In his poem Autobiography, Rewi Alley writes of Shanghai in 1936:

Gone were dreams in the daytime; and/ down one reeking lane after another, fronted with blasphemous/ names, 'Five Happiness Courts', 'Blessed Harmony Alleyways', where people/rotted in conditions intolerable in the New Industry that went to make men/rich; make who rich I never really found out; all connected with the business seemed to be rotting in one way or another.

In his production notes, Phil Mann gives an indication of the way in which the problems that such a Chinese/Western play presents were dealt with:

"When Rewi Alley was in New Zealand in 1972 to receive an honorary doctorate from this university he indicated that he did not mind how his play was produced so long as the message came through. We have attempted to keep to his notes. In working on the play, certain conventions have been established. We sought to introduce ideas in the make-up, movement and line delivery derived from the Chinese theatre. This is not to say that we have imitated or imported ideas wholesale, but rather that the Chinese example has led to different conventions in the Western theatre. For example, in the script there is no attempt made to hide the bad characters; nor is any such attempt made in the production, but rather they are pushed to a level of vicious caricature."