In 1993, a boat carrying 300 near-starving illegal immigrants from China ran aground off the coast of New York, an event that led to a criminal investigation that uncovered an international human smuggling ring run by an unlikely crime boss—a middle-aged grandmother known as Sister Ping. Patrick Radden Keefe’s true-crime thriller The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream reveals this secret world of gang violence, underground crime, and human smuggling, as well as the 10-year investigation that uncovered it.
Event: Patrick Radden Keefe will be reading, answering questions, and signing books
Tuesday, July 21st, at 7:30 pm
Barnes & Noble
396 Avenue of the Americas, at 8th Street
Guests:
Patrick Radden Keefe
About The Leonard Lopate Show
Host Leonard Lopate lets you in on the best conversations with writers, actors, ex-presidents, dancers, scientists, comedians, historians, grammarians, curators, filmmakers, and do-it-yourself experts.
Hosted by Leonard Lopate
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Comments [9]
Re: "paris from manhattan"'s comment, I suggest reading "SHANGHAI GIRL":http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.aspx?bookid=11143, a novel in English written by an educated young Chinese woman about the emotional and physical journey from China to the US.
I love this show, Leonard. Every ordinary Chinese who made it to this country has an amazing story and adventure behind him or her (exclude those rich scions of government officials and celebrities).
Most young Chinese came here for American education, which is still the best in the world. Maybe the author's next book would research on how young educated Chinese from Chinese metropolitan cities like Beijing, Tianjin, and Shanghai came here; and how much these educated young Chinese have to give up in order to make this journey (Remember, most of them live an equivalent life as middle class New Yorker). Writing about the adventure of educated young Chinese immigrant should also generate thrill. I definitely will order the author's book.
(to ivan/4)
maybe it's because leonard is secretly chinese!
agree w above comments, also york pa is not a "rustbelt" city (?) but a relatively liberal town in pa farm country.
really great segment though, really cuts to the bone of nyc. fascinating.
Leonard,
i hear your sympathy for the Chinese , how about the Haitians in Florida...is it because they don't cook chinese food..
"Fee-ing is Belize-ing" -- you're gettin inta heaven for that one, buddy!
Mr. Keefe just said "it would have been awkward to ask the Chinese for help in fighting Japan (in World War II) if we were excluding them from immigrating".
Sounds like he doesn't know much history.
China was invaded by Japan more than a decade before Pearl harbor - the USA was aiding China in fighting Japan during this period.
He has it backwards - we were helping China, not vice versa. He needs to tone down the knee-jerk anti-Americanism with some facts.
Traditionally, corruption and bribery were (and still are) the only ways you can get any business done in most of Asia.
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