The Chinese triads in South-East Asia: from a “total social phenomenon” to a transnational criminal organisation?

April 2005 The criminal activities of the Chinese triads have long been known to stimulate the imagination of and provide themes for film producers, fiction writers, and sometimes even the authors of serious journalistic studies. However, attempting a more systematic approach has, until now, barely aroused interest among researchers. The triads have been talked about with renewed interest once again in South-East Asia for almost two decades now, as they were at the end of the 19th century and..