[Guide]Chinese Megaguide

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ForgiveMyEngrish
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[Guide]Chinese Megaguide

Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:33 am

The Chinese Megaguide is just a big compilation of guides that can help with Chinese roleplay. If you would like to add onto a guide's content, fix errors, or want to include a guide you've made elsewhere just shoot me a message. The goal here is to just have one place where people can go to find what they're looking for and save them time. Most of these guides are WIP still so keep that in mind while reading.

History & Culture

[+] A Brief History of China
A Brief History of China

China's history is too extensive to cover in a guide. If you want to learn about it there's plenty of resources out there. Some basic history needs to be acknowledged in the guide though for those who are roleplaying Chinese characters. That history plays into the people's values and views.

Imperial China

When thinking about China what many people don't understand is that China consists of many different peoples, languages, biomes, and customs. It may as well be its own continent. It was split up between various dynasties that fought against each other for territory. They would rise and fall to not only each other but to warlords that vied for power. These strongmen continuously played a role in China and there was a strong distinction between social classes. Eventually one of these dynasties managed to unify most of China and this started the imperial period. Not too much needs to be said about this period except that over time China snowballed. China expanded massively and felt it had superiority over its neighbors (Indochina, Tibet, Korea). Those many wars are ancient history but they had an effect on the present namely in spreading Chinese customs, Chinese people, and these ethnic disputes became seeds for future conflicts.
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The Republic of China


The main dynasty that's relevant to Chinese roleplayers is in the last one, the Qing. Something worth mentioning is that despite its many wars, China has a long history of trading. For a long time, it secluded itself from the west but with the age of colonialism... They had to make concessions to European powers. This is how Hong Kong, Macau and other Cantonese ports were occupied by European powers (Portugal & UK). China fought several wars against European powers and while it was able to protect itself it was forever changed. China was opened to the world and exposed to new technologies & philosophies. The Imperial dynasties weren't strangers to corruption and oppression. This treatment reached a boiling point in 1911 when nationalists rose up to overthrow the dynasty led by Sun Yat-sen. After a year they succeeded and the Republic of China was born. Under Sun Yat-sen, it had noble principles but those were shortlived when he was forced to resign due to political intrigue. After this many of the positive changes that the people fought for were undone and in the end, a power vacuum opened. Warlords once again carved up the country. The national government was crippled. A lot of blood was spilled and injustices took place. It was because of those events that leftist politics started spreading and this eventually led to communists entering the fray under Mao Zedong. Simultaneously in this civil war, the Japanese had also invaded China. They took large swaths of land and many atrocities were committed against the people. During the war, there was cooperation between the national government and communists. After Japan's defeat, it resumed immediately. The war's outcome relied purely on one important factor: The will of the people. The national government(Kuomintang) made a lot of enemies and the communists swayed the people to their cause with promises of change. With that being said, both sides butchered innocents both willingly and as a result of their actions. In 1949 the war came to a close after over a decade of violence. The Nationalist government(KMT) fled to Taiwan and re-established itself. The communists came to power under Mao Zedong who distinguished himself as a military commander.

The PRC
Mao and the party's political officers promised change to the people. They delivered but it didn't come how they thought it would. Mao promised to bring China into the modern world. This was done through a plan called the Great Leap Forward. It was an attempt to turn China from a nation of peasant farmers into a country that would have a diverse economy like its European counterparts. Through the use of force and coercion, the many family farms dotting the country were taken over and collectivized. Many people were murdered as 'reactionaries' and the sudden change triggered a great famine. Tens of millions of people died. Naturally, this hurt the country and Mao's image.

Something had to be done so another important event took place: The Cultural Revolution. Other party members publically doubted Mao's capabilities and he saw them as threats. To keep a hold on power he struck out and labeled the opposition as reactionaries and bourgeois. The personality cult around him grew exponentially. A radicalized youth group, the Red Guard, was used to spearhead Mao's campaign. Perceived dissidents were purged inside the government, the military, and beyond. Once again, millions of people were victimized and murdered. Religious oppression was also a trend. Another note to make about this period is that ties to the west were severed.

The PRC was a backer of other left-wing movements in Asia. It backed North Korea, Laos, and Vietnam. It financed these regimes and involved itself in their wars to exert its influence. Despite this support, at times it had conflicts with these regimes. Mainly this applied to Vietnam. It also got involved in conflicts with the nationalist government multiple times and fought off numerous revolts. Namely, these revolts took place in Tibet and Western China. While Nixon was president relations were re-opened with China and overtime relations warmed between it & the United States. Over the years numerous reforms were enacted and Maoism slowly made way for a new socialist system.

Despite these reforms, many of the government's policies are despised by its citizens in certain places. Key areas where this is the case are Hong Kong and Macau. Both of these port cities if you remember used to be leased by Europeans and have developed their own culture from that mixture. In the late 90's this lease ended and the possessions were handed back to China. While this indeed came with many changes, Hong Kong and Macau both have a good degree of control over their affairs.
[+] Superstitions
Superstitions
Chinese people are incredibly supersticious. Some are similar to Western cultures while others aren't.

The most notable superstition that people notice is that certain numbers are considered unlucky or lucky. The basis for these superstitions is just that the words sound similar to their counterparts.
  • Four (四) is similar to death (死)
  • Eight (八) sounds like wealth (发)
(WIP)
[+] Languages
Languages
Before I said that China is like its own continent. It is diverse and even within the same ethnicities, there are huge language barriers that exist.
To get an idea of how languages in China are broken down look at this map (YOU CAN CLICK IT TO GET A BIGGER IMAGE):
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For languages, there are thousands of dialects in China so I'm just introducing a few of the major ones that are more likely to encounter on a roleplay server. These three languages will be described below and are extensively used not only inside China but overseas in the various Chinese communities across the globe.


Mandarin (Official Language of Chinese): Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China.

This is the most common Chinese language and this is also the case overseas. The overwhelming majority of Chinese people understand Mandarin and are able to speak it. It's a mixture of various dialects that was made so the language barriers ceased. It is largely based on Northern Chinese dialects. With that being said, in Cantonese communities, it's easily possible that the language barrier would be an issue since many of these communities haven't properly been taught Mandarin. Some things would carry over while others do not. Mandarin has become the leading language in the United States among Chinese speakers followed shortly behind by Cantonese.

Taiwan Mandarin (Official Language Of Taiwan): The official language in Taiwan, mostly mutually intelligible with Standard Chinese. (Note: The difference between Mainland Mandarin and Taiwan Mandarin is just the pronunciation/accent and they could definitely understand each other.)

Cantonese (Widely used by Cantonese Immigrants Overseas): The Cantonese language is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou (also known as Canton) and its surrounding area in southeastern China. It is the traditional prestige variety and standard form of Yue Chinese, one of the major subgroups of Chinese.

In mainland China, it is the main language of the province of Guangzhou (being the majority language of the Pearl River Delta) and neighboring areas such as Guangxi. It is the dominant and official language of Hong Kong and Macau. Cantonese is also widely spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia (most notably in Vietnam and Malaysia, as well as in Singapore and Cambodia to a lesser extent) and throughout the Western world.

While the term Cantonese narrowly refers to the prestige variety, it is often used in a broader sense for the entire Yue subgroup of Chinese, including related but largely mutually unintelligible languages and dialects such as Taishanese. Cantonese is viewed as a vital and inseparable part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swaths of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau.

Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of huge differences in pronunciation, grammar, and lexicon. Sentence structure, in particular, the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. A notable difference between Cantonese and Mandarin is how the spoken word is written; both can be recorded verbatim, but very few Cantonese speakers are knowledgeable in the full Cantonese written vocabulary, so a non-verbatim formalized written form is adopted, which is more akin to the Mandarin written form. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar but are pronounced differently. Additionally, for the necessary verbatim use of auxiliary words, for example in online chatting and arrest records, people use specific coinage characters for the same pronunciation which obey the creating rule of Mandarin.

Hokkien (One Of The Most Common Dialects Overseas): Hokkien is a Southern Min Chinese dialect group originating from the Minnan region in the south-eastern part of Fujian Province in Southeastern China and Taiwan, and spoken widely there and by the Chinese diaspora in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia, and by other overseas Chinese all over the world. It is also a prominent language in Taiwan. It is the mainstream form of Southern Min.

It is closely related to Teochew, though it has limited mutual intelligibility with it, whereas it is more distantly related to other variants such as Hainanese and Leizhou dialect.

Hokkien historically has been a leading main language amongst overseas Chinese communities in Southeast Asia much like how Cantonese was in the United States. It also took roots in the United States as immigration from the mainland increased significantly alongside Mandarin.
[+] Chinese Names
Chinese Names (WIP)
[+] Chinese and Chinese-American slang
Chinese and Chinese-American slang (WIP)
[+] Religions and Philosophies
Religion & Philiosophies (WIP)
[+] Immigration Waves and who was in them
Immigration Waves & Who was in them
The First Wave
Without a doubt, Chinese people are probably the biggest ethnic group when it comes to having enclaves spread across the globe. In the case of America, it's important to understand these waves because the kind of people that came over differs significantly. Prior to the Gold Rush, Chinese immigration was essentially limited to merchants and sailors. When the gold rush hit, however, a huge wave of immigration swelled. This happened despite the fact that the Qing dynasty didn't allow its people to leave legally. The thing about these immigration waves is that it is very much dependent on regions.


In the first great wave, Taishanese and Cantonese speakers came over from Guangzhou province (Canton). Why Canton? It's simple, above we talked about how the UK/Portugal had leased colonies in Canton. As a result, this is the place that has the most interaction with the west for China. People also immigrated heavily from Fujian. The background of these people were simply poor everyday people that were trying to find work in the US during the Gold Rush boom. These communities, however, weren't welcomed by the American people because they were so alien to them. Many didn't speak the language and for a number of other reasons Chinatowns quickly rose up out of these working communities. These experiences are part of the reason why Chinese-Americans still hold such a deep attachment to their identity.

It's worth noting that the majority of the immigrants that came through this wave were men. Men with money to spend and no family with them. Some Chinese took it upon themselves to turn a profit out of that by bringing in vices such as gambling, prostitution, and opium. Many Americans despised the Chinese community out of racism alone but with crime coming in as well things got political very quickly. This was especially the case after gang wars became a recurring trend in the Chinatowns. The end result was an act which essentially banned Chinese immigration and this stayed in place all the way up to the 20th century.

The Second Wave
Since China was a US ally in WW2 the acts which targeted Chinese citizens were removed. This allowed a new big wave of immigration to slowly come over especially in the aftermath of the Chinese civil war. There was a mixture of Cantonese and Taiwanese immigrants coming over in droves because of the war and the opportunity to change their lives. Like those that came before them, they settled down in Chinatowns. The PRC wasn't so keen on possible enemies emigrating overseas. During the 60's many Hoklo Chinese came to the USA from Indonesia during the civil war. There was a bigger boost in the 70's when China re-opened relations with the United States. The trend continued on until the 80s and spiked once again when Hong Kong/Macau was handed back to China.
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The Current Wave
These days, Guangzhou is no longer where the bulk of Chinese immigrants come from. The Cantonese communities that pokadot across the USA have long since been established. The Third Wave instead consists of Mainlanders which speak Mandarin and Taiwanese. Hokkien speakers are also rising but many speak Mandarin. This wave is broken down into two groups: skilled professionals who've come through legal and illegal aliens. They come from all over China. The triggers, in this case, have mainly come down to two things:
  1. Political unrest.
  2. Money.
Most of it mainly comes from the latter. Many of the undocumented immigrants are simply trying to work in America to send money back to China. Even with a low-end job they still make out much better. What many don't consider however is that their arrangement comes with many strings attached which are described in this snakehead guide.
[+] How to Roleplay Chinese
Where is your character from?

China is a huge country and its people are not limited by its borders. When you are deciding where your character or their ancestors are from you should keep in mind what was said in previous guides. The province of China that you are from impacts what language and customs your character may have.
The general breakdown is:
  • Macau, HK, Guangzhou: Your character is a Cantonese speaker. Immigration waves are in the 1800's, 1940's+, and 1960's+.
  • Southeast Asia, Indochina: Your character may speak Mandarin but is assimilated into the country their family lived in. They will likely have changed their name to fit in and know the regional language. Immigration lines tend to start after the 1950's.
  • Mainland China and Taiwan: You character is a Mandarin speaker and likely speaks a regional language (Ex. Canton = Cantonese, Fuijan/Taiwan = Hokkien) Immigration waves are during the 1800's in smaller amounts and 1960's+ in mass.
The Chinese communities in Southeast Asia and Indochina vary in where their ancestors are originally from but most have roots in Fujian/Canton. Culturally they are very similar to other Chinese but their history is really different. As a people, they are very assimilated. For example, if you are Indonesian Chinese you need to understand that in the 60's that Chinese were the victims of genocide by anti-communist paramilitaries.

Regardless, it should be understood that in any of these Asian communities they grew up one of two ways probably. Either they are from a rural/poor area of the country or they are from the cities (highly overcrowded). If they are recently immigrating to the United States there will be initial culture shock.

If your family is in the United States you need to remember the immigration waves guide. In the 1800's the first wave consisted of southern Chinese (Mostly Cantonese, Taishanese, and Hokkien). They've obviously been settled in the USA a long time. They form the historical Chinatown communities. The second wave added to the original communities as many were still Cantonese immigrants. More mainlanders came over as well though and this is when mainland communities developed initially. The third immigration wave is largely Mandarin. When you or your family came determines what sort of background your character has. Depending on what their community was like growing up they could be very Americanized or they could still have strong displays of Chinese upbringing. In Chinatowns, it's worth noting that regardless of what background you choose often times the languages you hear in these communities will be Chinese. You don't have to speak Chinese all the time obviously but amongst your own people? It's more common to speak your first one.

If you choose to have your character come into the USA you will be falling into one of two groups most likely: professional businessmen and students or illegal immigrants.
Choosing a Name

Chinese names on the mainland and in Taiwan tend to be in this format : [Family name] , [Given Name]. That's how it works back there but when immigrants come to the United States, names are treated differently. People typically end up switching the order to the reverse or picking an American name to go in front of it.

So, a character could be named Hau Zin-Wei then comes to America. Hau is the surname. When they arrive, they take on the name Raymond Hau Zin-Wei. They could also simply cut out their Chinese name and shorten it further to Raymond Hau. The reason this is done is more to make it easier for Americans to pronounce. Nothing is wrong though with keeping the Chinese name and reversing the order to given, surname.

This practice isn't only something that happens in America but also in the provinces that were previously European colonies (HK/Macau) and in Taiwan. If your character is a Chinese from a country outside of the PRC/ROC, they more than likely have assimilated their name into the country that they live in (Ex. Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Indonesia, etc) if they have lived there a long time.

Names across China may vary also depending on the region that the person is from. What it really comes down to is what kind of romanized system the area had.

For the actual content of your Chinese name you need to understand that words in pinyin may be represented by numerous characters. It's called simplified Chinese for a reason. So, while a person may be called Wei Chen the characters used for their name can differ significantly. Think of the different characters like adjectives in English. Your given name could use the character for pretty but another person with the same name as you could have a character that means beautiful. For Chen, a example of a given character would be 晨 (Morning). Chen can also be used as a surname though (陈). A different character is used for the female form (辰). In pronunciation and in characters, you can tell the difference but in romanized writing? It's the same. When picking your name think about the true meaning behind it before deciding or you could end up with a name.
Nicknames & Proverbs
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The Chinese language is centered around proverbs, sayings and just being creative. This will play a huge part in your roleplay since it will determine how you talk, what kind of slang you use and what your character is known as. I'll start off with nicknames. Nicknames are a lot like those in other cultures. They're based on a person's personality, their physical appearance, particular events, where they are from or their status.

Nicknames also get given to places, streets, groups and just about anything else much like in other cultures. A black and white cruiser could be called a striped tortoise for example. A green complex could be called jade palace. Strawberry could be 'The Rotten Fruit'. A fat guy could be called Riceball. It could be anything. This type of slang adds flavor into roleplay because it's unique to how your character views their surroundings and is shared with others kind of like an inside joke. It's good to not just stick with the same ones either and spice things up.

Like I said previously proverbs play a big part in how Chinese people talk about certain things or topics. It's not uncommon to hear someone quote a proverb. This is done because Chinese characters when brought together form unique phrases. It's not like in English where you got individual words for everything. For Chinese in America, it's just a way of coping with a cultural clash and sticking to the culture. So you might hear a proverb get used to describe a situation.

Example:
Johnny Vong and Lilly Chang are talking. In the conversation, Lilly says she isn't making as many friends at school as Cynthia Tang. Johnny might say "měimíng shèng guò měimào" or beautiful name beats beautiful looks. In this case, it means how you carry yourself is more important than how people treat you because of your looks. In this case, Cynthia's known for being slutty so she's loved by many but she's got a bad name.

Numbers can also play a huge role in slang especially in the age we live in since we text and DM on the internet. In general, numbers play a big role in Chinese culture. They take on the meaning of the words they sound like. So 520 could be used for I love you for example. 250, on the other hand, can be used for calling someone an idiot. The point is, like with lucky and unlucky numbers, the numbers end up carrying a much bigger meaning than just as a way to do math.

When this slang is combined with proverbs it becomes clear very quickly why law enforcement has had so much trouble dealing with crime in Chinese communities. When they somehow manage to get past the distrust of authority they still have to overcome a language barrier whether it's in Chinese or English. They just can't understand all the slang and it's always evolving because people come up with their own slang. In criminal circles especially these proverbs and slang words are used as code to hide the meaning of their message.

If you look around you'll be able to find some great sources to use for helping you out.
https://muse.jhu.edu/article/261579/pdf
https://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/chinese-slang/
^ In general fluentu has a ton of posts but you gotta sift around. I like it because of the fact that it is more geared toward everyday communication which is what you'll be using the most in roleplay.
Jobs

Chinese people do all types of jobs like any other group. In Chinatowns, though many of the businesses are service oriented. You'll see restaurants, souvenir shops, nail salons, Chinese grocery stores and more. The point is that many people are providing a service because the community is often times dealing with a lot of tourists. The Chinese are known for doing their own upstart businesses more so than other cultures in America. While many small businesses are bought out by chains around the USA, in Chinatowns it still remains centered around mom & pop operations. If your character does other work it'll likely be blue-collar work in a factory. If your character is educated they may be providing a professional service or doing a job in the tech field.
WIP
This guide is WIP still like all the others but you can fill in the gaps that are missing in the other guides displayed for the most part.
Chinese Crime, Secret Societies, & Associations
[+] Triads
Triads
WIP
[+] Tongs and Chinese Gangs
Tongs

Chinese crime organizations are just as diverse as the country they come from. Chinese people are spread across the globe and they all operate differently. How a group operates in Southeast Asia isn't the same as how groups operate in the United States. So, let's start from the beginning of how these groups came about in the United States.
Tongs

The origins of the Tongs isn't in America. The basis that these organizations came about has its roots in China's many secret societies most notably the Hongmen and Triads. When the immigration waves struck the United States, not every person that came was simply a humble laborer or a merchant. The traditions and customs of these secret societies were planted in Chinese-American culture.

The huge reason that tongs sprouted up was that of how Chinese immigrants were treated by Americans after their arrival. They were viewed as job stealers, criminals, foreigners, and just all the telltale signs of a racist society. This view not only came from everyday Americans but was reflected through discriminatory laws. Chinese people were attacked, robbed, and mistreated in a number of ways. The tongs were simply a reaction to adversity just like other secret societies. Initially, they were merely tradesmen unions and guilds who had banded together for protection. The tongs were also a focal point in Chinatowns because they were a place where the community would discuss affairs (Hence why they're called gathering halls).

For the reasons stated in the Immigration Wave guide, some tongs ended up developing an illegal side. Tongs would battle each other for control over illegal goods. Drugs, gambling dens, smuggling all were ways they were earning money. Out of all their goods, women were by far the most important. There weren't many Chinese women that immigrated over in the beginning. Sex trafficking was a huge way that these tongs made money by coercing those women into coming to the United States. When they arrived they got forced to be sex slaves and the gangs would fight over them. This violence brought on further scrutiny from the US Government and tainted tongs.

The boiling point in tong conflicts was the Tong Wars that went on for about 40 years in the early 20th century. They were bloody and in the face of the American public. The violence slowly turned the Chinese community against the tongs and political focus groups as well. Through community involvement, political action and law enforcement efforts the tongs were brought down. Many people were extradited, killed, or imprisoned as a result of those changes in how the public reacted to Chinese crime. This brought an end to the openness of tong activity and crippled many illegal tongs. It didn't however completely stop them. Many tongs and Chinese communities still ended up relying on the gangs because often times police wouldn't thoroughly investigate crimes in Chinatowns unless it affected outsiders.
Tong Structure

Something that needs to be made crystal clear is that... Tongs are not inherently illegal. At their heart, these organizations are merely secret societies like the triads and brotherhoods. They have traditions and ceremonies. In the modern day, they still act as a way to connect the community. They are centers for the people that do business in those communities. They are a place where ideas are exchanged and votes happen that affect the community. In essence, for a Chinatown, tongs are like a city council in a way. With that being said, this misconception about tongs isn't out of nowhere.

There have been many outright illegal tongs and to this day there are still tongs that have really entwined themselves fully with the gangs that they collaborated with. How things actually work is that many tongs cooperated with local Chinese street gangs to stop random crime and protect their businesses. They're financeers for the gangs in exchange for that protection. The relation between the two is a partnership where the tongs give the gang legitimacy to do its bidding and the tongs get manpower. The relationship between the two doesn't necessarily mean the tong is in charge of the gang. It goes along the lines of contracting and not biting the hand that feeds you. One role that some tongs fill is passing on connections and acting as a go-between for the gangs & Asian continental secret societies.

Despite what people say, tongs aren't suddenly the Chinese version of a mafia. It'd be like calling every Italian social club The Commission. What it really comes down to is that specific tong and what its relationships are with gangs. Some don't work with the gangs at all. Some cooperate with them for protection. Some let the gangs do illegal business through the tong connections and some jump into bed with them completely.
Chinese Street Gangs

Chinese Street Gangs have a long history in the USA. They were the muscle that the tongs used. In practice, they are the ones that end up running crime in Chinatowns in many cases. To this day, some gangs still attach themselves to tongs and some have even infiltrated them enough to basically run them entirely. That isn't always the case. Some street gangs work underneath triad organizations or black societies instead. That relationship varies in intensity. It could be meaningful or it could just come down to the distribution ties back to HK, Taiwan, The Mainland or The Golden Triangle.

How these gangs operate varies drastically. A lot of people's views on them comes down to misconceptions from movies. To put it simply these gangs may end up doing the same behavior as Americanized gangs. The difference comes down more to how they carry themselves and act culturally. They have different values and views than Americanized kids in multicultural neighborhoods. There are gangs that are very sophisticated in how they work and operate similarly to the secret societies or as a general ethnic mob. The spectrum is pretty wide. The key differences between them and their Americanized counterparts come down more to culture than anything else. The street gangs are usually just more plugged in because they circles they are a part of puts them closer to the suppliers in Asia. The street gangs also tend to put more focus on extortion and assisting in smuggling operations than the Asian American gangs have done.

With these gangs, a key detail to include is that there are divides among the Chinese community in the USA. This divide mainly comes down to how long they've been settled in the United States. That time inside has a definite effect in how each individual group functions.
Americanized Asian Gangs

How the previously listed 'gangs' operate differs drastically from how Americanized ones do. Americanized Chinese gangs and other Asian groups do not mirror their original cultures very much. They use a lot of slang that's borrowed from Latino & Black gangs. How they talk follows a lot of the same trends that developed in those subcultures. They don't talk the same as many of the Chinese people that seclude themselves in Chinatowns. How they dress and act in general pretty much just comes down to the stereotype that's portrayed in American rap. They're much more focused on gangbanging and hood culture than the Chinese Street gangs. So if you want to portray that, really all you need to do is just combine black speech & gang culture in with bits of Asian culture.

In LA County, there's a huge # of Asian gangs in Long Beach, the San Fernando Valley & South Central. Those are broken down into a lot of different ethnicities but many are simply mixes of Asian peoples. Something worth mentioning is that despite all the differences between these Asian-American street gangs they still end up doing work for other more "traditional" Asian crime syndicates whether those are triads or simply more powerful Chinese street gangs that have stepped up such as the Wah Ching.
[+] The Golden Triangle, Chinese Involvement and The Chinese Drug Trade as a Whole
The Golden Triangle

The Golden Triangle is a term coined for the Southeast Asian smuggling network. It starts in Myanmar where a significant portion of the drugs are cultivated and then smuggled into Thailand and Vietnam for processing. If you know what the Ho Chi Min trail was this smuggling network is very similar in nature except it's discreet. From there the drugs are taken to major ports and shipped internationally. Some routes go through China to avoid detection. This is done by:
  • Mules on flights that bring the drugs into the country.
  • Cargo ships which bring in the narcotics by hiding them amongst products.
Once the drugs arrive they tend to end up in the United States. These drugs include but are not limited to: marijuana, methamphetamine, synthetic drugs, pharmaceuticals, and heroin. The Golden Triangle is also known for being a major center for human and animal trafficking.
Chinese Involvement
Many of the power brokers that handle distribution from Thailand and Vietnam are of Chinese descent. A huge contributor to that status is simply the fact that there are so many Chinese communities throughout the world. Another is simply that the triads have been doing it for a long time. During the early 2000's the Chinese hold was slightly weakened because of law enforcement sweeps that targeted opium producers and traffickers. For heroin, this hit their influence to an extent and shifted some power over to other players in the area. Chinese organized crime groups still retain a massive influence in that market despite those efforts and heroin production has been on a steady rise since then. This hasn't impeded the smuggling of the many other goods that make their way through these routes and the involvement of the triads is crucial to its success. Chinese chemicals fuel the trade and this makes them key middlemen.

Drug Trafficking in China
Without a doubt, Chinese Organized Crime plays a major role in the international drug trade. With that being said, the Chinese don't dabble with every kind of drug. Marijuana smuggling, for example, is a thing of the past. The fact just is nobody outside China is going to buy it when its produced domestically in bulk or across a land border. Historically China was a major opium producer which instigated numerous wars against it by European powers. Thanks to the Maoist regime that ceased to be. Dealers were systematically purged, fields were destroyed in mass, and addicts were forcibly rehabilitated. The result was exactly what was discussed: The Golden Triangle. These days heroin actually tends to come in from Southeast Asia into China rather than from China itself.

From the sound of it, China doesn't have an issue with drugs at all. The thing is, China is one of the world's most important pharmaceutical centers. It makes the precursor ingredients for many narcotics and legitimate medications. Somewhere along the way, these ingredients end up finding their way in the hands of triads. The triads end up producing literal tons of methamphetamine which gets served straight to the locals. Meth is simply one of many drugs that are made from these chemicals and transformed into designer drugs such as MDMA.

You would think with such a goldmine that Chinese triads would take advantage of this to produce methamphetamine internationally. You would be thinking wrong. The fact simply is that they make much more money by smuggling pharmaceuticals and precursor ingredients instead. These precursors are not only for meth, however. They are also used for heroin and cocaine processing. The Philippines, Mexico, The United States, Australia, Southeast Asian nations... The list goes on of major markets that the triads have infiltrated. Out of all these through the most important one in regards to the USA is Mexico as that's where a bulk of the methamphetamine is cooked.

Where does the money go?
Market socialism has done wonders for the Chinese GDP. It has also done wonders in the arena of money laundering for drug traffickers. The money gained from this illicit trade is pumped into development projects and real estate. The end result is that the secret societies have strengthened their grip in many regions in China where they were previously purged from after the Chinese Civil War. As it stands, the future seems to be bright for secret societies.
[+] A Super Basic Guide to Roleplaying a Snakehead or Smuggled Immigrant
A Super Basic Guide to Roleplaying a Snakehead or Smuggled Immigrant
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Fresh
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Joined: September 2018

Re: [Guide]Chinese Megaguide

Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:14 am

This would be helpful definitely!
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BranHUN
Posts: 34
Joined: August 2018

Re: [Guide]Chinese Megaguide

Tue Oct 09, 2018 12:27 pm

Whoah! This is very detailed! I really think that it will be useful for roleplay :D I might to something similar with Italian Roleplay!

Great work!
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Lazzaro Corvotti
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TheCed
Posts: 43
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Re: [Guide]Chinese Megaguide

Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:26 pm

That guide's so detailed. It's great.
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Kolyah
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Re: [Guide]Chinese Megaguide

Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:27 pm

Nice guide. Respect :shock:
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CLouT.KInG
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Re: [Guide]Chinese Megaguide

Thu Oct 11, 2018 9:40 pm

This is what I respect... detailed af, obviously care to help!

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