Feng Po Chu



Feng Po Chu is the main villain in Kate Furnivall's novel The Russian Concubine. He is the son of the President of the Kiuomintang, a facist government faction. Feng Po Chu is pure evil. He runs a brothel, and is in command of an entire legion of Kiuomintang agents as well as his own Black Snake Triad division, which is evil and utterly ruthless. Feng Po Chu could be viewed as the antithesis of his father: Feng, his father, is ruthless, but not evil, as he can tolerate his enemies. Feng simply takes delight from torturing and killing his enemies without a second thought.

Backstory
In the events of the novel, set in 1940s China, the government has been seized by Chi Keng-shek. Chinese communists view him as a traitor as he fulfilled none of his promises and is more interested in wealth and power. Chang an Lo, a communist whose family have been killed, is on his way to kill Chi Keng-shek, president of China. Chang ends up meeting Lydia Ivanova, a Russian exile in China. The two develop a friendship which was banned at the time. Unfortunately Feng Po Chu is on the track of Chang, as the government want to kill all communists in China.

Hunting Chang
Feng Po Chu sets numerous traps for Chang, but Chang outmanovoures them all and manages to outwit him. This infuriates Feng. Chang finds the government headquarters and infiltrates Feng's bedroom in the dead of night, finding him asleep naked with two concubines. Chang presses a knife to Feng Po Chu's testicles and forces him to be dragged to his father, Feng, in a deal which will ensure Chang's safety. The deal goes awry, and Feng Po Chu embarrases himself in front of his Black Snake Triad by excreting himself in embarrasment. Feng Po Chu vows revenge.

Feng learns that Chang has a friend named Lydia from his city spies, and he learns that they meet at a river named Lizard creek. The evil Black Snakes ambush Lydia on her way home and torture her briefly, demanding to know the location of Chang, who has laid low. Lydia denies having any contact with Chang, and suggests he may be dead, to which the triad gangsters seem to accept.

However, Feng Po Chu does not give up. He tracks Chang down and ambushes him, knocking him out with a blow to the head. Feng Po Chu gets his revenge by imprisoning Chang in a small, airtight box for three whole months, and then beating him and torturing Chang by means of chopping off his fingers and disfiguring his face and body. Feng Po Chu then dumps Chang's starved, broken body on the street to be cleaned up and disposed of as rubbish.

Triumph and downfall
Unfortunately for Feng Po Chu, Lydia Ivanova, the Russian exile, manages to find Chang an Lo after an exhausting search. She nurses him back to health and he tells her of the Black Snakes and their evil torture. One of Lydia's friends, an English girl named Polly Mason, accidentally discovers Chang in Lydia's bedroom when she pays Lydia a visit. Lydia begs Polly not to tell anybody of Chang's presence in her home; even though he is no criminal; she is still worried the government will kill Chang if they know he is with her. Polly, unfortunately, is frightened of her abusive father, Christopher Mason, and she tells him of Chang's presence - causing Christopher to alert the Kiuomintang faction (which are very influential in the city) and in due course Feng Po Chu. Feng is furious with Lydia for harbouring what he deems a criminal and he ruthlessly kills her beloved rabbit, and then knocks out Lydia when she comes to see the rabbit and finds him dead. Lydia wakes in the same torture box Feng Po Chu put Chang in.

In the box, the Black Snakes begin to drown Lydia repetitively, to force information out of her about why she let Chang live, but then Feng Po Chu deems it more effective torture if he personally tortures Lydia, so he releases her from the box and then begins to tweak her breast with tweezers. Lydia refuses to tell him anything and in a squabble she gains hold of a pistol, which she uses to kill the evil Feng Po Chu.

Personality
Feng Po Chu was an evil, ruthless man, cowardly when he was in a battle situation, yet ruthlessly terrifying when in his Triad profession. His powers lay in torture, and he revelled in human misery. His sole aim was to seize control of the Chinese underworld; this put him at odds with his father. His father disowned him, which spurred his wrath to even greater levels. After Feng Po Chu's death, his father accepted his estranged daughter back into his family.