鬼影帮 (Ghost Shadows)

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The Ghost Shadows (鬼影幫) are a Chinese American gang that was prominent in New York City's Chinatown from the 1980s through the early 1990s. Formed in 1971 by immigrants from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia, the gang is believed to be under control of the On Leong Tong. The gang was often engaged in bloody turf wars with other Chinatown gangs such as the Flying Dragons, and their activities included extortion, kidnapping, murder, racketeering, drug trafficking and illegal gambling. The Ghost Shadows' influence was widespread, having links to Boston, New Orleans, Houston and Chicago as well as links to Italian-American Mafia families.
The gang suffered some heavy blows in 1995. Boss Wing Yeung Chan was indicted on murder and racketeering charges and secretly began cooperating with the authorities.
In November 2003, rapper Jin was in involved in an argument with another aspiring rapper named Raymond Yu, who was a gang member linked with the Ghost Shadows street gang, this led to the shooting of Jin's friend Christopher Louie who is also known as LS.

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'Hong Kong Boy': A College Student, and a Ghost Shadow

The shop owners along Mott Street in Chinatown call him Hong Kong Boy. He is a 20-year-old science major at a college in Queens. But his very existence, he says, is centered on Mott Street's choked sidewalks -- as a Ghost Shadow. The name of the gang is spoken softly, almost with veneration.

The dictates of loyalty and devotion among the Ghost Shadows are strict. They have their leaders, they have their rules, in an almost medieval fight for turf.

Hong Kong Boy stakes out Mott Street -- "Ghost Shadow territory." Armed with a .357 Magnum revolver that he says he bought for $400 in a Roy Rogers restaurant in Queens, he guards the street from the encroachment of rival gangs. With more than 40 fellow Ghost Shadows, he says he offers protection to the store owners along the street, in exchange for money. Gang members also guard illegal gambling halls. The police say they rough up clients who do not pay.

Hong Kong Boy, who was born in this country but has spent time in Hong Kong, has been arrested. He pulls up his jeans to show several scars left by a shotgun blast. He proudly displays the tattoo on his upper arm: an intertwined blue and black eagle and skull, the Ghost Shadow emblem. 'Like a Father'

Where Hong Kong Boy eats, sleeps and lives, whom he dates -- almost his entire life is dictated by the gang and by his leader, his "Dai Lo." The Dai Lo -- loosely translated, the phrase means "elder brother" -- paid for his college tuition, gave him money for a girlfriend's abortion, gives him gang-related jobs to do and provides him with as much cash as he wants, Hong Kong Boy said.

"He'll stick up for any of us," he said. "It's like a father watching over his sons."

Sipping iced coffee, his feet propped up on a plastic restaurant chair, Hong Kong Boy draws long and hard on his cigarette. It is Halloween night, and the conversation is interrupted occasionally as young gang members run in and out of the restaurant pelting one another with eggs.

He is nervous about the interview and refuses to give his real name. But he seems surprised that anyone might consider violence, death or crime as anything but ordinary occurrences. In his two years in the gang, he said, he has been involved in at least nine shootings. But he is not sure whether he has killed anybody. Tensions Between Gangs

"Another gang guy comes into our territory, it's like coming into a country without a passport," he said. "You shoot because you have to shoot."

Tensions are high with the nearby Flying Dragons, who along with the Ghost Shadows have shared the longest tenure on the streets. Now there are also new problems, with the Vietnamese gang Born to Kill. "They're useless garbage," Hong Kong Boy said. "Everyone hates them."

Like many of the gang youths, the Mott Street Ghost Shadows come from broken homes or from families in which immigrant parents, struggling with several jobs, are left with little time for their children. The boys run to the gang for the money and for the sense of family.

Tall and rakishly handsome, a silver crucifix dangling from his left ear, Hong Kong Boy explained that money did not drive him to the gang. He has not spoken to his father for eight years. He rarely sees his mother or his younger brother -- "the good boy" of the family. His only family contact is with his grandmother in New Jersey. His gang friends have become his family. "We eat together every night, we see the same movies," he said. "We stand up for each other."

Hong Kong Boy describes his introduction to gang life. Two years ago, two girls whom he called his godsisters were raped by members of a gang in Queens. "I went crazy," he said, adding that he began attacking the other youths one by one and beating them. "One day a guy beat the hell out of me and put a gun to my head." He was approached by a Ghost Shadow in a shopping mall and asked if he needed protection. He accepted.

The Mott Street Ghost Shadows are mostly in their late teens; the youngest is 14. Their Dai Lo, who owns legitimate businesses on Mott Street, is 25 years old, members said. As in most of the other Asian gangs, recruitment to the ranks is concentrated around high schools. Gang members and law-enforcement officials say the Ghost Shadows recruit around Forest Hills High School, and Born to Kill at the Bronx High School of Science. A Long Day

The gang members drive up in fancy cars and scout out the boys who have potential, Hong Kong Boy said.

Hong Kong Boy's gang day starts about 7 P.M., when he begins his Mott Street patrol, and lasts until early the next morning. When he eats at a restaurant, he does not pay. But he says he leaves a large tip. On weekends, he provides security for a large gambling establishment in Queens.

Hong Kong Boy said he planned to graduate from college, but he has few thoughts about what he will do after that. "I know it's not much of a life," he admitted. "But I'm going to hang out on Mott Street till the day I die."