The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream

Garden Keefe is not only a fantastic researcher but a great stylist. His books are beautifully written even as they address central questions for contemporary society. Empire of Pain and Say Nothing are equally fine.

Patrick Radden Keefe wrote two of my favourite non-fiction books of recent years (Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (2018) and Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty (2021)) so I was keen to read more by him. The Snakehead: An Epic Tale of the Chinatown Underworld and the American Dream, originally published in 2009, is getting republished, presumably on the back of the acclaim for his more recent work.People smuggling is a grim business. Migrants and asylum seekers are invariably desperate and willing to risk everything for the possibility of a better life something that often gets lost in debates about immigration, certainly here in the UK.This book explores the history of Chinese immigration to America and how in the 1980s and early 1990s lucrative smuggling rings, known as the snakehead trade, brought thousands of illegal immigrants into the USA. Many of these came from China's Fujian province. The smuggler makes c$18000 per person which the new arrival had to clear as soon as possible usually through years of hard menial work. The remarkable Sister Ping (aka Cheng Chui Ping) is one such smuggler who ran her business out of a nondescript shop. She was revered within her own community for her role in getting people into the US and for transferring funds back home, amongst other illegal activities.The Snakehead is further proof that Patrick Radden Keefe is an excellent investigative journalist and a consummate storyteller. He keeps this engrossing tale moving along at a good pace and ably illuminates the world of Chinese gangs, US immigration policy, people smuggling, law enforcement and the judicial process.Another fascinating read from Patrick Radden Keefe.

Enjoyed it

Good book! the paperback print is awful, didnt last long before it started to fall apart.

'The Snakehead' is another outstanding work of investigative journalism from Patrick Radden Keefe, this time exploring the human smuggling industry from China to the US and the central role played by the unassuming criminal mastermind Cheng Chu Ping, more commonly known as 'Sister Ping'.As with 'Empire of Pain', the author's previous exposé of the Sackler family's role in the opioid crisis, this is always an immensely readable book, distilling the complex intersection of organised crime and US immigration policy into compelling human narratives based on meticulous research and extensive conversations with many of the protagonists.The book's main focal point is the running aground of the Golden Venture, a cargo ship containing 286 undocumented migrants from China, in New York. This moment marked a turning point in US attitudes towards immigration from China and led to renewed efforts to bring Sister Ping and other criminal gang leaders to justice. Sister Ping emerges as a fascinatingly enigmatic character, celebrated as a hero in her home Fujian province but seemingly unconcerned by the human cost of 'her reckless devotion to the economies of scale." But as well as Sister Ping and her associates, Radden-Keefe also profiles officials from the INS and other agencies trying to grapple with this issue, and with many of the migrants themselves who were directly affected as well as the 'People of the Golden Vision', a surprisingly eclectic group of advocates for those migrants on the Golden Venture who were subsequently imprisoned in York County, Pennsylvania.Whereas 'Empire of Pain' seethed with moral outrage at the devastating consequences of the Sackler family's mendacity, there is greater moral ambiguity in 'The Snakehead' and Radden-Keefe takes a more even-handed and nuanced approach, acknowledging the many benefits caused by migration from China to the US but also the ruthlessness of the human smuggling industry. He resists offering easy answers but helps us to understand the vast geopolitical complexities of this issue more fully.Above all, this is a superb read - gripping, entertaining but also deeply sobering. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for sending me an ARC to review.

Gripping, beautifully written and revelatory.