The Dragon Syndicates: The Global Phenomenon of the Triads - Hardcover

Booth, Martin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786707356 ISBN 13: 9780786707355

Publisher: Basic Books, 2000

Synopsis

Traces the more than two-thousand-year history of the Triads, the one-time Chinese secret society that has evolved into an international criminal fraternity, bound by ritual and archaic oaths, involved in world-wide extortion, gambling, prostitution, money laundering, fraud, narcotics, immigrant smuggling, and other criminal enterprises.

About this title

About the Author:

An internationally known and admired writer and biographer, Martin Booth was also an acclaimed novelist - his THE INDUSTRY OF SOULS having been shortlisted for the 1998 Booker Prize. His penultimate book was CANNABIS: A HISTORY, and he died in February 2004 shortly after completing GWEILO.

From Publishers Weekly:

In an indisputably important and extravagantly detailed account, Booth (author of the lauded Opium: A History and Booker-nominated author of the novel The Industry of Souls) examines the history of the notorious international crime groups known as the Chinese Triads, whose roots lie in ancient secret societies with traditions of religious and political dissentAparticularly in the Hung Society of the 18th century. As Chinese emigrants spread around the world, so did the societies, metamorphosing into today's international terrorist networks. The Triads have an oddly checkered history of both criminal activity and patriotism (they supported Chiang Kai-shek and assisted the U.S. during the Vietnam War). Booth's narrative details the dizzying array of their criminal actionsAincluding kidnapping, credit-card fraud, software piracy, international prostitution, illegal immigrant smuggling and Internet pornographyAas it explores the lives and crooked partnerships of such legendary Triad power brokers as the Green Gang's far-rightist Big-eared Du, and the 14K, which maximized the mid-century heroin market. Booth also documents the Triads' infiltration of the business and social mainstream and their current exploitation of the Hong Kong film industry. He deserves commendation for addressing this risky subject (these groups are not above murdering journalists) and for shredding the Triads' centuries-strong web of ritual and patriotism. 16 pages b&w photos not seen by PW. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0786707356
• ISBN 13: 9780786707355
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368