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The Dragon Syndicates: The Global Phenomenon of the Triads
Traces the more than two-thousand-year history of the Triads, the one-time Chinese secret society that has evolved into an international criminal fraternity, bound by ritual and archaic oaths, involved in world-wide extortion, gambling, prostitution, money laundering, fraud, narcotics, immigrant smuggling, and other criminal enterprises.
368 pages, Hardcover
Published July 12, 2000
17 people are currently reading
374 people want to read
About the author
Martin Booth
107 books95 followersMartin Booth was a prolific English novelist and poet. He also worked as a teacher and screenwriter, and was the founder of the Sceptre Press.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
July 24, 2017
Just finished it. Some first thoughts.
An OK read with plenty of interesting bits, but ... without citations, how much of it can you really trust?
I mean, Booth writes about Admiral Zhang He, without providing any evidence or a citation: "In the West he lives on in legend as Sinbad the Sailor, the father of navigation ... " I Googled my butt off, of course, but it seems it's merely conjecture, and definitely not accepted by scholars.
Couple of pages later, Booth claims that the English word 'pigtail' for a queue is borrowed from Qing Dynasty Manchus, who looked down on Han Chinese and referred to them as 'pigs' and the queues they made them wear as 'pigtails'. Again, I tried to find a source for this, but could find nothing. It seems not true.
So how can I trust his more serious claims on Sun Yat-sen & Chiang Kai-shek and their involvement with the Triads? The only way is to Google and hope I find something that'll confirm or corroborate it. So now I'm looking at discussions on Quora.com and the discussion pages at Wikipedia? I won't lie: I would've preferred notes. And a reliable author.
Also, the Wade-Giles system of romanization should be outlawed. It's objectively stupid.
An OK read with plenty of interesting bits, but ... without citations, how much of it can you really trust?
I mean, Booth writes about Admiral Zhang He, without providing any evidence or a citation: "In the West he lives on in legend as Sinbad the Sailor, the father of navigation ... " I Googled my butt off, of course, but it seems it's merely conjecture, and definitely not accepted by scholars.
Couple of pages later, Booth claims that the English word 'pigtail' for a queue is borrowed from Qing Dynasty Manchus, who looked down on Han Chinese and referred to them as 'pigs' and the queues they made them wear as 'pigtails'. Again, I tried to find a source for this, but could find nothing. It seems not true.
So how can I trust his more serious claims on Sun Yat-sen & Chiang Kai-shek and their involvement with the Triads? The only way is to Google and hope I find something that'll confirm or corroborate it. So now I'm looking at discussions on Quora.com and the discussion pages at Wikipedia? I won't lie: I would've preferred notes. And a reliable author.
Also, the Wade-Giles system of romanization should be outlawed. It's objectively stupid.
November 29, 2007
Who doesn't want to know more about the Triads? Funny, when I went to check this out at my closest library (which is in Chinatown), the only copy they had was registered as being "lost." Hmm...
November 1, 2014
I recommend reading this book backwards. Start from the last chapter and make your way back in history.
Read
July 18, 2016What? According to the description, the triads "pose the greatest potential criminal threat the world has ever known". I'm going to have to call bull$#¡% on that one. They aren't lining up by the thousands eagerly awaiting a bomb to strap to themselves and detonate in crowds of civilians. Or putting women in iron cages and burning them alive. I believe the Islamic State is a much bigger threat. How do you fight an enemy that WANTS to die?
May 6, 2017
A dated but very fascinating read about the history of the triads and their presence in modern America. I'd be curious to know what their influence is like now. Reading books like this make me appreciate how far we've come in regards to women's rights and civil rights as well. Certain words were favorites of the author that were offensive. I had to remind myself when this book was written. Yet and still, a good read.
October 17, 2020
An exceptional look into the various Chinese and Southeast Asian secret societies that make up the Triads. Booth used great sources and wrote extremely well concerning the history, current situation and possible future of where the main Triad societies may be headed. From this and other works, I have come to the realization that the legitimate and illegitimate worlds have long been inseparable. We have long moved from a time where organized crime can be eradicated. Destroying the unobserved economy will ultimately destroy the observed economy. So, they are inextricably linked. I highly recommend this as a source for studying the Triad societies.
October 1, 2021
Despite issues with references and provenance- this is the best book I could find about the Triads in English. The book is readable, smooth, and gives the reader both a lot of information and things to think about. It is recommended not only for people with an interest in crime, but an interest in China.
February 9, 2022
Interesting enough though dated now. A pity there does not seem to be a more up to date examination of the topic. Would have benefited from a narrower focus as at times the attempts to cover the 'global phenomenon' seem to stretch the material
January 29, 2020
thorough, informative study of the history of Chinese mafia
August 6, 2025
Repetitive and too in-the-weeds with unnecessary details, Martin Booth nonetheless paints an insightful picture of Chinese organized crime.
September 10, 2023
Based on the name of one Chinese secret society, the sanhehui 三合会, triad is the term we use in English to describe them in general. In modern-day China, they are referred to as hei shehui 黑社会 or black societies.
Martin Booth, who spent twelve years as a child in Hong Kong, retells the history of these societies in depth. Starting as underground groups of rebels against the Qing emperors after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, they saw themselves as patriots. The Ming had been true Chinese rulers and the Qing barbarian Manchu upstarts. Centuries later, republican Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing with heavy support from the triads. Sun himself was a member of several secret societies. Mission accomplished, the triads then fell into criminality, and the leader of nationalist China, Chiang Kai-shek, is painted here as the biggest gangster of the lot. After 1949, the communists didn't tolerate the triads, so the focus of their activities shifted to Hong Kong. The gangs ran rampant in the colony, but with effort, the British managed to reduce corruption in the police force and convict some of the bosses. Ultimately, the triads are so embedded they can never be eradicated. Booth also describes the complex and lengthy initiation ceremonies that are all but extinct. Johnnie To's 2005 film Election features, to my limited knowledge, the most intricate portrayal of triad customs in Hong Kong cinema. I recommend this movie and the 2006 sequel Triad Election.
I'd like to read a book about the 2019 triad attack on protestors at Yuen Long metro station that traced triad history from the late 90s, when Booth's history ends, until the present day. Maybe a local author has written such a book but it hasn't been translated into English. But who in HK would dare even indie publish it? In this 2019 case, the triads worked with the Chinese government.
As other reviewers have noted Booth doesn't include footnotes. For some his claims, like the one below, I would've liked to know the source.
"When a triad prostitute reaches the end of her working life, usually by the age of thirty, several courses of action lie ahead. She may be sold as a domestic servant, often in the Middle East where she will disappear into an Arab household never to be seen again and where, after a harsh life of abuse, she may well be killed."
Another reviewer has remarked that Booth uses outdated terms, offensive to women. On reading this, at first, I raised my eyebrows and marvelled that the cancel culture police had reached this obscure work that's not available in digital form. However, Booth's using the words 'whore' and 'hooker' indicates his strong distaste for the sex industry - a little surprising for one who apparently grew up roaming the streets of Hong Kong alone? I look forward to reading his memoir 'Gweilo' to get a better sense of the man.
I have to share the following quote: "In the 1980s, Kowloon Walled City contained one of the biggest manufacturers of rubber penises in the world: to visit the factory was like entering a bizarre, Salvador Dali-esque subterranean world, with racks of latex male organs hanging up to dry like sausages in a butchers shop."
F.E. Beyer is the author of Buenos Aires Triad
Martin Booth, who spent twelve years as a child in Hong Kong, retells the history of these societies in depth. Starting as underground groups of rebels against the Qing emperors after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, they saw themselves as patriots. The Ming had been true Chinese rulers and the Qing barbarian Manchu upstarts. Centuries later, republican Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing with heavy support from the triads. Sun himself was a member of several secret societies. Mission accomplished, the triads then fell into criminality, and the leader of nationalist China, Chiang Kai-shek, is painted here as the biggest gangster of the lot. After 1949, the communists didn't tolerate the triads, so the focus of their activities shifted to Hong Kong. The gangs ran rampant in the colony, but with effort, the British managed to reduce corruption in the police force and convict some of the bosses. Ultimately, the triads are so embedded they can never be eradicated. Booth also describes the complex and lengthy initiation ceremonies that are all but extinct. Johnnie To's 2005 film Election features, to my limited knowledge, the most intricate portrayal of triad customs in Hong Kong cinema. I recommend this movie and the 2006 sequel Triad Election.
I'd like to read a book about the 2019 triad attack on protestors at Yuen Long metro station that traced triad history from the late 90s, when Booth's history ends, until the present day. Maybe a local author has written such a book but it hasn't been translated into English. But who in HK would dare even indie publish it? In this 2019 case, the triads worked with the Chinese government.
As other reviewers have noted Booth doesn't include footnotes. For some his claims, like the one below, I would've liked to know the source.
"When a triad prostitute reaches the end of her working life, usually by the age of thirty, several courses of action lie ahead. She may be sold as a domestic servant, often in the Middle East where she will disappear into an Arab household never to be seen again and where, after a harsh life of abuse, she may well be killed."
Another reviewer has remarked that Booth uses outdated terms, offensive to women. On reading this, at first, I raised my eyebrows and marvelled that the cancel culture police had reached this obscure work that's not available in digital form. However, Booth's using the words 'whore' and 'hooker' indicates his strong distaste for the sex industry - a little surprising for one who apparently grew up roaming the streets of Hong Kong alone? I look forward to reading his memoir 'Gweilo' to get a better sense of the man.
I have to share the following quote: "In the 1980s, Kowloon Walled City contained one of the biggest manufacturers of rubber penises in the world: to visit the factory was like entering a bizarre, Salvador Dali-esque subterranean world, with racks of latex male organs hanging up to dry like sausages in a butchers shop."
F.E. Beyer is the author of Buenos Aires Triad
September 3, 2020
The problem I had with his book was that, while the topic is very interesting, I really struggled with the length, the amount of details and the often crude style of writing.
It's way too detailed to be a fun read, but is written like a novel and thus not scientific either. As someone pointed out before, while there is a bibliography, there are no citations, so it's hard to tell how credible some of the facts are. The writing in itself made me question many claims simply because it sometimes felt like a biased hommage to Triads, rather than an analysis of crime. One detail that personally bothered me a lot for example is that while it was explained that women vitually ended up in sexual slavery because of systemic problems, the author still chose to refer to them as 'whores' in most cases. The language was never fully objective (probably to make it more interesting), but that means that very often it came off as judgmental.
However, I would not have minded the language so much if there was a proper structure but that is almost non-existent. The narrative jumps from topic to topic and the single chapters have catchy names that make it impossible to guess what they are about. There is a subject index, but unless you are looking for the life of a certain person, that is probably not very helpful. Most of the time the author simply chronologically retold history and all its tiny details (i.e., who did what to whom), and threw in a few facts about rituals, historical backgounds, etc.. That means that, since it's not properly chaptered and there are no conclusions, you are forced to read the whole book and can't easily read only single chapters. Something I realized halfway through is that the moment he started to talk about specific persons, those parts could be skipped as they were the most detailed and also felt very repetitive after a while. I do not know whether that means that I missed anything crucial but I doubt it.
All in all the book really frustrated me because the topic is very interesting but the writing increasingly bothered me. I understand that especially the derogatory descriptions of women can be explained with it being a quite dated book, but that's no excuse for a lack of a proper structure.
It's way too detailed to be a fun read, but is written like a novel and thus not scientific either. As someone pointed out before, while there is a bibliography, there are no citations, so it's hard to tell how credible some of the facts are. The writing in itself made me question many claims simply because it sometimes felt like a biased hommage to Triads, rather than an analysis of crime. One detail that personally bothered me a lot for example is that while it was explained that women vitually ended up in sexual slavery because of systemic problems, the author still chose to refer to them as 'whores' in most cases. The language was never fully objective (probably to make it more interesting), but that means that very often it came off as judgmental.
However, I would not have minded the language so much if there was a proper structure but that is almost non-existent. The narrative jumps from topic to topic and the single chapters have catchy names that make it impossible to guess what they are about. There is a subject index, but unless you are looking for the life of a certain person, that is probably not very helpful. Most of the time the author simply chronologically retold history and all its tiny details (i.e., who did what to whom), and threw in a few facts about rituals, historical backgounds, etc.. That means that, since it's not properly chaptered and there are no conclusions, you are forced to read the whole book and can't easily read only single chapters. Something I realized halfway through is that the moment he started to talk about specific persons, those parts could be skipped as they were the most detailed and also felt very repetitive after a while. I do not know whether that means that I missed anything crucial but I doubt it.
All in all the book really frustrated me because the topic is very interesting but the writing increasingly bothered me. I understand that especially the derogatory descriptions of women can be explained with it being a quite dated book, but that's no excuse for a lack of a proper structure.
October 12, 2012
The Dragon Syndicates was a book I almost gave up several times as I tried to struggle through the first 200 pages or so, but I am glad I stuck with it. It is an extremely well researched book, and the last 300 pages or so tell some really interesting, and sometimes disturbing stories about Triad activity in the last 100 years as they have spread around the world.
The issues I had with the earlier sections of the book are solely related to the vast amount of information that is included in the first 200+ pages. In an attempt to explain how the Chinese Triads came into existence, and how they became part of Chinese culture the author ends up trying to give 2,500 years worth of Chinese secret society history. It's really something that would of been better of as it's own separate book.
The issues I had with the earlier sections of the book are solely related to the vast amount of information that is included in the first 200+ pages. In an attempt to explain how the Chinese Triads came into existence, and how they became part of Chinese culture the author ends up trying to give 2,500 years worth of Chinese secret society history. It's really something that would of been better of as it's own separate book.
July 29, 2022
A very good piece about the historical connection between the KMT and the Triads. Booth goes even further back into history to explain the the triad origins and the hows and whys of their operations across several centuries of Chinese history.
About half way through the read becomes extremely repetitive and goes a bit too deep into the personalities of the 20th century.
Update: I've read the rest of the book. There's some very good criminal intelligence chapters regarding the Triads and Chinese social networks in the 20th century. As the book was written in 99' it has no doubt aged poorly due to China's aggressive tone towards Hong Kong , so much of what was true in 99 is not in 2022. The book also picks up the pace quite nicely after covering 18/19th century.
About half way through the read becomes extremely repetitive and goes a bit too deep into the personalities of the 20th century.
Update: I've read the rest of the book. There's some very good criminal intelligence chapters regarding the Triads and Chinese social networks in the 20th century. As the book was written in 99' it has no doubt aged poorly due to China's aggressive tone towards Hong Kong , so much of what was true in 99 is not in 2022. The book also picks up the pace quite nicely after covering 18/19th century.
December 1, 2014
This is a hard book to review. There are at least two books in it, maybe more: the history of the Triads from 1644 to the end of WWII and the history of the Triads to the present in Hong Kong principally, but also wherever there is an Overseas Chinese presence. The Chiang Kai-Shek period is probably the most important. All of the work is extremely detailed, far too detailed for anybody but a scholar, and I am doubtful of many of his conclusions. Still, if you're looking for the Triads, this is the place to go.
August 4, 2013
Interesting insights into the origins of the triads particularly in the context of Chinese history going back to the Zhou dynasty. The sheer level of information is a bit overwhelming & the multitude of predominantly Chinese names is difficult to keep track of. The book is also from 1999 & some of the references are a tad bit dated (video shop extortion, laser disc piracy, counterfeit CD Roms etc.). Still very worth a read.
September 30, 2008
A great book for reference and background on the Triads.
August 9, 2010
Interesting to have some background on the Triads, but a little dry and too detailed for me.
September 6, 2012
Very interesting. I read it when it came out and haven't reviisted it. I'm not sure how relevant it is to today's readers.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews