[American TV Drama] [Prisoner A] [Chinese Protagonist]
Chen Hejiu, a young Chinese American, transmigrates to the United States in 1980 and unexpectedly inherits his foster father’s dilapidated little brewery, Oakheart, in the suburbs of Cleveland, along with a mountain of debt.
Just as the local Irish gangsters arrive to “buy him out,” intending to turn the brewery into a money-laundering front, he discovers his foster father’s prized collection deep in the brewery cellar: several cases of “Maotai” liquor.
Drawing on his knowledge as someone from another time, he realizes this is his only chance to turn things around.
He rebottles the remaining good liquor and gives it a careful new package.
First, he sends his initial batch through Chinese underground channels to private banquets hosted by mob bosses and underground auctions. Its strikingly different taste, mysterious Eastern origins, and extreme rarity soon cause a sensation in the underworld. This helps him establish a business relationship with the local Mafia family and gain some breathing room.
In the story’s second phase, he navigates the political world, using liquor as a bargaining chip to secure favorable policies and protection, inevitably getting caught up in the murky worlds of political donations and lobbying.
In the end, Chen Hejiu uses the capital and connections he has built up to establish a distillery that follows Maotai’s methods, launch the “New World” series, and begin acquiring vineyards, building a liquor empire that spans East and West.
Chen Hejiu isn’t just one man. He represents a great community.
