| | | | Part One: Shanghai Calling |
| 1 | | | The Patriarch |
| | David | Sassoon | Scion of a prominent Jewish family from Baghdad. |
| | Nebuchadnezzar | | King of Babylon. |
| | Samuel | Zacharia | David Sassoon's friend and fellow middle eastern trader. |
| | Lord | Palmerston | British prime minister. |
| | Robert | Grant | The new British governor-general of Bombay. |
| | Abdullah | | David Sassoon's oldest son. |
| | Elias | | One of David Sassoon's sons. |
| | Queen Victoria | | Former Queen of the United Kingdom. |
| | El Greco | | A Greek painter. |
| | King George III | | Former King of the United Kingdom. |
| | Quianlong | | Chinese emperor. |
| | Lin | Zexu | Former Viceroy of Huguang. |
| | Frederick the Great | | Former King of Prussia. |
| | Albert Edward | | Prince of Wales. aka: Bertie. |
| 2 | | | Empire of the Sons - and Opium |
| | Marco | Polo | Italian merchant, explorer and writer. |
| | Arthur | Sassoon | One of David Sassoon's sons. |
| | Jacob | Saphir | A European researcher and writer. |
| | Jacob | Sassoon | Elias' son. |
| | William | Jardin | An opium merchant and trader. |
| | Albert | Sassoon | Abdullah's new name. |
| | Siegfred | Sassoon | A famous British poet. |
| | S. D. | Sassoon | One of Elias' brothers. |
| | Reuben | Sassoon | One of Sassoon's brothers. |
| | Edward Albert | Sassoon | Albert Sassoon's son. |
| | Winston | Churchill | Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. |
| | Honore | de Balzac | A French writer. |
| 3 | | | Laura and Elly |
| | Rima | Kadoorie | A Sassoon's distant cousin. |
| | Salih | | Rima Kadoorie's husband. |
| | Eleazer Silas | Kadoorie | Rima Kadoorie's youngest son. aka: Elly. |
| | Lawrence | | Elly Kadoorie's eldest son. |
| | Moses | | Elly's older brother. |
| | E. S. | Kelly | Elly's adopted alias. |
| | Benjamin | | Elly's co-trader. |
| | Warren | Buffett | American investor. |
| | Robert | Hotung | One of the richest Chinese men in town. |
| | Ellis | | Elly Kadoorie's brother. |
| | Frederick | Mocatta | Leader of the London-Jewish Community. |
| | Laura | | Elly Kadoorie's wife. |
| | Oliver | Cromwell | An English statesman, politician and soldier. |
| | Horace | | One of Elly and Laura's sons. |
| | Victor | | One of Elly and Laura's sons. |
| | Katherine | Hepburn | American actress. |
| | Ah | Ning | A nanny. |
| | Theodore | Roosevelt | The 26th U.S. President. |
| | Henry | Ford | American industrialist and business magnate. |
| | Thomas | Jackson | Head of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. |
| | Liang | Qichao-chai | One of China's most influential thinkers. |
| | Sun | Yat-sen | Chinese
revolutionary statesman. |
| | | | Part Two: Kings of Shanghai |
| 4 | | | Shanghai Rising |
| | Yuan | Shikai | Former President of the Republic of China. |
| | Mao | Zedong | Former President of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Zhou | Enlai | Former President of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Joseph | Stilwell | U. S. Army General. |
| | J. K. | Patterson | Jardine's executive. |
| | William | Keswick | Head of the Jardine's office in Shanghai. |
| | Charles | Lindbergh | American military officer and aviator. |
| | Katherine | Stinson | First woman to fly to Shanghai from England. |
| | Whitey | Smith | A jazz drummer and bandleader. |
| | Douglas | Fairbanks | A Hollywood movie star. |
| | Mary | Pickford | Douglas Fairbank's wife. |
| | King Faisal | | Former King of Saudi Arabia. |
| | Haile | Selassi | Former Emperor of Ethiopia. |
| | King George V | | Former King of the United Kingdom. |
| | Chiang | Kai-shek | Former President of the Republic of China. |
| | Morris | Cohen | A Jewish former boxer. |
| | Silas | Hardoon | A real estate tycoon. |
| | Soong | Qing-ling | Sun Yat-sin's widow. |
| | Charles | Soong | Soong Qing-ling's father. |
| | Soong | Mei-ling | Soong Qing-ling's sister. |
| | Ai-ling | | Soong Qing-ling's third sister. |
| | H.H. | Kung | A descendant of Confucius and a wealthy banker. |
| | Robert | Shewan | Elly's longtime partner. |
| | Christopger | Isherwood | English-American novelist. |
| | W. H. | Auden | Anglo-American poet. |
| | Mao | Dun | Former Minister of Culture of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Arthur | Ransome | A British journalist. |
| | Michael | | Elly's grandson. |
| | Chen | Duxiu | Former General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. |
| | Solomon | Sassoon | One of David Sassoon's sons. |
| | Flora | | Solomon Sassoon's wife. |
| | Dowager Cixi | | Former Empress dowager of the Qing dynasty. |
| | Rachel | Sassoon | Became the most powerful female journalist in England. |
| | Frederick | Beer | A German tycoon. Rachel's husband. |
| | Alfred | Dreyfus | A French artillery officer of Jewish ancestry. |
| | Victor | Sassoon | David Sassoon's grandson. |
| 5 | | | The Impresario |
| | Emily | Hahn | A New York writer. |
| | Franklin | Roosevelt | The 32nd U.S. President. |
| | Reginald | | David Sassoon's grandson. |
| | Mahatma | Gandhi | An Indian lawyer. |
| | Diego | Velasquez | A Spanish painter. |
| | John Singer | Sargent | An American artist. |
| | Thomas | Gainsborough | An English portrait and landscape painter. |
| | Wallis | Simpson | King Edward VIII's wife. |
| | Vicki | Baum | An Austrian writer. |
| | Greta | Garbo | A Swedish-American actress. |
| | Charlie | Chaplin | An English comic actor. |
| | Paulette | Goddard | American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. |
| | Rong | Zongjing | A Chinese industrialist. |
| | Henry | Luce | A powerful publisher of Time Inc. |
| | T. V. | Soong | China's finance minister. |
| | Jose Pedro | Braga | A Portuguese immigrant. |
| | Philip | Sassoon | Victor Sassoon's cousin. |
| | David Lloyd | George | Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. |
| | Ezio | Pinza | An Italian opera singer. |
| | William | Rogers | An American humorist and performer. |
| | Serge | Voronoff | A Russian-born surgeon. |
| | Theodore | White | Time Magazine correspondent. |
| | Helen | | Emily Hahn's sister. |
| | Zau | Sinmay | A Chinese writer. |
| | John D. | Rockefeller | American business magnate. |
| | Edgar | Snow | American journalist. |
| | Yang | Mengliang | Worked as a waiter in the Cathay's restaurant. |
| | Lu | Xun | A Chinese leftist writer. |
| | Li | Ming | Victor Sassoon's financial liaison to the Nationalist. |
| 6 | | | "Me Voila Therefore Walking a Tightrope" |
| | Erich | Reisman | One of a Jewish passenger from Vienna. |
| | Adolf | Hitler | A dictator from Germany. |
| | Paul | | Erich's brother. |
| | Ho | Feng-Shan | A Chinese diplomat stationed in Vienna. |
| | Takahashi | Korekiyo | Deputy governor of the Bank of Japan. |
| | Jacob H. | Schiff | A German-born Jewish president of Wall Street. |
| | Koreshige | Inusuka | An anti-Semitic Japanese Navy captain. |
| | Jacob | Alkow | A Jewish leader. |
| | Jacob | Alcok | Elly's acquaintance. |
| | Getulio | Vargas | Brazil's president. |
| | Muriel | Gubbay | Lawrence's wife. |
| | J.J. | Paterson | Head of Jardin in Hong Kong. |
| | Val | Seymour | Victor Sassoon's pseudonym. |
| | Sylvia | Chancellor | A British resident of Shanghai who criticized Victor Sassoon. |
| | August | Stinberg | A Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist and painter. |
| | George Bernard | Shaw | An Irish
playwright. |
| | Noel | Coward | An English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer. |
| | theodore | Alexander | A Berlin refugee who worked for Victor Sassoon. |
| | Lucie | Hartwich | A principal of school in Berlin. |
| | Hermann | Goering | A German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. |
| 7 | | | War |
| | Rita | | One of Muriel and Lawrence's children. |
| | Michael | | One of Muriel and Lawrence's children. |
| | Laura | Margolis | A social worker from
Buffalo. |
| | Robert | Morgenthau | Former Manhattan's District Attorney. |
| | Joseph | Meisenger | An SS functionary in Nazi Germany. |
| | Kano | Goya | One of anti-Semitic Japanese officers. |
| | Gerhard | Moses | A refugee from Vienna. |
| | Josef | Rossbach | One of the refugees from Austria. |
| | Leo | Roth | One of the refugees from Austria. |
| | Han | Suyin | A left-wing writer. |
| | Ellis | Hayim | A member of Baghdadi Jewish
Diaspora. |
| 8 | | | "I Gave Up India and China Gave Me Up" |
| | Albert C. | Wedemeyer | American commander in China. |
| | Lucien | Ovadia | Victor Sassoon's cousin and right-hand man. |
| | | | Part Three: Exile and Return |
| 9 | | | The Reckoning |
| | Alex | Maisel | Lawrence's
acquaintance. |
| | Rong | Yiren | Former Vice-President of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Leung | Chik | Horace's new gardener. |
| | Fu | | A refugee farmer. |
| | Kwok | Keung | a Chinese doctor. |
| | Maurice | Green | One of Victor Sassoon's former employee. |
| | Evelyn | Barnes | An American nurse. |
| | Evelyn | Cox | One of Barnes' nieces. |
| | Jiang | Qing | Former First Lady of People's Republic of China. |
| 10 | | | The Last Taipan |
| | Deng | Xiaoping | Served as the paramount leader of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Richard | Nixon | The 37th U.S. President. |
| | Murray | MacLehose | Former Governor of HongKong. |
| | James | Callaghan | Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. |
| | Ling | Ying | Lawrence's closest servant. |
| | Margaret | Thatcher | Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. |
| | Mikhail | Gorvachev | Former President of the Soviet Union. |
| | Hua | Guofeng | Former Premier of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Queen Elizabeth | | Former Queen of the United Kingdom. |
| | Michael | Blumenthal | Former U.S. treasury secretary. |
| | Peter | Max | An American illustrator. |
| | Michael | Medavoy | American film producer and business executive. |
| | Henry | Kissinger | Former U.S. secretary of State. |
| | Shaul | Eisenberg | A billionaire head of one of Israel's largest companies. |
| | Li | Peng | Former Premier of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Pan | Guang | An influential Chinese academic. |
| | Christopher | Patten | The last British governor of HongKong. |
| 11 | | | Back on the Bund |
| | Jiang | Zemin | Former President of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Xi | Jinping | President of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Benjamin | Netanyahu | Prime Minister of Israel. |
| | Chiune | Sugihara | Japanese diplomat, Righteous Among the Nations. |
| | Zhu | Rongji | Former Premier of the People's Republic of China. |
| | Vidal | Sasssoon | A hairstylist. |
| | Hugh | Sassoon | A London banker and descendant of Flora Sassoon. |
| | James | Sassoon | Hugh's son. |
| | Lou | Jiwei | Former Minister of Finance of the People's Republic of China. |
