
The Gangs of Chinatown
The History and Legacy of Chinese Street Gangs in America
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $5.42
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Daniel Houle
About this listen
San Francisco, Chinatown, September 4, 1977, 2:00 a.m. Despite it being the middle of the night, Chinatown was still a hive of activity. Fresh produce glistening with dew was being delivered by vegetable vendors at grocery stores. Chinese barbeque chefs at neighborhood restaurants were preparing juicy roast duck and sticky sweet red barbeque pork for both the late-night crowd and tomorrow’s lunch rush. Walking down the dense streets, vibrant Cantonese could be heard from Chinatown residents, some jockeying for a seat at late-night dim sum restaurants, a favorite Cantonese staple of little steamed and fried dumplings and pastries.
The restaurant Golden Dragon was no different, except on this night, instead of a peaceful late-night meal, a barrage of bullets would spray into the restaurant, unleashed by gunmen from the notorious Chinese Joe Boys street gang. The gangsters were aiming for their archrivals, the Wah Ching and the Hop Sing Boys. The attack was a revenge strike, as a Joe Boys street soldier had been killed in a running gun battle after a Wah Ching gang ambush on the Fourth of July at the Ping Yuen housing project in Chinatown. The Joe Boys were furious for revenge, and two months later, the death of their fellow gangster still fresh in their minds, the Joe Boys struck. An opportunity presented itself when a lookout spotted Wah Ching and Hop Sing gangsters at the Golden Dragon Restaurant.
Ultimately, the gang shooting failed to kill a single street gang member. Instead, five innocent people were killed along with another 11 wounded. Chinatown and the city were shocked. Chinese gangs, once only a subject spoken in hushed tones among the residents of Chinatown, was now front-page news in America. Although the shooting was a shock to mainstream America, the attack represented a culmination of years of gang violence in the Chinese community. For years, gangs had killed dozens of people in Chinatown, an area that was both a tourist attraction and home to thousands of poor, mostly Chinese-born, immigrants. Most casualties in the gang wars of Chinatown had been criminals, combatants in vicious street combat. But the Golden Dragon shooting was different. This time the battle occurred in a popular restaurant, with victims being innocent civilians with no connection or knowledge to gangs or the revenge origins of the shooting. Chinatown would be changed forever after the Golden Dragon Massacre.
Chinese gangs have been a part of the fabric of American Chinatowns since the first Chinese immigrants arrived in the nineteenth century to work on the railroads. Faced with intense racism and systematic oppression from mainstream society, secret societies called tongs were organized in the urban Chinatowns. These societies provided much needed social and financial support for the Chinese migrants who were treated as pariahs by American society. Eventually, as Chinese immigration increased after the passage of the 1965 Immigration Act, Chinese gangs evolved too. Chinese street gangs, ranging from the Ghost Shadows of urban New York Chinatown to the middle-class Taiwanese Americans that filled the gangs of Southern California, underground Chinese crime groups have continued to evolve and change in America.
The Gangs of Chinatown: The History and Legacy of Chinese Street Gangs in America looks at how some of the gangs formed, what their activities were like, and their impact.
©2020 Charles River Editors (P)2021 Charles River EditorsListeners also enjoyed...
-
Tong Wars
- The Untold Story of Vice, Money, and Murder in New York's Chinatown
- By: Scott D. Seligman
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing had worked. Not threats or negotiations, not shutting down the betting parlors or opium dens, not throwing Chinese offenders into prison. Not even executing them. The New York DA was running out of ideas, and more people were dying every day as the weapons of choice evolved from hatchets to automatic weapons and even bombs. Welcome to New York City's Chinatown in 1925.
-
-
Valuable Imformation! Fascinating History.
- By A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. on 05-21-18
-
Black Wall Street
- The History of the Greenwood District Before the Tulsa Race Riot
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Stephen Platt
- Length: 1 hr and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Overall, Tulsa in 1921 was considered a modern, vibrant city. What had fueled this remarkable growth was oil, specifically the discovery of the Glenn Pool oil field in 1905. Within five years, Tulsa had grown from a rural crossroads town in the former Indian Territory into a boom town with more than 10,000 citizens, and as word spread of the fortunes that could be made in Tulsa, people of all races poured into the city.
-
-
Bombs dropped on Black Wall St. wasn't mentioned.
- By Anonymous User on 05-03-21
-
The Chinese Must Go
- Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America
- By: Beth Lew-Williams
- Narrated by: Jennifer Aquino
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1885, following the massacre of Chinese miners in Wyoming, communities throughout California and the Pacific Northwest harassed, assaulted, and expelled thousands of Chinese immigrants. The Chinese Must Go shows how American immigration policies incited this violence, and how this gave rise to the concept of the "alien" in America. Our story begins in the 1850s, before federal border control established strict divisions between citizens and aliens. By tracing the idea of the alien back to this violent era, Lew-Williams offers a new origin story of today's racialized border.
-
-
Meh Performance, but GREAT book, especially now.
- By M. Johnson on 12-17-24
-
Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws
- My Infiltration of America's Deadliest Biker Gangs
- By: Kerrie Droban, Charles Falco
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite lacking any experience with motorcycle gangs, Charles Falco infiltrated three of America's deadliest biker gangs: the Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws. In separate investigations that spanned years and coasts, Falco risked his life, suffering a fractured neck and a severely torn shoulder, working deep under cover to bring violent sociopaths to justice.
-
-
no good.
- By Raymond on 03-20-16
By: Kerrie Droban, and others
-
The Unknown Mongol
- By: Scott Junior Ereckson
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the true story of ex-Mongols M.C. National President Scott Junior Ereckson. From a young teen, peering from behind a bush at an unknown Mongol, Scott fulfills his childhood dreams. In later years, after many experiences, he becomes one of the most respected and feared Mongols to this day.
-
-
Superb book ruined by muppet voices
- By Skinny Pete on 05-29-15
-
Hell's Angel
- The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club
- By: Sonny Barger
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narrated by the visionary founding member, Hell's Angel provides a fascinating all-access pass to the secret world of the notorious Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Sonny Barger recounts the birth of the original Oakland Hell's Angels and the four turbulent decades that followed. Hell's Angel also chronicles the way the HAMC revolutionized the look of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle and built what has become a worldwide bike-riding fraternity, a beacon for freedom-seekers the world over.
-
-
A must for any true biker
- By Chris B on 06-20-15
By: Sonny Barger
-
Tong Wars
- The Untold Story of Vice, Money, and Murder in New York's Chinatown
- By: Scott D. Seligman
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing had worked. Not threats or negotiations, not shutting down the betting parlors or opium dens, not throwing Chinese offenders into prison. Not even executing them. The New York DA was running out of ideas, and more people were dying every day as the weapons of choice evolved from hatchets to automatic weapons and even bombs. Welcome to New York City's Chinatown in 1925.
-
-
Valuable Imformation! Fascinating History.
- By A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. on 05-21-18
-
Black Wall Street
- The History of the Greenwood District Before the Tulsa Race Riot
- By: Charles River Editors
- Narrated by: Stephen Platt
- Length: 1 hr and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Overall, Tulsa in 1921 was considered a modern, vibrant city. What had fueled this remarkable growth was oil, specifically the discovery of the Glenn Pool oil field in 1905. Within five years, Tulsa had grown from a rural crossroads town in the former Indian Territory into a boom town with more than 10,000 citizens, and as word spread of the fortunes that could be made in Tulsa, people of all races poured into the city.
-
-
Bombs dropped on Black Wall St. wasn't mentioned.
- By Anonymous User on 05-03-21
-
The Chinese Must Go
- Violence, Exclusion, and the Making of the Alien in America
- By: Beth Lew-Williams
- Narrated by: Jennifer Aquino
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1885, following the massacre of Chinese miners in Wyoming, communities throughout California and the Pacific Northwest harassed, assaulted, and expelled thousands of Chinese immigrants. The Chinese Must Go shows how American immigration policies incited this violence, and how this gave rise to the concept of the "alien" in America. Our story begins in the 1850s, before federal border control established strict divisions between citizens and aliens. By tracing the idea of the alien back to this violent era, Lew-Williams offers a new origin story of today's racialized border.
-
-
Meh Performance, but GREAT book, especially now.
- By M. Johnson on 12-17-24
-
Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws
- My Infiltration of America's Deadliest Biker Gangs
- By: Kerrie Droban, Charles Falco
- Narrated by: Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite lacking any experience with motorcycle gangs, Charles Falco infiltrated three of America's deadliest biker gangs: the Vagos, Mongols, and Outlaws. In separate investigations that spanned years and coasts, Falco risked his life, suffering a fractured neck and a severely torn shoulder, working deep under cover to bring violent sociopaths to justice.
-
-
no good.
- By Raymond on 03-20-16
By: Kerrie Droban, and others
-
The Unknown Mongol
- By: Scott Junior Ereckson
- Narrated by: Jeff Hays
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the true story of ex-Mongols M.C. National President Scott Junior Ereckson. From a young teen, peering from behind a bush at an unknown Mongol, Scott fulfills his childhood dreams. In later years, after many experiences, he becomes one of the most respected and feared Mongols to this day.
-
-
Superb book ruined by muppet voices
- By Skinny Pete on 05-29-15
-
Hell's Angel
- The Life and Times of Sonny Barger and the Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club
- By: Sonny Barger
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Narrated by the visionary founding member, Hell's Angel provides a fascinating all-access pass to the secret world of the notorious Hell's Angels Motorcycle Club. Sonny Barger recounts the birth of the original Oakland Hell's Angels and the four turbulent decades that followed. Hell's Angel also chronicles the way the HAMC revolutionized the look of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle and built what has become a worldwide bike-riding fraternity, a beacon for freedom-seekers the world over.
-
-
A must for any true biker
- By Chris B on 06-20-15
By: Sonny Barger
-
The Snakehead
- An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream
- By: Patrick Radden Keefe
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A mesmerizing narrative about the rise and fall of an unlikely international crime boss. Based on hundreds of interviews, Patrick Radden Keefe's sweeping narrative tells the story not only of Sister Ping, but of the gangland gunslingers who worked for her, the immigration and law enforcement officials who pursued her, and the generation of penniless immigrants who risked death and braved a 17,000 mile odyssey so that they could realize their own version of the American dream.
-
-
But Is It a Crime?
- By Roy on 08-23-09
-
Chop Suey
- A Cultural History of Chinese Food in the United States
- By: Andrew Coe
- Narrated by: Eric Martin
- Length: 8 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1784, passengers on the ship Empress of China became the first Americans to land in China and the first to eat Chinese food. Today there are over 40,000 Chinese restaurants across the United States - by far the most plentiful among all our ethnic eateries. Now, in Chop Suey, Andrew Coe provides the authoritative history of the American infatuation with Chinese food, telling its fascinating story for the first time.
-
-
Wanted to like this
- By Irene on 02-13-21
By: Andrew Coe
-
Ghosts of Gold Mountain
- The Epic Story of the Chinese Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad
- By: Gordon H. Chang
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 9 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From across the sea, they came by the thousands, escaping war and poverty in southern China to seek their fortunes in America. Converging on the enormous western worksite of the Transcontinental Railroad, the migrants spent years dynamiting tunnels through the snow-packed cliffs of the Sierra Nevada and laying tracks across the burning Utah desert. Their sweat and blood fueled the ascent of an interlinked, industrial United States. But those of them who survived this perilous effort would be pushed to the margins of American life and then to the fringes of public memory.
-
-
Very inspiring, educational, and enlightening!
- By Amazon Customer on 06-25-19
By: Gordon H. Chang
-
Ghost
- My Thirty Years as an FBI Undercover Agent
- By: Michael R. McGowan, Ralph Pezzullo
- Narrated by: Mike Dawson
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Within FBI field operative circles, groups of people known as “Special” by their titles alone, Michael R. McGowan is an outlier. Over the course of his career, McGowan has worked more than 50 undercover cases. In this extraordinary and unprecedented book, McGowan will take listeners through some of his biggest cases, from international drug busts to the Russian and Italian mobs to biker gangs and contract killers to corrupt unions and SWAT work. Ghost is an unparalleled view into how the FBI, through the courage of its undercover Special Agents, nails the bad guys.
-
-
Interesting story, but narration eh
- By Ahdumb on 10-06-18
By: Michael R. McGowan, and others
-
State of War
- MS-13 and El Salvador's World of Violence
- By: William Wheeler
- Narrated by: William Wheeler
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in Los Angeles, the gang MS-13 was founded in the 1980s by Salvadoran refugees who had been hardened in a civil war stoked by American foreign policy. Foreign correspondent William Wheeler tracks MS-13 from LA, where he meets the founders of the gang, to El Salvador, where three generations of Salvadorans have been drawn into an escalating cycle of conflict. State of War tells the tragic story of a brutal civil war that has never ended.
-
-
Great insight!
- By jose flores on 05-19-23
By: William Wheeler
-
We Will Shoot Back
- Armed Resistance in the Mississippi Freedom Movement
- By: Akinyele Omowale Umoja
- Narrated by: David Sadzin
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This riveting historical narrative reconstructs the armed resistance of Black activists, their challenge of racist terrorism, and their fight for human rights.
-
-
Great history lesson!
- By rodrigus cox on 11-26-24
-
Prison by Any Other Name
- The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms
- By: Maya Schenwar, Victoria Law, Michelle Alexander - foreword
- Narrated by: Emily Durante
- Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Electronic monitoring. Locked-down drug treatment centers. House arrest. Mandated psychiatric treatment. Data-driven surveillance. Extended probation. These are some of the key alternatives held up as cost-effective substitutes for jails and prisons. But many of these so-called reforms actually widen the net, weaving in new strands of punishment and control, and bringing new populations, who would not otherwise have been subject to imprisonment, under physical control by the state.
-
-
I would give this book 6 stars out of 5.
- By Happy on 11-28-20
By: Maya Schenwar, and others
-
The Violence Inside Us
- A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy
- By: Chris Murphy
- Narrated by: Chris Murphy
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Is America destined to always be a violent nation? This sweeping history by U.S. senator Chris Murphy explores the origins of our violent impulses, the roots of our obsession with firearms, and the mythologies that prevent us from confronting our national crisis. In many ways, the United States sets the pace for other nations to follow. Yet on the most important human concern - the need to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe from physical harm - America isn’t a leader.
-
-
America needs more white men like Chris Murphy.
- By jnlv68 on 09-20-20
By: Chris Murphy
-
Justice for All
- How the Left Is Wrong About Law Enforcement
- By: Greg Kelly
- Narrated by: Greg Kelly
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As the son of celebrated NYPD commissioner, Ray Kelly, and a former lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, Greg Kelly has had a firsthand look at the critical importance of law enforcement in America. In a nation divided, progressives want to abolish the very organizations that keep us safe. Kelly expertly reveals their indispensability. Both a celebration and a call to action, Justice for All is perfect for fans of Mark Levin, Greg Gutfeld, and Sean Hannity.
-
-
Worth wading great reading experience
- By William L Steinwedell on 01-19-23
By: Greg Kelly
-
The Locust Effect
- Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence
- By: Gary A. Haugen, Victor Boutros
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 12 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
While the world has made encouraging strides in the fight against global poverty, there is a hidden crisis silently undermining our best efforts to help the poor. It is a plague of everyday violence. Beneath the surface of the world’s poorest communities, common violence—like rape, forced labor, illegal detention, land theft, police abuse and other brutality—has become routine and relentless. And like a horde of locusts devouring everything in their path, the unchecked plague of violence ruins lives, blocks the road out of poverty, and undercuts development.
-
-
Really worth listening to
- By Adam Shields on 12-15-15
By: Gary A. Haugen, and others
-
The End of Policing
- By: Alex S. Vitale
- Narrated by: Michael Butler Murray
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This audiobook attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice - even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve.
-
-
Preaching to the choir
- By Daniel A. Boyd on 08-09-19
By: Alex S. Vitale
-
Nobody
- Casualties of America's War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond
- By: Marc Lamont Hill, Todd Brewster - foreword
- Narrated by: Kevin Kenerly
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and across the United States following the death of Michael Brown revealed something far deeper than a passionate display of age-old racial frustrations; they unveiled a public chasm that has been growing for years, as America has consistently and intentionally denied significant segments of its population access to full freedom and prosperity.
-
-
Well Done
- By Zahrac29 on 05-15-17
By: Marc Lamont Hill, and others