S3E1: The Lost Generation - Why Some Voices Are Worth Waiting For

A law most people barely remember changed the face of American streets—and the lives of our families. We open season three with a reveal: how the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, followed by refugee waves and Cold War politics, reshaped Asian American neighborhoods and set the stage for a quiet crisis. Credentials didn’t convert, status collapsed, and the dream many chased came packaged with a ceiling that felt unbreakable. Out of that gap—between expectation and reality—grew friction at home, fast assimilation for kids, and a search for belonging that often found its answer in crews, tongs, and the underground economy.

I share the backdrop I lived: parents grinding through sweat jobs, rent on the edge, and pride taking hits from jobs far below their training. Then we center Paul, my close friend from high school, whose path diverged from mine into a maximum security prison for nearly two decades. His voice carries the season. Together we trace the pipeline that moved teens from cramped apartments to Chinatown backrooms—how tongs organized street gangs, why underage recruits were “pegs,” and what scarcity teaches you about risk when the legitimate ladders are missing rungs.

You’ll also hear rare perspectives from triad leaders and a Yakuza contact, revealing how international hierarchies mapped onto New York and California blocks. These aren’t sensational tales; they’re an anatomy of causes—immigration policy, downward mobility, family fracture, identity loss—that made the street feel like a plan. Along the way, we probe hard questions about accountability, opportunity, and the narrow space where redemption can begin.

Press play to meet Paul and step into a season built on listening, not myth-making. If this story resonates, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so others can find it. Your support decides how deep we go—and what truths we bring to light next.

Please contact me at theunclewong@gmail.com

Transcript

Season Three Trailer Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Yo, what's up everyone? Welcome back to Asian Uncle. I'm your host, Uncle Wong. So today we're starting not a new segment, but a trailer to what to expect in season three. And to be honest, it's going to be completely different. Because this topic is very close to my heart. Because it isn't just history or an experience for me. It was the breadth of my childhood. And it shaped the people I grew up with. The streets I walked. And most importantly, the choices that separated lives that were once together.

Immigration Laws And Waves

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Now the story sits at a crossroads of immigration and organized crime. More than that, it belongs to a people we also rarely talk about. It's what I call the lost generation of Asian Americans. Some of you might heard that phrase before. But if you haven't, let me take you back. Starting in the 1970s, the U.S. experienced one of the largest immigration shifts in history. In 1970, there were about 9.6 million, or right under 10 million immigrants in this country, the United States. And by 1980, that number jumped to 14 million. And by 1990, it reached 20 million, doubled what it was 20 years ago. And by the year 2000, it already clearly surpassed 30 million. That didn't happen by accident. It happened because of a law most people still don't know much about today. And that's the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. What it essentially did was abolish the old national origin quota system, meaning I gave certain quotas to countries that I would like to invite to immigrate here. And the system that replaced it was family reunification and a skilled worker category. And at the time, lawmakers believed that immigration patterns wouldn't change. That they still expected the Europeans to keep coming and that the poor countries, to make it obviously very straightforward, that they would still be limited, they were wrong. What followed was chain migration. You hear the Trump administration speak of it a lot. Meaning, once an immigrant from these quote-unquote poor countries or unwelcome countries like Asia or Africa or Latin America, once one person gains foothold here, they can bring over all their relatives. Entire networks formed. Migration became self-sustaining. And at the same time, this perfect storm was building. The Vietnam War, remember?

Refugees, Asylum, And Politics

SPEAKER_01 3:18

And it ended in 1975, with the US retreating. And then the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act that was a result of this opened the doors to Vietnamese, to Cambodians, Laotians, Hmong refugees. But these weren't people chasing for opportunities. Not like my parents. They were fleeing war. They were fleeing trauma and loss. And Cold War politics, anti-communism, that trend added another wave. Refugees from these countries, these communist countries specifically in Southeast Asia, Soviet Union, Cuba, also arrived seeking safety. And then came another huge influx, which was the result of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre. I actually know many people, including the guy who was in the front page of the newspaper with his head bashed open. A good friend of mine, too. And to be fair, he was affected. He lost his job, he lost his title, he lost his scholarship money, and he was kind of placed on suspension, political suspension, which is not good for him nor his family. But most of these people who apply for asylum due to this quote-unquote Tiananmen Square massacre, they had nothing to do with it. Meaning they were so far away from the action in Beijing that somehow our asylum officer believed it. But not because they were stupid, it's because it was politically motivated. At that specific moment in history, it was a legitimate reason to escape. And we brought it. So now here's the question.

The Lost Generation Defined

SPEAKER_01 5:21

After all that, after the laws, the wars, the politics, what happened to the Asians who arrived during this wave? Why were they called lost? For the Southeast Asian refugees, for example, that trauma was immediate. There was no lost to it. War leaves scars that you don't see. But they weren't lost, they were traumatized. But for two specific groups, mainly the Chinese and the Koreans, of the same error, the pain was much quieter. And in some ways, more disorienting. Because unlike refugees, most of them came here voluntarily. They weren't running from bombs or persecution. Like me and you, they were trying to chase the American dream. And many of them were highly educated. There were doctors, engineers, professors, professionals in their own fields back at home. And what they experienced instead was something economists now called the brain drain with downward mobility. Simply speaking, a doctor from Korea, he would be running a dry cleaner's here. An engineer from Taiwan is now installing cable. And so this loss of status, it wasn't just economics. It was humiliating. My mom worked in a sweat job. She worked as a cleaner. My dad didn't have a job until he graduated and got his PhD. So the story varies differently and it resonates differently with every family that was here. Specifically the Chinese and the Koreans. Some may ask, what about the Japanese? Well, see, the Japanese Americans, they were different. Because by the 1970s, many of them were already third or fourth generation here. Because their influx happened after World War II. I have several Japanese American friends. Fifth gen. They don't speak a lick of Japanese. Not at all. Fluent perfect English. Their parents don't even speak Japanese. So they weren't the majority of this quote unquote lost wave. Therefore, again, the heart of this lost generation were Chinese and Korean immigrants. People who, in many cases, were worse off than they would have been back

Downward Mobility And Family Strain

SPEAKER_01 8:13

at home. For instance, my father, he made it. Not here, but he made it in China. And in 2014, 15, something like that, he renounced his citizenship. Why? Because he was fed up with this system. He was fed up with the passive aggressiveness. And he told me most of all he was disappointed that he would have to thrive in an environment designed for him to fail. His exact words. But regardless, these feelings were real. I grew up seeing my mom work really hard to make a living. We lived in really shabby, broke down places. We were picked on. We had to sometimes go through the back door of what was then called Roy Rogers. It's still a couple of stores left. And we ate off the free salad bar when my dad was a student. So life wasn't easy. Despite the fact that my father went to an Ivy League. After all this effort to get here, they realized something awfully painful. Their work didn't lead upward. So that glass ceiling that us Asians or minorities always refer to, meaning there was a cap on where you can go, but not a cap on where you can see, that was bullshit. Because that glass ceiling was not made of glass. It was just a ceiling. We knew ultimately if we ended up with just a house or anywhere alive, that was kind of our goal. We didn't know what was going to happen the month after. Sometimes we didn't even know if we had enough rent to last more than a month. We had it slightly better because my grandmother's side had the money to pay for my dad's tuition, even though it didn't give my dad much spending money left to feed my mom and me. And at the same time, my brother was born too. But this was just one case. There's other cases, as you will soon find out, that parents, that they worked exhaustingly, meaningless jobs. Not for themselves, but for their kids. And that's where things really broke after. As with many families, I felt it too. Because the family structure started to fracture under the stress. Parents are always out

Assimilation Clashes And Lost Youth

SPEAKER_01 11:06

working, they came home tired, they were pissed off, their relationships stripped it apart. And what made it even more difficult was their kids. Meaning my generation, we assimilated too fast. Our language gone. Customs fading. Identity completely shifting to an American. So to these parents, they were so caught up with working, supporting the family, that by the time they realized, kind of like overnight, it was as if a traditional Asian household collided head on with an American teenage culture. Tiger Mom liberal teen. I talk, you listen, turned into no fuck you. Same roof, same blood, completely different world. Some kids did make it, obviously. They went to college like me. A lot of my peers did. But many didn't. Many were left behind. Angry, confused, maybe searching for some sort of belonging. Truly lost in a in a way that broke my heart. And it no longer became comfortable enough in terms of our relationship where I can go up to them and say, What the hell are you doing, man? I bring this up because the stories you've heard from me and the ones that you're about to hear didn't come out of nowhere. They had their root causes. You can argue, yeah, personality matters. Sure, but childhood matters more. At least I thought so. Being born into wealth versus poverty, immigrant family versus old money, those things shape the decisions you make regardless of how maybe your personality is. At least statistically, you have a higher probability of succeeding.

SPEAKER_00 13:34

Or at least not ending up

Introducing Paul And His Story

SPEAKER_00 13:36

in jail. But this isn't a true crime series.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Even though it's starting to sound like one. It's meant to be something else. Because this segment took nearly a year to complete. Not only because of the production or the editing, but because of listening. And this is the first time on our podcast that you will hear someone else's voice besides mine. I've invited a special guest. It was 2 a.m. in the morning when I finished my first interview with him. The interview lasted four hours. I poured myself a glass of whiskey, and I just sat there, staring at the microphone, that just captured all this pain and wisdom. Our special guest, his name is Paul. Very close friend of mine. We grew up together, went to high school together, hung on the same streets, same environment. I lived through those years too. But I wasn't as deep as he was. So I never took a chance to look back. And when I finally did recording this podcast, I hurt. Listening to what he had been through, it felt like I was going through the same or I went through the same. And it still feels that way. Why? Because of a few choices. Just a few. I ended up in Asia, college, exploring, learning, living up life. Paul ended up in Maximum Security Prison for nearly two decades. So these aren't my stories. They're his. He didn't push me to tell them. I pushed him to speak his experience. I wanted to launch this much earlier, but we didn't have enough listeners. We didn't have enough trust. But now it's time.

Organized Crime Networks Explained

SPEAKER_01 16:15

So in season three, you'll hear the complete interview with Paul, and from there we'll trace the men or the organizations that started it all. The original mafia figures who ran the US operations, as well as the original triads of China or Asia. I've also interviewed a Yakuza member, not in English, but I'll share some of his stories as well. Years later, I met many of them. Not just a Yakuza boss. And we didn't just meet. We drank, we talked for hours. And the next two individuals that I met intertwined heavily into my story. Two crime bosses, or two prominent figures in the triad world in Hong Kong. One of them was a notorious 14K, Sub Sub K, which a lot of listeners might know, and the other, the famous Sun Yan. Or Sun Yian in Mandarin Chinese. And the 14K boss at a KTV. He told me how these organizations formed in Chinatown, all around the world. Primarily how it was ran in New York, where I grew up, and in California. He walked me through the process of how they formed the so-called Tongs to run the street gangs that me and Paul once belonged to.

SPEAKER_00 18:06

And then he went on about how these kids, like us, were used as pegs merely because we were underage and could avoid adult persecution. We didn't know he didn't know that I was the peg that he spoke of.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

He thought I was an educated young man

Personal Encounters With Triads

SPEAKER_01 18:35

working in the investment banking business, the upper echelons, having no clue whatsoever that I was the peg that he spoke of. But that didn't knock me over. I got out. I was lucky. I never got in too deep. Yet I felt a sudden rush of sadness. Thinking about all the friends that didn't end up like me. A lot of them ended up in jail. Sadly, Paul was one of them. You guys might know Chinamac, famous YouTube rapper. He was also part of this crew and shared similar experiences. You can find those interviews online. And most importantly, what you would hear is, and what you should realize after hearing all these stories, we also shared identical upbringings. And that's the root cause that we talked about earlier in this episode. And the leader of Sun Yean at the time, he's now past. He told me that he knows the truth behind Bruce Lee's death. We made a bet, he lost, and he told me. The story. The new leader now who runs the underground world of Sun Yan, his nickname is The Prince. We're close friends too. I

Parallels, Root Causes, And Promise

SPEAKER_01 20:11

met the previous leader through him. And if you show this podcast some love, please share it, pass it on. And the numbers are there. I promise I will share that story of what he claims how Bruce Lee passed. Very interesting. I'm sure you've never heard a version like this before, and it makes absolute sense. And last but not least, I sincerely thank you for making this possible. Most of all, thank you for letting Paul's voice be heard. Welcome to season three.