The (chinese) Gangs Of New York By Mark Jacobson

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

|

|

JOIN OUR "STORY OF THE WEEK" MAILING LIST

|

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

|

Choose a Topic

Choose A Neighborhood

Pell St & Mott St, New York, NY 10013

Today's Most Popular Stories

historical forces at work in Chinatown today. The Mott Street

The True Origins of the Egg Cream by Daniel Bell Undertow of Summer by Justine Blau Richard is a Forkhead by Peter Nolan Smith The Pool Boy by Patrick J. Sauer Rory by Thomas Pryor Park-Lit Finale: Mosaic Magazine in St. Mary's Park, Wednesday, August 6, 6:30 pm, 147th st. and St. Ann's Ave. by line Straight Talk on Hair Village by Rachel Sherman Goons of New York by Jean Paul Cativiela Foot Fetish at the Food Emporium by Dee Alpert Christina Ricci's Primal Scream by Thomas Beller

gangs are back. This is the story of who controls that street, and

Related Stories

The (Chinese) Gangs of New York by Mark Jacobson

Main Map Park-Lit Finale: Mosaic Magazine in St. Mary's Park, Wednesday, August 6, 6:30 pm, 147th st. and St. Ann's Ave. by line The Pool Boy by Patrick J. Sauer Undertow of Summer by Justine Blau

Late last year, the young Chinese couple who ran the Szechuan D'Or restaurant on East 40th Street were murdered. The incident sparked fear that the crime which had riddled Chinatown was moving uptown. Police launched a citywide campaign to wipe it out. The crackdown played havoc with established vice in Chinatown. Youth gangs, foot soldiers of neighborhood crime, were forced out of town. Venerable gambling houses were shuttered. Extortion rackets that affect every restaurant in the area were interrupted. Even the Chinatown Connection, one of

Welcome to Washington Heights by Kristen Bonardi Rapp Me and My Cane by Candy Schulman Little Devil by Roberta Allen Once More Over the Bridge: May 24, 2008 by Victoria Olsen My Blue Period by Daniel Krieger A Blue Chicken, and My First Naked Lady by Tom Diriwachter Niketown, Your Town by Russell Ricard Richard is a Forkhead by Peter Nolan Smith After Dark by Michele Carlo

the city's most active heroin conduits, was blocked. But it will take more than a few gambling raids to shake the

how they got there. October 1976 Midnight in Chinatown, everyone seems nervous. The old waiters look both ways before going into the gambling joint on Pell Street. Ladies bleary from a 10-hour day working over sewing machines in the sweatshops are hurrying home and restaurants are closing earlier than usual. At the Sun Sing Theatre on East Broadway, underneath a hand-painted poster of a bleeding kung

Calese Becker: The Poetics Of Smell by Thomas Beller Lenny the Rage by Thomas Beller Coffee Hut Slut by Ariele Fierman Hallucinating Your Way To Marriage by G. Just Shoot out by Thomas Beller

fu hero, a security guard is fumbling with a padlock. Ask him how business is and he shakes his head, "No good." Ask him why and he points his finger right between his eyes and says, "bang!" A Quiet New Year Pacing back and forth in front of the coffee shop at 56 Mott Street, Nicky Louie has got a lot to lose if there's any serious gunplay tonight. A good-looking skinny guy with searing brown eyes wearing a green army fatigue jacket, Nicky is the leader of

Malice at the Brooklyn Central Library by Catherine Pearson Park-Lit Kicks Off Friday the 13th: Barbara Fillon, Rick Rofihe, Bryan Charles, Tony Antoniadis, Ennis Smith, Thomas Beller. by line

1 of 64

the Ghost Shadows, the gang of 50 or so Hong Kong immigrants who've been terrorizing Chinatown for the past few years. Born Hin Pui Lui in the Kowloon slums 22 years ago, Nicky came to "low tow" (Chinatown) in the late '60s. The old Hong Kong

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

The Fool of Abingdon Square Park by Thomas Beller

people naively called this new slum "Gum Shan," which means

Susan Connell-Mettauer RIP by Thomas Beller

would end up a faceless waiter headed for the TB ward. He was

Tolerance by Paul Vidich Mystery Goat Man at Lincoln Center by Monika Romare Fisher

Gold Mountain. But Nicky is sharper than that. Now way he born for greater things. When he first got into the gangs half a dozen years ago, people say he had the biggest mouth in Chinatown. He was the gun-wielding wild man, always up for action, willing to do anything to get attention. It paid off. Nicky's been the top Shadow ever since 1973, when the gang's former big boss Nei Wong got caught with a Hong Kong cop's girlfriend.

Get Off the Train Now! by Danielle Winston

The cop, in New York for a surprise visit, ran across Wong and

Surviving the 5 Boro Bike Tour by Bryan Charles

approach ramp to the Manhattan Bridge and blew off both their

It Was One Hell of a Ride by Thomas R. Ziegler

Since then Nicky's rise in the Chinatown youth gang world has

Remembering a Barber Shop by Philip Wesler

bleak days when they were extorting a few free meals and

At the Prospect Park Zoo, 1965 by Kenneth P. Nolan

his betrothed in the Chinese Quarter Nightclub beneath the heads with his police revolver.

been startling. He has piloted the once ragtag Shadows from the dollars from the greasy spoons over on East Broadway to their current haunt, Mott Street, the big time. Controlling Mott Street means the Shadows get to affiliate

You Look Nice Tonight, That’s All by Shawn Vandor

themselves with the On Leong tong, the riches and most

Cats Are Prisoners by Lesley Clark

gives the Shadows a piece of the money generated by tong (the

Graffiti by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh

influential organization in Chinatown. Working with the On Leong word means simply "hall" or "association") activities. The gangs guard the gambling houses in the On Leong territory that operate in the musty lofts and basements along Mott Street. The Shadows also provide the muscle for their version of the age-old

The Tombstone Read L.E.S. by Royal Young

restaurant-protection racket (not to mention considerable "free-

Dawn by Heidi Rain

the Chinatown Connection heroin trade, bringing the stuff across

Madame Butterfly Goes Down by Thomas R. Pryor

lance" extortion on the side). The gangs also act as runners in the Canadian border and spreading it throughout New York. The money filters down to Nicky and his lieutenants; they filter the spoils down to the younger Shadows.

The Puerto Rican Lockhorns Reunion by Daniel Nester

For Nicky, working with the tongs means a premiere position

We Kindly Ask That You Turn Off Your David Mamet by John F. Farmer

that ranges from $200 to $2000, depending on who you talk to.

Kill Whitey Day by Michele Carlo

among the other warlords in Chinatown, plus a weekly income In any event, itís enough to buy a swift $7000 Peugeot to tool down Canal Street in. But tongs are fickle. If another group of Hong Kong teenagers say their arch enemy the White Eagles or the hard-charging

2 of 64

What Can Do by Granger Greenbaum

Flying Dragons, who take target practice on the pigeons down by

Detroiters Make Citizen's Arrest, Save Starbucks CDs by Eric C. Novack

tougher than the Shadows, Nickyís boys could be gone

the East Riveróshould show the On Leong theyíre smarter or tomorrow. After all, it's happened before.

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

Meet Your Match on Craigslist--by a Victorious Veteran by Prof Barbara Foster

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

Shootout on Bayard Street Could again. Two years ago Nicky and the Shadows pushed the surly Eagles off the street. In September, after licking their

Lower Torso Must be Covered in Food Area by Kelly Kreth

wounds over in Brooklyn and down in Florida, the Eagles with their leader Paul Ma, Nicky's main rival, returned. And they were not going to be satisfied with crummy Elizabeth Street. Soon the

Dirty Magazines by Roberta Allen From Kobe, Japan to New York City (and Back Again) by Meakin Armstrong Not That Christ is Funny by Stephanie Anagnoson Walk Like a Woman by Peter Nolan Smith

Eagles started appearing on Bayard Street, part of Shadowland. Then Paul Ma, a ballsy dude, set up his own gambling house on the block; it was a direct affront to Nicky. On September 8, the Shadows struck back, shooting a bunch of Eagles, including Paul Ma and a gang member's wife, in front of Yuen Yuen Snack Shop on Bayard. It set off the most hair-raising month of streetfighting in Chinatown history; no weekend went by withoug a mayor incident. The now infamous Wong Kee chopchop was the highlight of the war. According to cops, the

Small Claims is a War of Attrition by Sarah Miller-Davenport

Shadow, including Nicky himself, crashed through the door of the

Where We’re From by Jeanette Thornton

one Eagle with chefís kitchen cleavers and stabbed another with

Little Blue Bag by Shawn Vandor Redemption Birthday by Michele Carlo Supporting Mick Jagger’s Habit by Mickey Z. Young Russian Immigrants Turn to Heroin by Anne Noyes Saini God Must Be An Octopus by Dorothy Spears

Wong Kee Rice Shop on the Italian end of Mott and carved up a fork. Which is why Nicky is on the street 'watch' tonight. His presence keeps things cool. Without Nicky pacing up and down Mott Street, the Shadows might as well go back to East Broadway. Heís a Chinatown legend. The Scientific Killer Fifty years ago, chances are Nicky might have been lying around the "joss houses" and street-fighting alongside the hatchet and gunmen of Chinatown's "tong wars." In those days, the two big tongs, the On Leong and the Hip Sing of Pell Street, battled on the sidewalks over the few available women and the opium trade, and out of sheer boredom. Back then, there were legendary "boo hoy dow" (warriors): like Mock Dock, the great gambler known as "The Philosophical Killer," and Yee Toy, "The

Local Stops by Willie Perdomo

Girl-Faced Killer." Most famous of all, however, was the

A Fan’s Statistics by JB McGeever

of an outbreak of war in New York, he rode in the baggage

Kristal by Arnold Hand Sharing Vectors with Jesse Lee by Aaron Gilbreath R2-D2: Working Stiff by Tom Diriwachter Disappointment with the Color Brown by Joe Benincase

plain-faced Sing Dock. "The Scientific Killer." Once, after hearing compartment of a train (Chinese weren't allowed to ride up front) for six weeks from San Francisco. That was when Pell Street was called "Red Street" and the crook in Doyers Street was known as "The Bloody Angle." Today the Chinatown warrior has changed. The young gangs are not respected tong members, as Sing Dock was; they're foot soldier-peons who are in it for the bucks. Nicky and the Shadows have given up black overcoats for fatigue jacket and puffy hairdos. (Asked if their hair is a Hong Kong fashion, the gangs say, "No, man, it's cause we dig Rod the Mod, man." Meaning

3 of 64

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

Some Lice to Live by Carol Paik

Rod Stewart.) But the nicknames are still colorful. Hanging with

The Ghost of Fred Revisited by Kevin Nolan

enforcer who got his name from Blazing Saddles, and

When Motorcyclists Can’t Feel Solitary Anymore by Melissa Holbrook Pierson Petrillio, or Love on the 90th Floor by Prof Barbara Foster Survivorship by Erika Brookti & Me: 3 Years On by Betsy Berne I Am Not a Crook! by Joseph E. Scalia Too Close, No Comfort by Samantha V. Chang Tune in Tomorrow by Richard Panek

Nicky tonight are old-time Shadows "Mongo," the wild-man "Japanese," who shaved his head after he heard that things might go easier for him in jail if he looked like a "Muslim." There are some guys with grade-B movie names like Lefty and Four-Eyes, but most of the kids go for names like "Stinkybug," "White-Faced Tiger," "Pointy Lips," "Porkupine," and "Nigger Choy." There must be 20 kids named "Apple Head" running around Chinatown. Nicky, however, is just Nicky. The Ghost Legend Some say Nicky has nine lives. The estimates of how many slugs he carries around inside his chest vary. According to an ex-gang

http://www.cleardev.com

member, "When he turn over in bed at night, he can hear them bullets clank together." Last May teenage hitmen from the San Francisco-based Wah Ching gang flew across the country just to kill Nicky. Some say it was on an Eagle contract. For whatever reason they pumped a dozen bullets into the middle of a Saturday afternoon shopping crowd on Mott Street while Nicky disappeared across Canal

The Calypso Women by Thomas Beller Coffee, and This and That by Beth Schwartzapfel

Street. The Chings missed everyone and wound up getting pinched by two drug cops who just happened to be eating won ton in the nearby Joy Luck Restaurant. The "ging cha" (police) have arrested Nicky for everything from

Floating on Air at the St. George Hotel by Rachel Cline

robbery to extortion to murder to rape, but he's never been convicted.

Manhattan Elevators: They Have Their Ups and Downs by Mr. Murphy DISGUSTING! by Roberta Allen It Was Me (part 2) by Hane Selmani

Detective Neal Maurillo, who is assigned full-time to the fifth Precinct's Chinese gang section, is a smart cop. He realizes he's got a crazy and hopelessly complicated job. Chinatown gangs aren't like the bruisers fighting over street corners and ghetto reps up in the Bronx. There's piles of money, history, and poitics behind what Nicky and his guys are doing. And since it's Chinatown, they'd rather do it with hard-on things like "Savage

A Subway Hope by Ella Mei Yon Biggadike A Subway Grope by I. Delaney

Skulls" emblazoned on the back. But Neal knows all the faces on Mott Street. He memorizes gang members' names and birthdays, walks down the street and says, "Hey, happy birthday Pipenose, seen Dice around." That blows

It Was Me (part 1) by Hane Selmani

minds. Sometimes Nicky Louie calls Neal up just to shoot the

Window Washer Thrill Comedy by Peter F. Eder

him for five years and I'll nail him. He knows it, too. We talk

A Force of Nature: Patrick O’Connell by M. O’Connell

4 of 64

breeze. Neal says, "That kid is okay really. But I've been chasing about it all the time." Neal remembers the time he came upon Nilky lying face down in a pool of blood near the Bowery. He said, "Nicky, come on, you're gonna die, tell me who shot you."

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

Magic City: Not In Our Town by Patrick J. Sauer

Nicky looked up at Neal, his eyes blazing arrogance, and said,

Hotel Edison by Roberta Allen

the two had a good laugh about it later.

"Fuck you." Of course, Nicky pulled through in fine shape and

Tales of this sort of exploit are enough tot keep the Dragons and Naughty and Not Nice on Craigslist by Daphne

the hard-case White Eagles at bay. The On Leong like Nicky's

Falling In and Out of Love with a Neckless Scotsman by Sherri Rosen

might go over to the rival Hip Sing tong, which backs youth

Unto You a Candle is Born by Eva DeVirgilis

style and probably have him tabbed as a future officer. If not, he gangs of its own. But you have to step back from all this for a minute. There hasn't been a tong war in Chinatown since the '20s. And Nicky Louis is not a reincarnation of Sing Dockóhe's a disaffected

A Christmas Treasure by Kevin Nolan

ghetto kid growing into what most people would call a dangerous gangster. But you also have to remember that this is Chinatown.

Strange Bedfellows by Nora Maynard

Down here the past and present are a little more difficult to sort

Elliott Gould and The Men In the Truck by Tom Diriwachter

The Tenement Tongs

out.

Toy Shan is a village in the mountainous region of Canton from Leaves of Grass by Neil R. Mooney

which the great majority of those who settled New York's

The Opening by Roberta Allen

Shan settlement in New York was as closed a community as has

Alicia Keys Visits Prince by Thomas Beller

Chinatown came in the mid 1800s. It's possible that the Toy ever existed in urban America. Much of this is bound up in mutual racism, including the infamous "Exclusion Acts" that effectively banned Chinese women from the United States for more than 60 years.

A Mighty Herd of Doormen by Ellen Lindquist Liquid Straightjacket Works Every Time by Thomas R. Ziegler From the Captain's Point of View by Bill Schell

The havoc these laws wreaked on the Toy Shan consciousness is difficult to underestimate. Drinking and gambling, both venerable Chinese passions, became endemic. There were numerous gambling houses in Chinatown (contemporary houses pull in from $40,000 to $50,000 on a good night), and Chinese faces became familiar at the city's racetracksóprobably the only

Intervention at 42nd Street by Michelle Wilson

place they were, outside restaurants and laundriesówhich

The Meathead on the No. 1 Train by Lily Shen

Shanghai Express." Prostitutes from uptown were frequent

Daydreaming on the Q by Amanda McCormick Jeremy the Liar by Alia Akkam The Playwright Takes Tickets by Tom Diriwachter Downtown Dyke in Midtown Sports Bar by Kate Walter

prompted wags to dub the Belmont subway special, "The visitors to Toy Shan back then. Chatham Square was one of the best nonhotel beats in the city. By the 1940s, when the laws finally began to ease, the ratio of men to women in Chinatown ranged as high as 10 to 1. The Toy Shans were not eager to mingle with the people they called "lo fan" (foreign devils) in any event. Determined to survive, they built an extralegal society based on furtive alliances, police bribes, creative bookkeeping, and immigration scams. The aim was to remain invisible and separate. To this day, few people in Chinatown are known by their real names;

5 of 64

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

Floor Pounding Polkas: A Croatian Wedding Story by Joseph Scalia

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

most received new identities, such as the Lees, Chins, and Wongsófrom the family associations, who declared them "cousins" to get them into the country.

Travels With Travis by Cynthia Kraman A Garmento's Nightmare by Fran Giuffre

In place of the "Western government," they substituted the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), an organization to which the neighborhood's 65-odd family and merchant associations belong. To this day every other president

You're in the Quiet Car by Hal Sirowitz One Snort by Shawn Vandor

of the CCBA has to be a "Toy Shan" descendant. It was, however, the Hip Sing and On Leong that carried much of the power in the community. Originally formed as protection societies for Chinese without strong family ties, the "tongs" set

Doorman Le Fou by Mr. Murphy

themselves up as "night mayors" of Chinatown. They controlled the illegal activities in a community where everyone felt outside

The Check Thieves by Tina Portelli

the law. Their spokesmen, with hatchet men behind them, grew

The Paper That Covers Straws by Tom Diriwachter

that still holds. On Leong has more money and highly placed

Mayfair Boys Club & Barbershop by Zachary Levin

in power at the CCBA. Between themselves, they struck a parity members, especially in Chiang Kai-shek's old Kuomintang party and the Nationalist government. The prole Hip Sing, which is known as "the friend of the seaman" for its ability to sneak Chinese off boats and into waiter jobs, has more members and

Art History by Betsy Aaron Here I am in Bergdorf Goodman by Sarah Miller-Davenport

branches. But in 1965 the Toy Shan traditions were seriously threatened. The federal laws were altered to allow open Chinese emigration to this country. Since then more than 200,000 Hong Kong

Chilling Out on the M5 by Ellen Schecter

residents have emigrated; half settled in the New York area, many of those in Chinatown.

Yawning Prohibition by Hal Sirowitz Requiem For a Regular by Joshua Furst

Which makes sense. The New York pace is similar to that of teeming Hong Kong, and the business possibilities seemed good. In Boston, the Chinese community borders on a honkytonk area. In Chicago, the black ghetto is everywhere. In San Francisco, the

Losing Your Mind at the Russian-Turkish Baths by Jed Lipinski

Chinese have always thought of themselves as more sophisticated than the Toy Shan, but there the Chinatown is neatly stitched into a tourist patchwork quilt that cuts expansion

Window Displays by Kevin Nolan

possibilities. In New York, however, the old men have played it

Cappozelle by Virge Maida

Toy Shan Changes Chinatown is in the midst of a gut-wrenching

close to the vest for so long, anything can happen.

change. The population is edging toward 75,000, a five-fold It Wasn't Our Turn by Thomas R. Ziegler

increase since the law change. It's one of the fastest-growing

The Diamond Cutter's Daughter by Hadara Bar-Nadav

populated. Once confined to the familiar pentagon bounded by

Moonlight Exterminator by Jennifer Gerend

6 of 64

neighborhoods in New York and without doubt the most densely Canal Street, Worth, and the Bowery, Chinatown is now sprawling all over the Lower East Side. Already Mott Streetóabove Canal up to Grand, once solidly Italianóis 70 per

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

The Silent Minority by Joseph Scalia

cent Chinese. To the east, Division Street and East Broadway,

Foreign Tongues and Native Toenails by Samantha V. Chang

Chinese business and residence.

formerly Jewish and Puerto Rican, have become centers of

But much of the old Toy Shan separatism remains. Most Eye Only Has Eyes For You by Martine Byer

Chinatown residents do not vote; currently there are fewer than

Nutcracked by Charlie Gaeta

Asian communities in California, no Oriental has ever held major

Meet the Old Boss by Suzanne Comeau All of a Piece: Saint Anthony’s Statue and New Guinea Mourning Rituals by Thomas Maschio Kosher Nostra by Ken Paprocki

3000 registered voters in the area. In marked contrast to the office in New York. The Chinatown Democratic Club has been busted as a gambling house. Peter Wu, the club's leader, has been called one of the biggest gamblers in Chinatown. The political base of the community is so weak that activists feel powerless to do anything about the assembly lines that bisect the area and cut the potential Chinese vote in half. Chinatown activists say this neglect is responsible for the compromised stand in the zoning fight with the Little Italy Restoration Association, which is seeking toward off the Chinese influx and

A Word From Number 4: Hat's Off to the Homeless by Jessica Mazo

zone large portions of the area for the dwindling Italian

Hip Hop Subway Series by Dvora Meyers

Yet changes are everywhere. Chinatown now functions or

Trying on Murray Hill Girl by Sydney Beveridge Living with Nicola's Single Life by Jed Lipinski

population.

Chinese; it looks like Hong Kong. Investigate the brand new Silver Palace Restaurant on the Boweryóit breaks the mold of the cramped, no-atmosphere Chinatown restaurant. An escalator whisks you up to a ding room as big as a football field. Almost all the 1000 or so people eating there will be Chinese, many middle-l-class couples who've motored in from Queens to try a

A Great First Day at Orient by Thomas Maschio

more adventurous version of Cantonese food than this city is

They're behaving like animals by Kevin Nolan

and Hunan food is the "American" fare.)

accustomed to. (Many Chinese will tell you the "exotic" Szechuan

The mass migration has transformed Chinatown into an odd The Super With The Toy Face: Redux by Ennis Smith

amalgam of boom town and ghetto. Suddenly half the

To Every Dog Its Bone by Suzanne Comeau

the Cantonese Toy Shans). In their place have come Hong Kong

The Iguana Incident by Hal Sirowitz The Smell of Bologna (An Essay in Ten Parts) by Patrick J. Sauer

entrepreneurs and Taiwanese investors, who are fearful of the future of their island. A Taiwanese combine, the Summit Import Corporation, has already done much to change shopping habits in Chinatown by opening two big supermarkets, Kam Wah on Baxter Street and Kam Kuo on Mott. The Taiwanese money is an indication that even though the

Joyless Dancer by Sherri Rosen

Nationalist appear on the verge of international political eclipse,

Four Years by James Patrick Brogan

concern is also behind the proposed block-long Golden Pacific

Heteroflexibility by Daphne

7 of 64

businesses here are no longer in the hands of the old "lo fa kew"

their influence in American Chinatowns is on the rise. A Taiwan National Bank on Canal Street. It's one of the several new banks opening in this neighborhood of compulsive savers. The gold

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

The Last Pharmacy by Lacan

rush, prodded by extraordinary greed, has pushed real-estate

A Regular Disappointment by Erik Raschke

All this has the Toy Shan posers hanging on for dear life. The

values here to fabled heights.

newcomers, filtered through Hong Kong, come from all over Felix's Eighth Life by Ken Krimstein

China. The old Toy Shan loyalties don't apply. These people got

Rory by Thomas Pryor

The tongs and the CCBA are beginning to feel the crunch.

Something in Common by Erika Wat is the Wat by Matthew Fishbane College Town by Rebecca Chace Easter Haircuts on Staten Island by James Scarcella

here without the help of the associations and owe them little. They've begun to see more and more store owners break away. Suddenly there are publicly funded social service agencies, most prominently the Chinatown Planning Council, to challenge CCBA rulings. And the younger Chinese, sons and daughters of the "lo fa kew," have been openly critical. The Old Men Act But 100 years of power isn't something you give up without a fight. On November 3, the CCBA held a meeting to discuss what to do about Nicky Louie and his Ghost Shadow buddies shooting up the neighborhood. Chinatown has traditionally been one of

Locust Horde by Jake Savage

the safest areas in the city; it still is. Crime figures are

The Everyman's Burden by Mr. Murphy

That's what made the recent violence all the more shocking.

Blue on 14th Street by Claudette Covey

the battles were being waged among the various Shadows,

A Flicker of Sadness in the Blue & Gold by Tom Tierney You're Supposed to Make Mistakes by Shawn Vandor Blood on the Tracks by Faith Wurtzel

remarkable low here for a place with so many new immigrants. Especially in a neighborhood so dependent on tourism. Although Dragons, and Eagles around, merchants were reporting 30 per cent drop in business. Places that stay open late were doing even worse. The street fighting is "disfiguring" Chinatown, said one merchant, referring to the April shootout at the Co-Luck Restaurant on the Bowery. That night, according to the cops, a couple of Shadows roared up in a late-model blue Ford, smashed through the glass door, and started spraying .32 automatic slugs

I $^(&$#*! NY by Bonny Finberg

in the general direction of some Dragons who were "yum cha"

Mouse: A Wave of Plague & Death by Kathryn Holmquist

may not have been a Dragon at all, got clipped in the leg. For

Straggling at the Guggenheim by Beth Schwartzapfel

time the Shadows ere through, they had managed to hit three

The First Emperor at New Rochelle, Theater #16 by Peter F. Eder

8 of 64

(drinking tea and talking) in the corner. One of the Dragons, who the rest of the people in the restaurant, it was grimmer. By the New York University law students, a waiter, and a lady from Queens who later died on the floor, her daughter crying over her body. The cops said, "The place looked like as slaughterhouse; there was blood all over the linoleum."

A Fair Trade by Deirdre Faughey

Since then Co-Luck has been considered bad luck for prospective

Harry and Winslow in the Gulf Stream by Suzanne Comeau

storefront is empty for long. On the door is a sign: "Closed For

buyers. It remains vacant, rare in a neighborhood where no Alterations," "Perhaps we keep it that way," said a merchant, "as

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

You are Here by Kate Angus What I Heard On The W Train by Mickey Z.

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

a scar to remind us of our shame." Restaurant owners say there won't be so many wedding banquets this summer because of an incident in the Hung Gung a few months ago. Gang members crashed a banquet in the

My Technicolor Dreamcoat by Laren Stover

restaurant, stationing sentries outside to make sure no one came

Who Wants To Be An Extremist? by James Braly

valuables into shopping bags. "It was just like the Wild West,"

More or Less How It Got To Be 4 O'Clock by Bill Teitelbaum

The police don't see things looking up. In October they made 60

or went, and instructed a hundred celebrants to drop their says someone close to the wedding guests.

gang-related arrests, the most ever in a single month. They say there are more guns on the street than ever before and estimate

A Barber's Portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm by Thomas Pryor

gang membershipóbefore the recent crackdownóat about 200, an all-time high. The gang kids are younger, too.14-year-olds

The Stuff of Life by Thomas Beller It has been many years since I last spiked. by Eugene Barron

from Junior High School 65 are common these days. Pressured by editorials in the Chinese press, the CCBA swung into action. They called a public gathering at which the community would be free to explain its plight to Manhattan

No Privacy in the Community House Community by Kathryn Holmquist The Fig Trees of Bensonhurst by Thomas Maschio In Defense of the Park Slope Food Coop; or, I Heart Chaos by Erica Weitzman I Heart New York by Kate Angus

district attorney Robert M. Morganthau. Getting the Lo Fan Involved This was quite a change in tactics for the CCBA. Until quite recently one of its major functions has been to keep the lid on Chinatown's considerable and growing urban problems. That Chinese women sew garments for 12 cents a piece, that more than one third of the area's males work as waiters, that Chinatown has the highest rate of TB and mental illness among city neighborhoodsóall that was dirty linen better kept under wraps. But Nicky and the Shadows, they make noise. They get

Units of Measurement by Lily Huang

picked up for killing people and get their sullen pictures in what

The Naked New Year's Eve Bartender by Ken Paprocki

make you look awfully silly. So, when Joseph Mei, the CCBA

Lobster Bisque on City Island by Joseph Scalia

at all about youth gangs in Chinatown," the day after Nicky's

A Brush With Death: AIRPORT '75 vs. the Bikers by Jake Delaney

the Chinese still call "the Western press." Keeping that quiet can vice-president, told The New York Times, "We have no problem people allegedly shot five White Eagles in front of the Yuen Yuen Snack Shop a policy change was in order. The meeting was held in the CCBA's dank auditorium (underneath an alternating string of American and Nationalist

A Driver You Can Trust in Flatlands by G. Madlyn

Chinese flags). Yut Yee, the 70-year-old CCBA president, who

The Enchanted Jury Summons by Laren Stover

unusually awake that night. He said, "Chinatown will become a

Raw Like Sauerkraut in the Market at Leinfelden-Echterdingen by Dara Colwell

9 of 64

reportedly has been known to fall asleep during meetings, was dead city" if the violence continues. He urged residents to come forward and "report cases of crimes: we must be witnesses." This seemed unlikely, for in a culture where the character for "revenge" means literally "report a crime," the act of informing

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

Before and After: Stories From New York by Mr. Beller's Neighborhood Books/ W.W. Norton Before and After: Stories From New York by Mr. Beller's Neighborhood Books/ W.W. Norton

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

tends to be a complicated business. It confuses and angers the Lo Fan cops, who say that even though just about every restaurant in Chinatown has been robbed or extorted from in the past few years, the incidence of reporting the crimes is almost nil. Despite the fact that gang members have been arrested for more than a dozen murders in Manhattan there has been only one conviction: that, of Yut Wai Tom, an Eagle who made the

Press Clips by Line

mistake of putting a bullet through the throat of a Shadow in

Fitzmas Past by Mr. Murphy

Morganthau sighed during the debate of Chinese businessmen,

Confetti Virgin (I Tossed It Away in Times Square) by Nicole Galland

however, many people were openly restive. "My god, when will

What Should We Speak at Dinner? by Claudine Corbanese

front of a couple of Puerto Rican witnesses.

looked at his watch, said he'd "help," and left. But this time this bullshit stop?" asked a younger merchant. No one talked about the tongs and their relationship to the gangs. Hw could the? Of the seven permanent members of the CCBA inner voting circle, on is the On Leong, another the Hip

Christmas with Fidel by Susan Connell-Mettauer

Sing. No wonder people tend to get cynical whenever the CCBA calls a meeting at which the tong interests are at stake. Perhaps

Mouse, or: The Botched Mercy-Killing by Arik Gabbai

that's why, when a Chinese reporter asked what the D.A. was

The Super Down the Block: He Reads by Matt Pape

people said, "What do you want? We showed up, didn't we?"

planning to do to help the community, one of the Morganthau's

But, really all you had to do was watch Benny Eng. Benny is the Lobbying for Adventure by Julie Metz

director of the Hip Sing Credit Fund (which drug cops figure is a

Stoop by Suzanne Comeau

Chinese-American Restaurant Association, an organization that

Rage & Thanksgiving by Sherri Rosen The Scorekeeper by Courtney Lichterman Aging of Aquarius by Catherine Bergart Water, One Dollar by Beth Schwartzapfel

laundry room for dirty money). He is also an officer of the deserves blame for keeping waiter wages in Chinatown at about $50 a week for the past twenty years. As people entered the CCBA hall, Little Bennyóas he is called in deference to Big Benny Ong the old Hip Sing bossman who recently got caught sneaking out the door of the gambling house at 9 Pell and spent the next day teaching cops how to play Chinese pokerógreeted everyone with a hopelessly drawn face. He said, "so happy you are interested in the security of Chinatown" to everyone entering the meeting. But later, you could sear you say Benny nod respectfully to the skinnylegged

In the Year 2000: Jeff Greenfield and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade by Patrick J. Sauer Dom's Wife by Mickey Z. TIM is MONY by Joseph Scalia A Tree Dies in Brooklyn by Minter Krotzer

10 of 64

kid pacing up and down Mott Street. ** First published in the Village Voice, January 31, 1977.

The story was posted on 2003-03-08

E-mail this story to a friend

10/22/08 2:21 AM

MrBellersNeighborhood - The (Chinese) Gangs of New York b...

http://www.mrbellersneighborhood.com/story.php?storyid=1169

Cold Storage by Nora Maynard [Moses] by Dulcinea Pitagora Only customers come down here: Hell's Kitchen in 1986 by Roger Sewhcomar The Blind Leading The Blind: In the Dark '77 by Michele Hush “An Orthodox Jew Walks into a McDonald’s…” by Dvora Meyers

Condo Sale New York City Choose Your Home in NY by Location, Price or Rooms. View Photos Online! www.WeichertMazzeo.com

Cognitive Behavior Docs Anxiety Panic Social Phobias Trich Cognitive Behavior Therapy Expert www.BehaviorTherapyNYC.com

Apartment Goshen NY Spacious 1BR, 2BR, 3BR. Pool, country kitchens, patio. Fall sale! www.briarwoodhouseapt.com

What Goes Around by Thomas R. Ziegler Thanksgiving With The Blonde in The Brown Jacket by Timothy Braun Mr B at Mo Pitkin's on Avenue A by carbonate of soda Mr B at Mo Pitkin's on Avenue A by carbonate of soda Defending the Park Slope Food Coop by Dina Snot-Suction Thing by Elisha Cooper The Super With The Toy Face by Ennis Smith What My Daughter Heard On The Balcony by Yuliya Chernova Confronting the Park Slope Food Coop by Fran Giuffre Loaded Hallways by JB McGeever Hindsight is 13,000: Playing the Stock Market in 1999-2000 by Mr. Murphy Lubricated Intruder by Michael Signorelli Chelsea's Least Wanted by Sarah Ruth Jacobs The Important Visiting Friend by Janie Heath

11 of 64

10/22/08 2:21 AM