Hanson Chan

A Chinatown Named Knife Hanson Chan

This is a novel about Chinese youth gangs who walked the streets of Chinatown for a protective fee on the one hand, and they guarded gambling dens in smoky basements at night on the other. This became their routines for a low, flat living and hung about. They were new immigrants, and arrived as teenagers who could hardly speak English and skipped schools. Against such a backdrop and environment, Ah Loong, a member of one of the youth gangs and a big brother, was trapped and framed unknowingly while he was groping for a way out, and fought for a better solution of his intriguing involvement that often faced moments of life and death. A Chinatown named "Knife," located within a bigger, wealthier city, was like a settlement for an ethnic community of Chinese immigrants, old and new. It was named as such because the few streets that formed its boundary and extension on all sides resembling the strokes a Chinese character meant "Knife." That was one feature. The other feature for it earned such a name was due to the notorious stories of its gang wars in the past, when they waived knifes in fights to determine their fates for control of the tongs which ran the affairs of the community. However, the old time and the unspoken glory had passed by, as some traditions and practices remained and lingered; at the present, needless to say, guns replaced knifes in many brawls and struggles as this story began ...