Book Reviews "Chinatown gangsters have long been glamorized on screen for the American imagination. But Bill Lee's Chinese Playground: A Memoir, which exposes the raw underbelly of Chinese American culture, is the real McCoy." "His scenes dealing with gang warfare are brutal yet fascinating." "Deftly written... [it] is a well-formed tale of history and survival." --A.Magazine "...offers something that few other volumes on Asian organized crimes and gangs do: a personal, first-hand look at what it is like to grow up in the youth gang subculture. That alone makes it remarkable among recent nonfiction works about the activities of the Chinese underworld, and a worthwhile read..." --San Francisco Chronicle "Riveting...the story is told in a refreshingly honest way." --KPIX-TV "...provides the first insider look into the lethal mix of youthful bravado, cultural maladjustment and turf warfare that culminated in the 1977 shootout at the Golden Dragon restaurant, one of the worst mass killings in San Francisco history." --San Francisco Examiner Complete
Reviews and Media Highlights of Chinese Playground: A Memoir:
A.Magazine Book Review and Interview -- June/July, 1999 Issue
Goldsea.com Book Review and Excerpt -- July, 1999
About.com Book Review and Interview: "Gang Life In Chinatown" -- June 16, 1999
San Francisco Chronicle Book Review -- May 2, 1999 San Francisco Chronicle: "Fallout From Gang Life Memoir" -- April 10, 1999 San Francisco Examiner: "Inside Chinatown's Gangs" -- March 9, 1999 Sing Tao Daily -- March 10, 1999 (translated Chinese version of Examiner article) Sing Tao Daily -- April 4, 1999 (half-page feature in Chinese) AsianWeek: "Notes From the Underworld" -- January 28, 1999 Television Features: KRON-TV's Sunday Daybreak (NBC affiliate) -- June 13, 1999 KPIX-TV's Bay Sunday (CBS affiliate; 30-minute feature) -- May 30, 1999 Fox Network's Morning's On 2 -- March 9, 1999 The author and this book have also been mentioned on KPST Channel 66 News, and KTSF Channel 26. Radio Features: KCBS -- Sunday, April 11, 1999 KGO -- Monday, April 12, 1999 Readers' Reponses "It's been a long time since I found a book that I literally could not put down. I just finished reading it, and am stunned at the power of it. It's truly an incredible piece of literature." -- Kent B. "The book was great. I bought two copies and it was money well spent." -- Cassandra L. "Powerful...Enthralling...Real...Educational..." -- Dennis T. "It will become a contemporary Chinese American classic..." -- Amazon.com customer review |