In the late 1990s, as state-owned enterprises underwent sweeping reforms, Xiong Wei, the son of a laid-off worker from the Jinzhong Valve Factory, spent three years in Beijing. After injuring someone while standing up for a fellow worker, he was forced to return home. To protect his friends and family and help small business owners being bullied, he stood up to local criminal gangs, only to be framed through a joint scheme by business tycoons and mobsters and forced to flee overseas.
From life-or-death gambles in Macau casinos, to battles for dominance in Bangkok’s Chinatown, to bloody clashes on the Mekong, Xiong Wei and his brothers-in-arms carved out a path through the overseas Chinese underworld, guided by three iron rules: “No prostitution, gambling, or drugs; never prey on fellow Chinese; never sell out a brother.” From a brash young man at the bottom of society in Jinzhong, he grew into the leader of a Southeast Asian Chinese business alliance, building a global enterprise and becoming a protector of overseas Chinese.
After eighteen years of roaming the world, he endured the brutal deaths of brothers, betrayal by trusted friends, and the siege of powerful business interests. In the end, he saw through the illusions of the underworld and returned home, still true to his original ideals. His story shows that “daring to venture across the world is never about ruling distant lands. It is about staying true to yourself and protecting those you care about, wherever you go.”
