Paper Fan: The Hunt for Triad Gangster Steven Wong (Paperback)

by Terry Gould (Author) "There is no marker where the Paper Fan's ashes are buried..." (more)
Key Phrases: moto driver, gang scene, paper fan, Hong Kong, Hun Sen, Steven Wong (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Gould, a much awarded Canadian investigative journalist, recounts his 14-year odyssey in pursuit of a major Asian organized crime figure. Intriguing if overlong, Gould's story helps illuminate the little-known world of the Triads, a byzantine, diasporic Asian mafia. Led to Wong through young Asians in Vancouver who were systematically terrorized and recruited by local thugs, Gould undertakes a risky encounter with the young but powerful gang leader. Gould boldly and secretly records an interview with Wong in the criminal's home; the tape becomes the basis for a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation documentary that provides law enforcement with valuable insight leading to the elusive Wong's arrest and indictment for large-scale heroin trafficking. But Wong gets permission to leave Canada for a family trip, and is then conveniently reported dead in an accident. That leads Gould to Macau, the Philippines and elsewhere on a decade-long chase for proof that Wong is alive. The narrative suffers from the colorful Wong's disappearance from view early on and from occasional lapses into purple prose ("terror sat naked on my shoulder like a clawed and drooling gargoyle"), but U.S. audiences who enjoy the chase will also learn about the brutal power and scope of the Triads.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Product Description
Triad official Steven Wong is the "paper fan," a thirty-nine-year-old Hong Kong-born mobster. Raised in New York’s Chinatown, he matured into crime in Vancouver, where he founded and headed the murderous Gum Wah Gang in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. In 1992, Wong "died" in a traffic accident in a remote area of the Philippines before he could be sent to jail for heroin trafficking, just after he’d taken out a million-dollar life insurance policy. His urn may be interred in a Vancouver cemetery; but today, Interpol has a "Red Alert" arrest warrant out for Wong. His updated file reads like a Hollywood action film—an organized criminal adventure that circles the Pacific Rim, from Macau to Japan, from Cambodia to the Philippines. For eleven years, award-winning writer Terry Gould tracked Wong through the organized crime circles of six countries, where politicians, police, businessmen and criminals run in one big pack, sometimes nipping each other’s heels, licking each other’s faces, and inviting one another home for all-night mah-jongg parties. Four times, Gould has traced Wong and pinned him down, but the law has let him slip away. Paper Fan includes telling photographs in this unforgettable hunt for one man.

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Running Press; illustrated edition edition (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560256222
• ISBN-13: 978-1560256229
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #420,909 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #97 in

  Books > Nonfiction > Crime & Criminals > Gangs

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I was there. Therefore, I know., May 12, 2004

By	Tom Span (Vancouver, British Columbia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Paper Fan : The Search for Triad Boss Steven Wong (Hardcover)

While Steven Wong the Triad Gangster rose through the ranks in Vancouver's Gangland, I was a Vancouver cop who had many dealings with him. I probably knew Wong, and of his activities, more so than anyone in the Vancouver Police Department, other than a handfull of other cops who might be inclined to say the same thing. I was a cop who used Wong to my own end, while Wong used me to his. I still don't know who, if anyone, came out on top.
Due to my personal knowledge of Wong and his Red Eagles, his rivals the Viet Ching, Jung Ching and Lotus Gangs, plus their victims etc., I feel competant to say, "In writing Paper Fan, Terry Gould did an excellent job describing Wong and the events of the day." Terry knows his stuff, and he tells his story extremely well. It is not often one can learn such an immense amount of true information while at the same time be entertained. The book reads like a novel.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book......., September 25, 2004

By	L. Garcia (New York, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Terry Gould came to my school and discuss his book and the gave us in insight of the Triads and Kwan Kung. Just as he did when he came to the school, his book gives great information of how the Triads were created and why they chose the God Kwan Kung. Many more intresting facts he provides in his book. It is intresting and difficult to put down.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting enough story, terrible writer, April 16, 2008

By	Skippy - See all my reviews

This book needed a strong editor. We get too much of the writer's thoughts, his interaction with people, and his supposedly brilliant investigative work. Information that should be summarized in a paragraph become pages long. Cut the fat and stick to the story: why is Steven so dangerous, what crimes did he commit, how did he escape, where is he now?

If you need to know more about Asian crime, I guess you should buy this. Otherwise, there are much better books.