The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream (51 page)

25
The result was severe food shortages:
Details relating to Mao and the Great Leap Forward are from Jung Chang and Jon Halliday,
Mao: The Unknown Story
(New York: Anchor, 2006), pp. 430–31.

25.
While she was still:
Written response from Sister Ping.

26.
When she was a teenager:
The fact that the Cultural Revolution coincided with Sister Ping’s high school years is from a written response from Sister Ping. The fact that schools in the area closed is from the testimony of Weng Yu Hui in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial). Weng came from a village close to Sister Ping’s.

26
Schools and universities:
For a fascinating first-person account of the Cultural Revolution as it played out in Fujian Province for young students like Sister Ping, see Ken Ling,
The Revenge of Heaven
(New York: Ballantine, 1972). These details are drawn from Ling’s book.

27
“That was the trend”:
Written response from Sister Ping.

27
Mao had always been suspicious:
See Chang and Halliday,
Mao
, pp. 94–108.

27
In
the thirteenth century:
Manuel Komroff, ed.,
The Travels of Marco Polo
(New York: Norton, 2003), pp. 252–53.

27
According to legend:
Sterling Sea-grave,
Lords of the Rim
(London: Corgi, 1995), pp. 103–7. Accounts of Zheng He’s height and the extent of his fleet may be fanciful, but the admiral did indeed exist. He was a Muslim and a eunuch, and a great monument commemorating him stands by the banks of the Min River in Changle today. See Louise Levathes,
When China Ruled the Seas: The Treasure Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405–1433
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.) Accounts of just how far Zheng He ventured in the fifteenth century vary, and have been the subject of some recent controversy. See Jack Hitt, “Goodbye, Columbus!”
New York Times Magazine
, January 5, 2003.

27
By the 1570s:
Thunø,
Beyond Chinatown
, p. 14.

27.
Eighty percent of the Chinese:
Zai Liang and Wenzhen Ye, “From Fujian to New York: Understanding the New Chinese Immigration,” in David Kyle and Rey Koslowski, eds.,
Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), p. 193.

28.
Well over a million Chinese:
Ko-lin Chin,
Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States
(Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1999), p. 13.

28
It was from Fujian:
Wenzhou, in neighboring Zhejiang Province, was also a source of migrants, more so to Europe in the early years, but increasingly to the United States as well.

28
In fact, even
Fujian:
Chin,
Smuggled Chinese
, p. 11.

28
In New York’s Little Italy:
See John S. MacDonald and Leatrice D. MacDonald, “Chain Migration, Ethnic Neighborhood Formation, and Social
Networks,”
Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly
42 (1964).

29
Demographers call this:
Ibid.

29
A more evocative Fujianese expression:
Jason Blatt, “Recent Trends in the Smuggling of Chinese into the United States,” unpublished paper, May 2007.

29
Moreover, everywhere the Fujianese went:
For the role of the overseas Chinese as “market dominant minorities,” see Amy Chua,
World on Fire
(New York: Doubleday, 2003), chap. 1.

29
More than half of Asia’s forty billionaires:
Alex Tizon, “The Rush to ‘Gold Mountain,’”
Seattle Times
, April 16, 2000.

30
For generations of Fujianese men:
Confidential interview with the son of a Fujianese ship jumper in Chinatown, New York.

30
During the 1960s:
Written response from Sister Ping.

30
Cheng Chai Leung worked:
Ibid.

30
Eventually he slipped up:
Undated internal INS document, “Progress Reports, Operation Hester,’” by Special Agent Edmund Bourke, Anti-Smuggling Unit, New York (hereafter ASU NY).

30.
According to authorities:
Internal INS document, Alien Smuggling Task Force Proposal,” Anti-Smuggling Unit memo, October 31, 1985. That Sister Ping’s father was a snakehead himself was confirmed by Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry of the FBI, at an inter view on December 15, 2005.

31.
Historical records indicate:
Zai Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China: A Sending Country’s Perspective,”
Sociological Forum
16, no. 4 (December 2001), citing Yaohua Wang,
An Overview of Fujianese Culture
(Fuzhou: Fujian Education, 1994), p. 15.

31
The Fujianese were originally
known:
Peter Kwong,
Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor
(New York: New Press, 1997), p. 23.

31
When emigrants slither through:
Testimony of Guo Liang Qi, aka “Ah Kay,” in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Ah Kay testimony, Sister Ping trial).

31
The poorest provinces:
Thunø, “Beyond Chinatown,” p. 6.

32
So, ironically, economic development:
See Jack A. Goldstone, A Tsunami on the Horizon? The Potential for International Migration,” in Paul J. Smith, ed.,
Human Smuggling: Chinese Migrant Trafficking and the Challenge to America’s Immigration Tradition
(Washington, D.C.: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 1997).

32
Some did better:
Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China.”

32
For this frustrated:
The figure on high school completion is from Susan Sachs, “Fujian, U.S.A.,”
New York Times
, July 22, 2001.

32.
Fantastical stories abounded:
Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China;” Chin,
Smuggled Chinese
, p. 25.

33.
“Here, they’re working like slaves”:
Interview with Justin Yu, formerly of the
World Journal
, now president of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, January 4, 2006.

33
Sister Ping believed:
Testimony of Cheng Chui Ping during the sentencing hearing in United States v. Cheng Chui Ping, aka “Sister Ping,” 94 CR 953 (hereafter Sister Ping sentencing remarks).

33
In high school she had met:
Written response from Sister Ping. The physical description of Cheung Yick Tak is based on my observation of him in numerous encounters at the courthouse
and in the family’s restaurant at 47 East Broadway.

33
Many Fujianese were fleeing:
Kwong,
Forbidden Workers
, p. 29.

33
Sister Ping and her family:
Written response from Sister Ping. The building was the Kwan Yik Building, Phase 2, Sai Ying Pun, Des Voeux Road West 343. It was built in 1977.

34
It is not clear how Sister Ping:
The address of the shop comes from an interview with Philip Lam on March 28, 2008. He was a patron when he lived in Hong Kong.

34
The Cantonese majority:
See Gregory E. Guldin, “Little Fujian (Fukien): Sub-Neighborhood and Community in North Point, Hong Kong,”
Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society
, no. 17 (1977).

34
Sister Ping catered to:
Written response from Sister Ping.

34
Better to be in front of a chicken:
Confidential interview with a Fujianese contemporary of Sister Ping’s from Chinatown.

34
In 1979 she opened:
Written response from Sister Ping.

34
University students and scholars:
Liang, “Demography of Illicit Emigration from China.”

34
Chinese census bureau figures:
Ibid.

34
“Every man in the town”:
Interview with Steven Gleit, November 11, 2007.

35
Sister Ping’s husband, Yick Tak:
Written response from Sister Ping.

35
One day in June 1981:
This episode, including quotes, is drawn from Sister Ping sentencing remarks.

CHAPTER 3: EIGHTEEN-
THOUSAND-DOLLAR WOMAN

This chapter draws primarily on written responses from Sister Ping in July 2008, the trial testimony of Sister Ping’s former customer and associate Weng Yu Hui, and a series of internal INS documents related to Operation Hester, the first investigation of the Cheng family’s smuggling activities.

36
Several months after her meeting:
The details of Sister Ping’s initial entry to the United States are from a confidential interview with a current employee of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who consulted Sister Ping’s file.

36
“The reason most Fujianese”:
Confidential interview with a Fujianese contemporary of Sister Ping’s who moved from Hong Kong to New York at roughly the same time.

36.
As soon as she had arrived:
Confidential ICE interview, corroborated by written response from Sister Ping.

37.
The complex was known:
For a terrific account of the history of Knickerbocker Village, see Phillip Lopate,
Water front: A Walk Around Manhattan
(New York: Anchor, 2005).

37
Sister Ping liked New York:
Unless otherwise noted, all of this material is drawn from written responses from Sister Ping.

37
When they applied:
Ying Chan and James Dao, “Merchants of Misery,”
New York Daily News
, September 24, 1990.

37
The shop next door:
Sister Ping sentencing remarks.

37
During the slow daytime hours:
See Jane H. Li, “The Chinese Menu Guys,”
New York Times
, July 28, 1996. For an empathetic and realistic look at the lives of undocumented restaurant workers and deliverymen, see Sean Baker and Shih-Ching Tsou’s film
Take Out
(CAVU Pictures, 2008).

38
The famous Fujianese entrepreneurialism:
Peter Kwong,
The New Chinatown
, rev. ed. (New York: Hill and Wang, 1996), p. 180.

38.
Employment agencies:
Ibid., p. 178.

39.
In 1960 there were:
Kwong,
The New Chinatown
, p. 4.

39.
Chinatown residents began:
Kwong and Miščević,
Chinese America
, p. 329.

40.
The criminologist Ko-lin Chin:
Amy Zimmer, “Journey to the Golden Mountain,”
City Limits
, January 1, 2004.

40
The Fujianese called them:
See Elisabeth Rosenthal, “Chinese Towns Main Export: Its Young Men,”
New York Times
, June 26, 2000.

40
Before long this reverse migration:
See Patrick Radden Keefe, “Little America,”
Slate
, April 9, 2008; also see Somini Sengupta, “Squeezed by Debt and Time, Mothers Ship Babies to China,”
New York Times
, September 14, 1999.

40
By working long hours:
Chin,
Smuggled Chinese
, p. 119.

40
After six, or often:
Kwong,
The New Chinatown
, p. 180.

41
As often as not, they would end up:
Interview with Philip Lam, November 9, 2005. Lam knew Sister Ping during these years, frequented her shop, and rented an apartment from her for a time. She often encouraged him to learn English. On the endlessly complex subject of
guanxi
a great deal has been written, much of it geared to Western businesspeople endeavoring to make sense of corporate culture in China. See, for instance, Frederick Balfour, “You Say
Guanxi
, I Say Schmoozing,”
BusinessWeek
, November 10, 2007; and Ying Lun So and Anthony Walker,
Explaining Guanxi: The Chinese Business Network
(New York: Routledge, 2006). For a more sociological approach, see Thomas Gold, Doug Guthrie, and David L. Wank, eds.,
Social Connections in China: Institutions, Culture, and the
Changing Nature of Guanxi
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002). On the role that
guanxi
played in a recent smuggling case in the city of Xiamen in southern Fujian Province, see Simone Menshausen, “Corruption, Smuggling and Guanxi in Xiamen, China,” Internet Center for Corruption Research, August 2005.

41.
Local Fujianese began:
Edward Barnes, “Two-Faced Woman,”
Time
, July 31, 2000.

42.
In 1984 a young man:
Unless otherwise noted, the account of Sister Ping smuggling Weng Yu Hui to the United States is drawn from Weng Yu Hui testimony, Sister Ping trial.

43.
Snakeheads occasionally refer:
Testimony of “Mr. Lee” (pseudonym), in “Asian Organized Crime,” hearing be fore the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the United States Senate, October 3, November 5–6, 1991 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1992), p. 385.

45
The immigrant was thus indentured:
Bill McMurry of the FBI made this observation to me on October 31, 2005.

45
Western Union charged:
Interview with Steven Wong, of the Lin Zexu Foundation, November 11, 2005; interview with Justin Yu, January 4, 2006; interviews with Konrad Motyka and Bill McMurry, October 31, 2005, and December 15, 2005.

45
Along the border between Mexico:
INS, “Alien Smuggling Task Force Proposal.”