There were about 10 women on the golden venture in about 290 men or 20 men. Many of them would go and leave families behind with the understanding that they would pay off their snake head debt. In a month in New York City even working in a Chinese restaurant they could make what you would take it a year to make back in Fujian province. As soon as they paid off their debts to their snake head they would send back a down payment for some other relative to come so there's this incredible process where you have all these people who are leaving often in these very perilous kind of modes of conveyance.
Investigative journalist Patrick Radden Keefe joins us on the podcast to tell the story of an unlikely criminal mastermind, Sister Ping - a middle-aged, hardworking woman who is highly respected among her community. Originally from Fujian province, China, for years she runs an incredibly lucrative people smuggling business from New York's Chinatown until she comes into trouble with violent gangsters and then later the FBI. In conversation with our host Poppy Damon, they discuss immigration, the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and the questions of who gets to stay. They also speak about Patrick's involvement in the Oscar-nominated documentary starring Nan Goldin and directed by Laura Poitras, All The Beauty And The Bloodshed.
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