member of the Wu family. The Wus eventually broke the marriage agreement on account of Huang's "rough character" and her nature to "attack and confront". There are also stories that exaggerate her tough character, such as a tale claiming that she was once faced with two pirate ships while at sea and defeated their crews. Additionally, there are many unverified local legends concerning sexual affairs with influential figures she was in known to have been in contact with, such as Shi Lianyuan, a salt merchant in Pinghu, and Xu Ashu, leader of the local Lake Tai gang.
Career
1931–1933: Local pirate
In 1931, Xu Ashu led a large pirate raid in Ganpu (a town by Hangzhou Bay). The local government in Jiangsu eventually defeated and captured Xu Ashu with a hastily assembled fleet. While in captivity, Ashu told the authorities that Huang and her associate Shi Lianyuan (the salt merchant) had participated in the attack and had been significant in providing the weapons used. Huang and Lianyuan escaped and hid in various places to avoid the authorities. Almost a year later in 1932, Huang emerged again as a pirate. She is recorded to have plundered, kidnapped and murdered traders and ordinary people and in one notable incident boarded a steamer and robbed the eight wealthy families on board. At this time Huang operated under the alias "Woman He-Zhang" (何張氏; Hé-Zhāng shì). She was active along the coasts of the Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.
Huang was captured by the local Jiangsu authorities at the Shanghai International Settlement in July 1933. Lianyuan had been with her at the time of the arrest but managed to escape the police. Huang had invented a fake persona as "Woman He-Zhang", claiming that she had a six-year-old child with her husband "Zhang Jinsheng" and was taking care of her old mother at her home, and that she had never known Lianyuan. The police quickly deduced that these were lies. A month into the investigation, Huang admitted to having lived with Lianyuan for three years and that she had been the owner of the weapons used in Xu Ashu's attack, though she denied her participation in that attack (claiming the guns had been stolen) and her involvement in any of her later attacks and plunderings. Although she never confessed to any of the charges against her, Huang was sentenced to death three weeks later. The newspaper Shen Bao published a report vilifying Huang on 3 August 1933, writing of her "extraordinary arm power" and that she was "abnormally atrocious". Despite the death sentence, Huang was soon released from prison through the aid of the district police director Shen Menglian, brother-in-law to a man named Li Tianmin, who had been contacted by Huang's mother.
After escaping death, Huang for a time had a relatively ordinary career as the manager of Li Tianmin's family's teahouse in Nanqiao.
1937–1945: Sino-Japanese War
1937 marked the true beginning of Huang's piracy career. Due to the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945) in that year, the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China recruited local armed gangs and groups throughout the country to employ them for guerrilla warfare purposes. Huang, owing to her criminal past, did not formally join the army but organised a group of followers and allied herself with local military forces in the Shanghai area. At some point during this time, she met her husband, Xie Yousheng, a division captain of a troop of recruited local gangsters originally from Zhapu.
Huang's loyalties in the war were considered suspect; her allegiances and alliances shifted frequently between not only China and Japan but also between local minor groups as the balance of power in the war changed. One report mentions that Huang and 6,000 subordinates were fighting for the Japanese in early 1938. Huang was captured by Japanese forces in Pudong in August 1938 and was the subject of a propaganda campaign to paint her as a traitor solely aligned with Japan. This had little effect and she was shortly thereafter free again and once again recruited by the Chinese military. In 1939, the Chinese government-aligned magazine Friends of the Wounded published an article praising Huang as a war heroine with impressive shooting skills and downplaying her criminal and suspect past. Huang earnt the nickname "Two Guns" during this time due to jumping onto enemy ships while carrying two guns.
In 1940, Huang joined the army of Mao Sen, a major Chinese intelligence leader and commander who had recently escaped Japanese imprisonment. In Sen's writings, Huang is described as "a common woman who was kind and gentle and had Buddhist beliefs", once more downplaying her career as a pirate. Sen tasked Huang and Xie, who accompanied her, to establish underground networks to monitor Japanese activities and to attempt to detect hiding enemies. Huang was assigned a growing number of troops, becoming a guerrilla commander despite objections from some that a woman should not be a wartime leader. Though her forces were undisciplined at first, they began to take shape as a fighting force after months of training. The forces under Huang, who enjoyed being called "Commander Huang", grew considerably in number. At the height of her power and influence, Huang commanded 50,000 people, had a fleet of 70 ships and was considered the most famous pirate in China.
Huang's wartime activities often amounted to pirate attacks and local communities feared her throughout the war. She also led her forces in several battles, particularly in western Zhejiang. She captured some towns in the region and expanded her control to encompass a relatively large local area. She also aided Chinese forces through escorting agents and covert operatives into Japanese-occupied Shanghai. Huang was briefly captured by the communist New Fourth Army in 1942 but released after being given a "brief education". As World War II intensified in the Pacific Ocean and the Chinese forces began cooperating with the United States, Huang was in contact with the United States Office of Strategic Services. She was assisted by the United States military and was at one point given four new pistols and eight new submachine guns by the Americans. She was sometimes promoted and publicised in Chinese propaganda.
1945–1948: Interwar life
After the conclusion of the war with Japan in 1945, Huang was relieved of her large-scale military duties on account of the Chinese military mistrusting her. Huang returned to her hometown, where she was appointed as the leader of a minor military unit called the Pinghu Community Defense Corps. Only a few months into this role, Huang revolted against the government, bringing many of the Pinghu Community Defense Corps and a large number of weapons with her into Lake Tai and resuming her career as a pirate.
Huang raided local communities and sent her followers out on missions to assess the movements of government forces sent to suppress her. The motivation for Huang to return to piracy are unclear. In practical terms her actions differed little from how she had operated during the war. Huang was eventually defeated by government forces but was not punished for her crimes. Instead, the government spread a fake news story that she had not been present during the uprising or during the pirate attacks and that previous reports had been erroneous.
After this, Huang acquired a seaside hotel in Zhapu. Huang's hotel became a popular resort, visited by reporters, writers, diplomats and government officials. Huang also invested in real estate, opened several shops, gave talks about her battles against the Japanese during the war, and was elected as a representative to the council of Pinghu County.
1948–1951: Chinese Civil War