The Black List

They call it the ‘black list’. But names can be deceiving. It’s not actually a ‘list’, so much as a booklet. A register maintained by Chinatown’s underground bookie “Tao Ti”. Randy put the notebook on the table in front of Sid. Sid flipped through it. There were pages and pages with numbers and names of debtors. Pages with transactions, financial balances, transactions, who owed how much to who. All carefully handwritten by yours truly.

“You pay me, is your problem.” said Randy to Sid. Sid looks up at Randy before closing the book. Smoke fills the air between Sid and Randy. “You know how much it cost us to go after this maney?” Sid grunted. It was an interesting book. A once in a lifetime look in the underground economics of Chinatown. Transactions between entities, the big players. How much each individual was worth. And a mandate to collect all those debts.

Sid had to make a name for himself. He met three Chinese dudes from New Madrid and they were looking for work. They were on a… creative binge. One with a lot of metal. But they got tired of hitting licks. Sid might have found the honeypot. One thing is going to lead to another. And before you know it, everybody in Chinatown who needs to get work done is going to look for them.

Super Wok Explosion is a unique animated web-series about Chinese organized crime. The project is funded entirely by its audience. On this website, animator Tony Cheuk likes to share information about Asian organized crime—and world-building of the universe of the series, Chinese tongs and triads. If you're interested in learning more about the project, you can click here.