FREE TONG WARS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF VICE, MONEY, AND MURDER IN NEW YORKS CHINATOWN PDF Scott D. Seligman | 342 pages | 14 Jul 2016 | Penguin Putnam Inc | 9780399562273 | English | New York, United States NY Daily News - We are currently unavailable in your region Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Money — Tong Wars Money Scott D. Seligman Goodreads Author. Nothing had worked. Not threats or negotiations, not shutting down the betting parlors or opium dens, not house-to-house searches or 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 and meat cleavers to pistols, automatic weapons, and even bombs. The Chinese in turn-of-the-last-century New York were mostly immigrant peasants and shopkeepers who worked as laundrymen, cigar makers, and domestics. They gravitated to lower Manhattan and lived as Chinese an existence as possible, their few diversions—gambling, opium, and prostitution—available but, sadly, illegal. Representatives of rival tongs secret societies corner the various markets of sin using admirably creative strategies. The city government was already corrupt from top to bottom, so once one tong began taxing and Murder in New Yorks Chinatown gambling dens and paying off the authorities, a rival, jealously eyeing its lucrative franchise, co-opted a local reformist group to help eliminate it. Pretty soon Chinese were slaughtering one another in the streets, inaugurating a succession of wars that raged for the next thirty years. Scott D. A true story set in Prohibition-era Manhattan a generation after Gangs of New York, but fought on the very same turf. Get A Copy. Hardcoverpages. More Details Other Editions 6. Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Tong Warsplease sign up. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Dec 17, Virginia rated it really liked it. So we know Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice basics of the Irish Mob and the Italian Mob back in the day when Prohibition turned honest men bad and drugs made Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice men good money. However, we don't Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice much about the Chinese Mob aka Tongs that existed during the same time period and helped shape Chinatown to the tourist attraction it is today. Scott Seligman paints a gritty picture of the Chinese immigrants that Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice a home for themselves on Mott Street and then expanded their empire across the country. Filled with interes So we know the basics of the Irish Mob and the Italian Mob back in the day when Prohibition turned honest men bad and drugs made bad men good money. Filled with interesting facts and stories, this is a part of American history you never read about, but will be glad you did. Jun 29, Patricia rated it really liked it Shelves: giveaway. I was totally unaware of the treatment Money Chinese in the USA from the late 's into the 's. This book takes place primarily in New York City and Murder in New Yorks Chinatown the Tammany era. This book is an eye opening account for anyone interested in American Chinese at the time. Mar 01, George Lai rated it did not like it. Reading between the lines, it would seem that there was so much rich history behind The Tong Wars and the life of the Chinese in that era; somehow the book plods along as a dry regurgitation of Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice chronologically. Aug 23, Dan rated it it was amazing. I learned that people were murdered in front of the dim sum place I like. Nov 11, Susan Olesen rated it liked it. The book covers the rise of Chinese gangs - they started out as 'social clubs' but in reality were gangs, working alongside Tammany Hall - from in NY's Chinatown. Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice of the issue was our own laws against immigrants what? I hear crickets that prevented the Chinese from assimilating, and thus they remained their own Chinese society. NYC corruption, of course, also played a hand. In the end the book is interesting but I think it falls flat in that there's no big conclusion - the Depre The book covers the rise of Chinese gangs - they started out as 'social clubs' but in reality were gangs, working alongside Tammany Hall - from in NY's Chinatown. In the end the book is interesting but I think it falls flat in that there's no big conclusion - the Depression pretty much did the gangs in because there was no money and and Murder in New Yorks Chinatown jobs for the Chinese, and by then the children had been born here for generations and were assimilating anyway. The book peters out just like the subject material. It becomes more of a narrative of a timeline of Chinese murders over 50 years. Could it and Murder in New Yorks Chinatown a good TV series? You bet your firecrackers. Look at this one! And Murder in New Yorks Chinatown as a book, it's good but Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice stunning. This would make a great movie. Highly recommended! May 27, Jimmy rated it it was amazing. It was seen as a hotbed for betting parlors, opium dens, prostitution and violence. Sadly most people during that time associated Chinese people with vice and were seen by the elites in New York and the Newspaper as a bigger problem than other immigrant groups such as Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice Irish, Italians, etc. In fact during this was Tammany-era New York City and corruption and depravity was all and Murder in New Yorks Chinatown the city and among politicians and the police. Situating things in this context the book focuses largely on Chinese organize crime. Going back to the book, I learned a lot of things from reading it. The book delineates various social organizations among Chinese in America and how not all of them are organized crime. Even with the infamous On Leong and their leader Tom Lee it was originally meant to be an organization to help its Chinese members legally and in other ways. The book goes over the color character of the two best known tongs. Tom Lee who was the boss of the On Leong was someone who courted officials and politicians and even became the deputy sheriff of New York County inthe first Chinese to hold any office in New York history, whether elected or appointed. I also thought it was interesting on page that broke down crime statistics to show how unfair the Chinese was singled out during this time. Newspaper were calling for Chinatown to be destroyed, Chinese were illegally searched and detained without warrant, and later officials even made mass arrest for the deportation of Chinese people that had nothing to do with the Tongs as a way to get back at the Tongs. Going over police records the author noted that surrounding precincts had nearly twice the amount of arrests than that of Chinatown and one precinct outside of Chinatown even had three times as many! From police statistics in there was Chinese arrested in New York compared to 20, Irishmen, 13, Italians, 12, Russians, 11, Germans, etc. Chinese ethnically ranked second to the bottom of police arrests. He was welcomed home by both Tongs in celebration of American pride. Fascinating for myself as an American pastor of Asian descent. I highly recommend the book. An interesting and well documented account of the Chinese immigrant population of New York from the late 19th century into the early 20th focusing on the "Tongs" or Chinese societies that extorted protection, ran gambling houses and also controlled prostitution in the Chinatown section of New York City. The author has done exhaustive research and his book is very well foot-noted almost painfully so. I was interested in reading this book after hearing a summation of it on the woefully underrate An interesting and well documented account of the Chinese immigrant population of New York from the late 19th century into the early 20th focusing on the "Tongs" or Chinese societies that extorted protection, ran gambling houses and also controlled prostitution in the Chinatown section of New York City. I was interested in reading this book after hearing a summation of it on the woefully underrated "China History Podcast". Unfortunately the book lacks a certain element of excitement and colour that you might expect from a history of what must have been exciting and Murder in New Yorks Chinatown and colourful characters. So instead it comes off at times as a rather rote listing of murders and other nefarious deeds that are linked by a tenuous narrative. It is a worthwhile effort but and Murder in New Yorks Chinatown could have and Murder in New Yorks Chinatown better. Jan 06, Alan Chong rated it really liked it. Having visited the Museum of the Chinese in America recently, and stayed in Chinatown during a recent stay in New York, I found this book an interesting read.