| Chinatown | |
| |
| General Information | |
| Establishment: | 1999 |
| Status: | Stable |
| Location Information | |
| Location: | Seattle, Washington |
| Societal Information | |
| Population: | Approx. 1,500+ |
| Notable Individuals: | Jade, Jialong Zhou |
| Factions: | Chinatown militias, New Disciples, Oriental Caravan Company |
| Notable Events: | Great War, Treaty of Capitol Hill |
Chinatown, known before the war as the Chinatown-International District, is a community in Seattle that has stubbornly hung on to its cultural and ethnic heritage for the last two centuries. Chinatown is also an important place for caravans in Seattle and the operating center of the Oriental Caravan Company.
History
Pre-War
The history of Seattle's Chinatown begins to the late 19th century with the arrival of Chinese immigrants in the Pacific Northwest. Seattle's early Chinese population was victimized frequently but eventually stabilized into a real community with the run of the century. From there, the community prospered and progressively gained other ethnic groups nearby, such as Japanese and Filipinos. This community retained its integrity through the 20th century, though the internment of Japanese-American civilians during WWII shook it up a bit resulting in many Japanese businesses and historic buildings closing. The Chinatown-International District was officially created in 1999.
The 21st century proved to be the biggest challenge to Seattle's Chinatown, especially with flared relations with China as the Resource Wars began. The United States's unwillingness to export oil to China leading to a breakdown in talks between the two countries. This crisis led to the Sino-American War, which had an obvious negative effect on the Chinatown in Seattle. While numerous Chinese-Americans were removed from Chinatown over years, new immigrants came to replace them, displaced from areas affected in the Sino-American War from places like Korea, Taiwan, and Japan. These new immigrants tended to be more patriotic while older residents were more skeptical of the U.S. government.
As the 2070s winded down, conditions within Chinatown also deteriorated. Relations between the area's Asian and non-Asian residents were understandably strained as the Sino-American War wore on. The U.S. government had corralled much of the local Chinese-American population into Seattle’s Chinatown, which only went to further tensions. Two-thirds of Chinatown’s population was Asian by late 2077, twice what it had been the year before. Riots began breaking out in September 2077 and continued until the bombs dropped.
The Great War
The Great War came as little surprise to many in Chinatown. The community had collectively prepared for the nuclear war and survived in various places that served as fallout shelters. The residents of Chinatown however were stricken with another altercation soon after bombs dropped: Chinese Communist infiltrators emerged from the ranks of their friends and family to take control armed with weapons such as Chinese assault rifles and Chinese pistols. Some Chinatown residents went along with the infiltrators while the overwhelming majority revolted against the communists, especially the non-Chinese people within the community who feared being 'purged'. It was a brief bloody struggle, and the Asian Americans triumphed over the Chinese communist infiltrators. Only a couple of other people in Seattle knew of this, but even to them it mattered relatively little. The residents of Chinatown did benefit somewhat in that they could loot the Chinese weapons and use them in future generations. That helped Chinatown to survive for the next couple of months.
Post-War
The arrival of Edgar Brent in Seattle came in early 2078, and he brought some changes to Chinatown. Colonel Edgar divided the remaining survivor settlements in Seattle into their own little districts, further stratifying the divide between Chinatown and other places in the area. Chinatown did benefit though from the extra protection and supplies though such as RadAway. There was tension between the U.S. Army soldiers in Seattle and Chinatown, but there was no violence. That was even with Colonel Edgar's contact with the New Order. The trouble only really came with the arrival of Skull-Taker about a year later.
Skull-Taker was created because of the actions of the New Order restricting traffic into Seattle, and the cannibal warlord spared no one in the ruined city. He first smashed through the barricades that protected Seattle and burned dozens of settlements, including Chinatown. Luckily, many people in Chinatown managed to survive the onslaught of cannibals in the winter of 2079. One unlikely hero who emerged at this time was Frank Zhang, a former dockworker who took the initiative to fight the cannibals. Zhang was eventually killed in early 2080, his actions lived on in the memories of the residents of Chinatown as a hero of the community. People like Frank Zhang helped Chinatown survive the dark night Skull-Taker brought.
The conclusion of Skull-Taker's reign in Seattle was seen for Chinatown in the Battle of the Chinatown Gate, where the locals cleared out what was left of the cannibals around. For months, cannibals had been hanging around Chinatown looking for easy prey and vandalizing the Chinatown Gate. Enraged by the cannibals' predation and disrespect, the residents of Chinatown rose up and threw the last of the killers out. The community triumphing over the cannibals on January 20, 2080, is now celebrated every year as Victory Day.
The next couple of years were very rough, but Chinatown survived those dark early days. One reason for that was the discovery of The Tongmeng and its Chinese crew, who managed to integrate into Chinatown quite effectively. Even the ghouls within the crew were accepted into the community. There some culture clash between the two, but the fight to survive was the most important thing for the community. One stumbling block to Chinatown’s survival was the New Order who began attacking the settlement around 2092. That began a cycle of violence that would go on for more than a century. Regardless of the New Order's attacks, Chinatown managed to hang on somehow. Survivors recolonized ruined buildings within the old Chinatown-International District and fiercely rebuffed any attempt at settlement by outsiders.
Things changed with the destruction of The Tongmeng in 2128. The New Order and its Commander Hunter had been planning on destroying the ship for nearly ten years, and its final destruction was the sum of years of planning. That action stunned many in Chinatown and displayed the reality of their situation: there was a white supremacist group out there that wanted to destroy their community down to the last man. That was when it really sunk in.
As Chinatown continued to rebuild its infrastructure, the community also began to beef up its defenses. That started with a major defensive wall that was built in 2131. Chinatown was humiliated soon afterwards by the New Order who blew up a large portion of the wall. That seemingly destroyed Chinatown's resolve to fight for nearly a generation and led to a feeling of shame by much of the community. The nominal leader of Chinatown then, named Wei, preached avoidance of the New Order at all costs and cultivated the settlement's businesses. The growth helped grow Chinatown, but that did not help the fact that raiders and the New Order sacked the settlement every month or so. The humiliation suffered at that time enraged the youth of Chinatown, and they began marshaling themselves to prevent such humiliation in the future.
In the late 2140s, Chinatown created the first of the its militias to fight off the community's enemies. The first Chinatown militias were formally established to fight the New Order specifically, using a mix of volunteers and mercenaries. Wei was unsure of whether to condemn the formation of these militias but ultimately did not stop them. The Chinatown militias first clashes with the New Order in 2148 and were soundly defeated. A string of battles in late 2140s and early 2150s were mostly defeats for the Chinatown militias but began taking a toll on the New Order. By 2153, the New Order stopped facing the Chinatown militias in pitched battles and primarily began to use snipers and booby traps against them while focusing elsewhere. That took the pressure off Chinatown to defend its border but still instilled a defiant warrior spirit that would quickly displace Wei’s strictly business approach.
The late 2100s were a time of slowly growth for Chinatown as the community managed to finally thrive in the absence of the New Order’s constant attacks. Trade between Chinatown and other settlements boomed while outside caravaners even managed to move into the community. That caused some controversy and eventually led to the first of the “culture laws”. Another development during that time was Chinatown’s relation with Pantheon Radio, whose broadcast range had recently expanded into range of Seattle. Sharing a common enemy in the New Order’s white supremacist ideology, Chinatown and Pantheon Radio’s reporters cooperated on multiple occasions. Their cooperation often ended in disaster but is remembered fondly in the context of those dark times.
Chinatown ended its newfound aggressive stance in the 2160s and assumed a defensive position until about the 2210s when the New Order was displaced from Martha's Gulch. Sensing weakness, another hero emerged in this time to meet the needs of the community: General Lincoln. General Lincoln, named for a pre-War American legend, commanded the the militia known as the Monster Masks and masterminded a three decade long fight beginning in 2219 to finally put the New Order in the ground. Chinatown fully supported this war and continued to thrive despite essentially being at war. Unpredictable factors such as Aldrich Whitney, the founding of Emerald City, and super mutants complicated Lincoln’s plans, but he eventually succeeded after much bloodshed and loss. Things particularly looked bad after Chinatown was handed a heavy loss right outside its walls in 2241, but the community prevailed. General Lincoln displayed considerable political acumen when assembling the anti-New Order coalition in 2247. The coalition lasted for less than a year but would serve as a forerunner for the later Treaty of Capitol Hill.
Chinatown’s history since the defeat of the New Order has been rather peaceful. No raiders or large militarized groups would dare attack a settlement now so large and fortified. However, the residents of Chinatown still feel unsafe and have felt more and more unsafe ever since word of the Oregon Brushfire Wars came north. That and fears of demographic upheaval in Chinatown were what led to a rash of new culture laws in 2260s and a strengthening of the militias. The Treaty of Capitol Hill, signed in 2270 to try to assert to NCR that Seattle “did not need them” only proved to make the residents of Chinatown more paranoid about being “de-cultured”. The current trend in Chinatown of growth in the caravan and chem businesses exasperate the problem, driving a wedge in the community between those open to outsiders and those who fear outside influence. Who will win this battle of the wills is to be seen, but right now, the traditionalists have the edge and the numbers.
Government
Chinatown's government is minimal at best, one of the town's qualities taken more from America and less from their ancestral homelands in Asia. The economy allows for free trade and very little is regulated, even weapons and chems. The community is headed by a council that is made up of the most prominent people with no mayor in charge (though the overall leader of the Chinatown militias have somewhat acted in that role on occasion).
The only important function of Chinatown's government besides protection is enforcing the ban on the settlement of outsiders within their community. This is down through various "culture laws" outlawing outsiders owning property within Chinatown and actively encouraging rationalization of those who mix with outsiders. The Chinatown militias, directly drawn from American history, are used to enforce these culture laws, often with extreme brutality.
Economy
The economy of Chinatown is nowadays mostly fueled by caravans, though the community has proved itself to be somewhat self-sufficient. At first, Chinatown was mostly made up scavengers who raked the ruins of Seattle and were very vulnerable to attacks from the New Order. As Chinatown’s residents circled the wagons, established the Chinatown militias, and became even more insular, the town relies more on small industries such as limited manufacturing and crafts. That was until the caravans started coming through in the 2200s. It turned out there was quite a market for goods from Chinatown in other parts of Cascadia and even NCR, benefiting the community greatly. This however led to a tightening of culture laws as the residents of Chinatown began to feel threatened by the influx of caravaners. Today, caravans remain a major source of revenue in Chinatown with the town now even having its own caravan, the Oriental Caravan Company.
Culture
Culture is very important to the people of Chinatown for obvious reasons. The diverse but also insular culture of Chinatown has kept the community safe over the last two centuries. Chinatown’s residents are mainly of Chinese and Japanese origins, though Filipinos, Koreans, and Vietnamese are also present. These different communities jealously hold onto what they see as “their” cultures, which is in actuality a mix of their original home cultures and their pre-War American host culture. This results in situations like almost all of the residents of Chinatown speaking English but maintaining the languages of their home cultures among a few individuals for ceremonial purposes. Ethnic food is also a prominent feature in Chinatown, though the residents have their own wasteland twists to their ancestors’ recipes as many of the pre-War ingredients are now not present.
An understood but not often discussed part of Chinatown’s culture is its supreme role in the community over business and individual wants. The community is determined to maintain its cultural identity after being preyed upon by the likes of the pre-War government, Chinese revolutionaries, Skull-Taker, raiders, and the New Order. This cultural supremacy has caused increasing friction in recent years as Seattle has become more connected, leading to Chinatown clamping down even harder on perceived threats to their cultural integrity.
Relations
Badlanders
Chinatown has bad recent history with the Badlanders with the arrival of the Alaska Pack in Seattle. The Badlanders have never directly attacked, but the tribals have attacked the Oriental Caravan Company before as well as other Chinatown residents. That has built up significant hatred in Chinatown for Badlanders, with none (even those not in the Alaska Pack) allowed in Chinatown. In fact, masks are also outlawed in Chinatown because of Badlanders.
Capitol Hill
The trade between Capitol Hill and Chinatown has been going on ever since the Great War. The Geigers are a peculiar people, but they have made reliable trading partners. That has included food and chems in the past, but in recent years, Chinatown's own chem trade has overwhelmed Capitol Hill's. Also, the two settlements have competing caravan houses who regularly jockey with each other for primacy. Nonetheless, the two settlements retain cordial relations due to past alliances and the more recent Treaty of Capitol Hill. Since the Geigers are not expansionist or very entrepreneurial, Chinatown's more xenophobic residents do not see Capitol Hill as a threat at all.
Emerald City
After emerging from Vault 72, the vaults dwellers in Seattle were still initially under the thrall of their mechanical overseer. That initial settlement isolated itself from all outsiders until the overseer deemed the residents "ready for the outside". However, even before the vault officially "opened", people met adventurous vault dwellers from Vault 72 who had escaped. After the vault dwellers managed to escape the old overseer, relations were opened with the outside, and the two settlements traded like normal. Emerald City and Chinatown have had amicable relations with each other ever since first contact which has only strengthened since the Treaty of Capitol Hill. However, some of Chinatown's residents fear the Emerald City's more entrepreneurial residents, seeing them as an existential threat to the community's cultural integrity.
Free Northwestern Army
A more recent arrival to Seattle, the Free Northwestern Army emerged first in Chinatown as the dream of one man in a single room of the Panama Hotel: Chen Song. At first, it was simply an idea for Song who wanted a sort of "new democracy" to be restored to the wasteland. He saw NCR and the FNA as a model for this "new democracy". Chen Song made official contact with the Free Northwestern Army of the North and joined up with the FNA. Song's first year or so with the FNA was rather lackluster, but that changed in 2286. Chen Song went on a wasteland expedition in 2286 and found Campbell Armory with its ghoulified inhabitants. Since discovering the armory, Song has lived between there and Chinatown. The people of Chinatown tolerate Song since they see him as mostly harmless. This is despite his ongoing fight with King’s Council and the obvious potential danger he poses to the community.
Gun Runners
The Gun Runners have little in the way of established relations with Chinatown, as the community still sees the arms dealers occupying the New Order’s former HQ as “scary” to say the least. Dale Willis hopes to clear up this misunderstanding soon.
King's Council
Chinatown's relations with the raiders of King's Council has been up and down over the years. Being raiders, King's Council get little respect from the the inhabitants of Chinatown, but they do have past positive relations to an extent. The raiders of King County International Airport assisted Chinatown in fighting the New Order and never really gave the community too much trouble. For the most part, Chinatown and King's Council have an understanding not to mess with each other.
New California Republic
NCR is very faraway from Seattle, but Chinatown still does trade with them through intermediaries. Chinatown has a generally positive attitude towards the Bear, though the community obviously would rather remain its own entity rather than joining a larger federation or state.
New Order
The New Order and Chinatown have foul history as the two fought each other for the better part of a century. Footsoldiers of the New Order terrified Chinatown for generations, and the memory of them and their ideal of white supremacy has horrified the community for years since. That fear has been so strong that Chinatown is reluctant to trade with the Gun Runners who are centered where the New Order used to be.
Oriental Caravan Company
Chinatown’s premier caravan, the Oriental Caravan Company has brought a lot of traffic and caps to the community. The company also employs many in Chinatown as caravaners and caravan guards. However, many in the community still do not trust the company because of it bringing in outsiders and the progressive attitude of its current owner, Shuang Brown.
Pantheon Radio
Pantheon Radio and Chinatown have storied histories that connect in interesting ways. Both entities respect each other, and Chinatown even has its own reporter for the radio due to its close connection. The people of Chinatown are aware of Martha's Gulch but do not actively trade with Pantheon Radio or Atlas Guard there.
Points of Interest
Blue Heaven
Blue Heaven has been a part of Chinatown for almost as long as the community has existed, whether the residents like it or not. Originally founded in the 1920s in the basement space of the Louisa Hotel on Maynard Alley South, just south of South King Street, Blue Heaven operated an illegal club that attracted visitors for the gambling, dancing, and other forms of entertainment. The club has operated uninterrupted, except briefly after a shooting in the 1980s and the Great War, for the last two hundred years. The business has emerged from the shadows after the war and changed hands numerous times, but its services remain largely the same. It’s current owner, Syaoran Wu, has Blue Heaven mostly cater to caravaners and outsiders, since that brings the most caps his way. That has brought both the moralists and traditionalists down on Blue Heaven, though the caps have continued to roll in uninterrupted so far.
Chinatown Church of the New Disciples
Established in the 2250s, the Chinatown Church of the New Disciples came at a time when the community was more accepting of outside influences. The New Disciples came to Chinatown from Yakima with the intention of converting the populace and found the town’s Filipino community already “cultural Catholics” ripe for conversion. As outsiders, the Disciple missionaries were initially met with fierce resistance by those seeing them as threats to Chinatown’s culture. The Chinatown Church of the New Disciples has mostly assimilated to Chinatown though, with its pastor Crisanto Sanchez becoming something of a moral guardian who campaigns alongside those who uphold the community’s culture laws.
Chinatown Gate
An iconic part of the community, the Chinatown Gate marks the western entrance into Chinatown from the rest of the ruins of Seattle. The gate, a modern Paifang archway, was installed in 1990s and became an instant fixture of the neighborhood. The community had to fight to keep the gate before the war against racist mobs intent on destroying it and after the war against Skull-Taker and the raider scum that followed him. Today, the Chinatown Gate continues to stand proudly as an important cultural artifact and a symbol of the community’s perseverance through seemingly impossible odds.
East Kong Yick Building
The East Kong Yick Building was created before the Great War by the pooled resources of one hundred seventy Chinese-American pioneers, also known as the Kong Yick Investment Company. The building housed various business before the war but fell in disuse in the late 2060s. It was only really put back to use in 2264 by the Oriental Caravan Company. Since then, the building has become a hub of activity as caravaners, merchants, and bounty hunters pass through its halls going about their own business. The East Kong Yick Building has once again become an integral part of Chinatown's community though some have become rather suspicious of the building and caravan’s owner.
Nippon Kan Theatre
The Nippon Kan Theatre is seen as an important part of the Japanese-American community in Chinatown, but little was been done to maintain the old building even before the Great War. Originally built in 1909 as a hotel and later converted, the Nippon Kan Theatre was first closed in 1942 during the Japanese-American internment, but reopened in 1981 through restorative efforts. After that, the building's use ebbed and flowed according to Seattle's Japanese population right up until the Great War. The building fell into disuse after the Great War but was often used as place of assembly for many in Chinatown's Japanese community. It only returned to its function as a theater in 2277 when the building was bought by Lao. Lao was a local businessman who wanted to preserve Chinatown's cultural heritage. However, that was not very successful as a business model and also Lao found it hard to get the Japanese community involved. The theater only acted as a theater a couple times before Lao sold the building on the cheap to Emily Tanaka, a former caravaner in 2287. Currently, Emily is mulling over her options of what to do with the Nippon Kan Theatre, whether to look back to its past as a theater or forward to the future with another more profitable role for the building.
Panama Hotel
The Panama Hotel is a large residential building within Chinatown. A historic hotel with brick facade dating from 1910 offering rooms with shared baths, plus a teahouse, the Panama Hotel was best remembered before the war for holding the possessions of interned Japanese-American families during WWII. Most of those families never came back for their possessions, and the later owners never removed them from the motel’s basement. That came in handy when people took refuge in the Panama Hotel after the Great War. As time went on, the Panama Hotel became something of a major residential building in Chinatown. The Panama Hotel, currently owned by Jade who recently bought and renovated it, acts as a sort of an apartment building for those with permanent residence in Chinatown. As per Chinatown’s laws, this excludes all outsiders besides spouses and children of residents though Jade has been known to skirt this law on several occasions. The residents of the Panama Hotel are mostly characterized as less than reputable with notable examples being Jialong Zhou and Chen Song. Jade hopes to class up the joint though by telling the Japanese baths in the future, though this is still in the works.
Uwajimaya Village
Originally a Japanese family supermarket, Uwajimaya Village was transformed post-War into a center of commerce within Chinatown’s community. An important holdout position when Skull-Taker razed large parts of Chinatown, it was in Uwajimaya Village that many people lived in the years after the Great War. Over time, people migrated back into the ruins, and Uwajimaya Village became less of a living space and more of a marketplace. Today, it serves as major vein for commerce inside and outside of Chinatown. Outsiders and residents mingle within the walls of the old supermarket, buying and selling just about everything.
Notable Inhabitants
Colonel Chen Song
Colonel Chen Song is a failed artist and an amateur philosopher who is now an officer in the Free Northwestern Army due to his recent accomplishments. Descended from Chinese-Americans, Chen hopes to bring democracy back to the wasteland and sees the FNA as a way of doing that. He was seen as bit of an oddball by the people of Chinatown who did not take him seriously at first, but Chen now poses a real threat since obtaining the loyalty of the ghouls of Campbell Armory. He spends his time between Chinatown and Campbell Armory since his presence back home sometimes provokes violence.
Chen Song was born in 2264 to two doting parents. His father was a mechanic while his mother stayed at home to care for the family. Chen proved to be a despondent child who seemed to be desperately looking for something. The parents and siblings of Chen frequently worried about him, but they mostly left the young boy to his own devices. The boy spent most of his time with education in Chinatown and exploration around the community. Chen became well-known in Chinatown as a rather... odd child who seemed either wise beyond his years or really annoying.
In Chen’s teenage years, word from caravans outside Chinatown came about the events in Cascadia including the rise of the FNA and the advancement of Badlanders south. Introverted yet adventurous, Chen jumped into the field of philosophy in his late teens, exploring ideologies such as socialism, communism, and finally democracy. Chen's teachers encouraged him while his family felt he remained something of a child.
Chen Song left his parents’ home in 2282 to live in the Panama Hotel to search for work. Chen’s parents had hoped he would stay, but he knew his older siblings would take care of their family without him. Living in the Panama Hotel, Chen decided to become an artist as well as an advocate for democracy. Chen’s art, realistic paintings, did not sell, and he mostly lived off of dealing second-hand chems many days. His advocacy for democracy did not convince any of his neighbors to assist him in starting a “political movement”.
Chen heard increasing stories of the FNA’s advancement north in late 2282 and decided to join up after a few weeks of review. Chen sent a letter to Oregon to tell the FNA of his joining up. That took a couple of months itself and only returned after Chen had gone through new trials.
After unofficially joining the FNA, Chen decided to firstly try to recruit more members to fight for democracy in Seattle. The ambitious young man did not get anyone to join up and lost even more caps while essentially just wasting his time. Chen decided in the winter of 2282 to start going around Seattle to recruit in the name democracy. Going around Seattle that winter, Chen barely made it back to Chinatown alive in February after escaping numerous scrapes with raiders, super mutants, and Badlanders. However it have seemed that Chen came back empty-handed though, he did gain something very important that winter.
While wandering around north Seattle beyond the safe boundaries of the city-states, Chen was chased around by some Badlanders. He was chased until he came to Campbell Army, where both he and the Badlanders were fired upon by the mysterious inhabitants. Most of the Badlanders were scared while Chen and three of the tribals were captured. Chen awakened later to find himself strapped to a table. His surroundings were arcane and badly-lit, obviously pre-War. Several ghouls could be seen milling around, saying they were 'preparing' the prisoners. Chen watched terrified as he watched two Badlanders get lobotomies. Their mouths were tied shut but it was clear that they had no anesthesia. With his mouth not covered yet, Chen began to talk desperately to the ghouls trying to convince them to stop operating on the captives, pleading with them to stop before getting to the third Badlander. His appeals to morality and offers of caps fell on deaf ears. It was only when Chen mentioned the ideals of democracy and his membership in the FNA that one ghoul paused to listen, motioning for the other ghouls to stop their work. The ghoul, introducing himself to Chen as Lieutenant Peter Maliuk, freed the two non-lobotimized captives from their restraints. The lieutenant went on to tell Chen about the ghouls’ pre-War origins and promise him that everything would be explained. The ghouls then proceeded to put them in a room for interrogation some time later. Chen was stuck in that little room for two weeks.
Those two weeks were quite formative for Chen. He talked often with the Badlander in his cell, a fellow of similar age named Brave Storm. Brave Storm initially showed severe hostility towards his cell mate. However, the Badlander eventually warmed up to Chen, revealing his name and thanking Chen for probably saving his life. The two had a lot of time to talk about various things like tribal religion and ideology. The ghouls basically had no contact with them for days, only coming by to leave food and water. That was until the end of the second week when Lieutenant Maliuk finally arrived for the interrogation. He apologized for his lateness, saying “time passes faster when you’re never gonna die”. After that, Chen and Maliuk had an in-depth conversation about the FNA, the purpose of Campbell Armory, and both of their possible futures. Chen told Maliuk of the FNA’s quest of restoring democracy to the wasteland and even told him of NCR, the great republic far to the south. These subjects fascinated Maliuk, and in return, he told Chen about Campbell Armory’s history and its current role as the base of U.S. Army remnants and the producer of Robobrains. The two finished up by discussing both of their futures, figuring they could help each other give their lives meaning.
Chen was released from Campbell Armory along with Brave Storm with a pledge of loyalty from the remaining sane ghouls within the armory. Chen and Brave Storm parted ways with Chen heading back to Chinatown to inform his FNA superiors of his accomplishment. The FNA in Portland was happy to hear the good news, and Chen was promoted to colonel for his achievement.
After 2282, Chen began making frequent trips to Campbell Armory to help organize the ghouls there into a proper FNA fighting force while continuing to recruit in Chinatown. Chen actually began attracting more recruits when he obtained a Robobrain bodyguard from Campbell Armory. In early 2283, Colonel Chen Song chose the name “the Soldiers of Democracy” for his FNA cell and settled on an objective to win over the people of Seattle: destroying King’s Council, the last big raider group left in the city. Utilizing his Robobrains and experienced (if a bit loony) ghouls, Colonel Song attacked quickly in mid 2283 and yielded huge losses from King’s Council who were utterly unprepared for organized opposition after years of peace. However, King's Council soon struck back and sent the FNA running back to Campbell Armory. Still, the short offensive in 2283 showed that the FNA had a presence in Seattle which made many people uneasy. Colonel Chen is unaware of this uneasiness, still fighting to take down King's Council to win the love of the Seattle city-states and recruit more people to the Soldiers of Democracy.
Currently, Colonel Song shares his time between Chinatown and Campbell Armory, with most of his time spent with his ghoul friends planning their next offensive after he persuades the ghouls not to abduct people for lobotomies anymore. Chen would like to spend more time in Chinatown, but the unseen presence of King's Council makes him cautious to return home. Nevertheless, Chen is not too concerned about being targeted by raider death squads and is still focused on his goals of fulfilling his ideal of democracy.
Chen Song is a rather thoughtful individual who has little in the way of motivation most of the time. He hopes to accomplish something in his life besides simply surviving the wasteland. His odd behavior from an early age and pie in the sky ideals separates Chen from the rest of Chinatown, who see him as something of an outsider or even a traitor to the community. However, Colonel Chen is at least still allowed in Chinatown even if he is seen as something of an outcast. That and Chen's optimism has kept him going, even when depression threatens to overwhelm him.
Pastor Crisanto Sanchez
Pastor Crisanto Sanchez is a Disciple preacher and a prominent member of Chinatown's Filipino community. He has been seen as a moral force within Chinatown for the last couple years with a rather unique relationship with the community's traditionalists.
Crisanto Sanchez was born in 2229 to a highly religious mother named Analyn and a less than respectable father named Severino. Crisanto's father was a scavenger and was not often home, leaving the task of raising the Sanchez children to their zealous mother. Analyn harshly disciplined her children and ensured she had a god-fearing household. That led to many beatings which remained seared into Crisanto's mind for years later. In fact, Analyn beat Crisanto's sister Mahalia so bad once that the little girl went blind in one eye. Crisanto got through most of his days on the streets playing with his friends, joining a small gang in his teenage years. That was when Crisanto started to dabble with rot gut and psycho. His life seemed to be in a rut.
However before going over the edge, Crisanto pulled back and reformed his life. He got away from his parents and his old gang, deciding to instead attach himself to the New Disciples and their altruistic message. Crisanto went to Portland in 2248 to become a pastor for Chinatown's community. After a few years of education, Crisanto returned to Chinatown to become the community's pastor.
Crisanto’s early days as pastor were marred with conflict with Chinatown’s traditionalists, who saw the New Disciples and their brand of Christianity as a threat to the community. However, over time, Crisanto and the traditionalists have buried the hatchet with the pastor being eventually accepted. By 2260, Pastor Crisanto was campaigning alongside the traditionalists to keep out most outsiders, many who he saw as “degenerate” and “twisted”. The pastor has maintained that position for more than twenty years since and still serves as the one of the traditionalists’ strongest allies. Pastor Crisanto still ministers in Chinatown to this day, serves on the town council, and acts as the settlement self-appointed moral guardian. He has recently begun a campaign against chems that has gotten him in the crosshairs of Jade, something he is only vaguely aware of.
Crisanto Sanchez may be rather staunch in his beliefs, but there is an air of sincerity about him that endears him to many in Chinatown, even those technically opposed to him. Pastor Crisanto’s charisma and kindness also help him navigate Chinatown’s messy political system. His greatest flaws are his stubbornness and pride, which often lead to him butting heads with the more progressive members of Chinatown’s council. His unwillingness to work with others also comes into play, as Pastor Crisanto is tolerant of people with different appearances but often not different belief systems. Nevertheless, he remains a well-liked figure within Chinatown’s faithful, if not its younger generation or its more progressive population.
Delun Cao
Delun Cao is the leader of the most prominent militia in Chinatown, the Painted Dragons, and is something of a military leader within the community when needed. A traditionalist through and through, Delun Cao keeps a close eye on the community to keep its culture and traditions alive for generations to come.
Delun Cao was born in 2247 to two well to do parents who ran a malt shop. Delun was raised well by his parents alongside his other siblings and was not shouldered with the responsibility of his family's business. Therefore, Delun was allowed to roam Chinatown for a large part of his childhood. A lot Delun's childhood and teenage years were spent in street gangs and huffing chems. Delun was dissatisfied with his boring life in Chinatown and tried to spend his time doing exciting things. Delun's life spiraled into addiction before he was forcefully rehabilitated by his alarmed parents. Effectively broken by the efforts of his father and a "private tutor", Delun was then put into one of the Chinatown militias, the Painted Dragons. There, Delun found someplace to channel his energy in a productive way protecting Chinatown.
Since joining the Painted Dragons in 2266, Delun Cap has performed admirably in his defense of Chiantown and became the leader of his militia in 2280 after years of service. Another result of his long service in his militia is Cao’s rather cynical attitude and his strong traditionalism. He believes Chinatown’s survival hinges on the community remaining relatively homogeneous with an always slightly increasing population. To this end, Delun Cao married, had six children, and supported culture laws to prevent outsiders from doing the same inside Chinatown.
Currently, Delun Cao, as the overall commander of the Chinatown militias, is working to maintain Chinatown's position in Seattle. That mostly involves working with Ross’s super mutants to combat incursions from Badlanders. He is also legitimately considering working with the FNA to finally stamp out King’s Council like the New Order so many years ago. Delun detests Colonel Chen’s “soft” background but respects the force he has built up over the years, knowing it might be useful for Chinatown one day.
Delun is a man who respects strength, most especially his own. He sees the only successful future for Chinatown being it becoming the dominant settlement in Seattle, too large for anyone to mess with. He is known for being practical involving warfare and trade but still very much on the side of tradition. Delun is very loving to his family and close friends, including his wife Icho and Pastor Crisanto, but never shows this more kind side to the public, preferring an austere if somewhat charismatic public image. This is in part to put his wild past behind him, a fact Delun makes clear he does not want to hear. Mentioning Delun’s rather unsavory past is something of a trigger for him and most people stay quiet about it if they want to keep all their teeth.
Emily Tanaka
Emily Tanaka is a former caravaner for the Oriental Caravan Company and the newly minted proprietor of the Nippon Kan Theatre, a major cultural artifact of Chinatown's Japanese community. She was reluctant to buy the theater after leaving her caravan outfit, but Emily did so under much duress and is looking for good use for the building whether it involves the original use or not.
Emily Tanaka was born to Yu Tanaka and Rachel Pollen in 2262, a rare mixed-race couple in Chinatown. Emily’s young life was thrust into uncertainty when her father Yu walked out on her mother Rachel less than a year after her birth. Yu later married a Chinese woman and had children of his own while limiting his contact with Emily or her mother. The early years of Emily’s life were difficult as she was relentlessly teased by her peers for being mixed. This was combined with the hostility from adults as Emily’s mother Rachel became one of the few outsiders still in Chinatown with the enactment of more restrictive culture laws in the 2260s.
Regardless of the hostility she received, Emily remained a determined and hard-working girl. She excelled in the local school and got a job as an errand runner for a local business as soon as possible to help her mother. As Emily became a teenager, she became increasingly resentful of her father and Chinatown in general for their rejection of her, even though she loved the community. That view left out the fact that Emily’s rather antisocial behavior and rather biting sarcasm also tended to alienate people. Emily’s frustration also stemmed from her lack of success in her romantic life, as she was never even asked out in her teenage years. As time went on and her early determination crumbled, Emily had something of a breakdown in 2279 and tried to run away from Chinatown. She was intercepted by chance outside Chinatown by Shuang Brown, whose caravan happened to be coming into the settlement from Emerald City. Brown convinced the sobbing girl to return to Chinatown and talked to her about her problems. He listened intently to Emily pouring her heart out to him, talking about her difficult life and her desire for something more. She went on talking for twenty minutes.
Shuang Brown listened to Emily’s grievances and gave her a proposition: join the Oriental Caravan Company, make some caps, and tour Cascadia. Emily was initially hesitant, thinking about her mother, but she soon enough accepted Brown’s offer. Emily’s mother Rachel accepted her decision well and wished her good luck on her journey. Emily was happy to hear this and left Chinatown happy, hoping to see not have to return for a long time.
For the next couple years, Emily made her way across the Pacific Northwest as a caravaner and gained considerable experience and caps. She returned Chinatown on occasion but made it a point not to stay for very long. Emily managed to gain more success with relationships on her journeys and even grew to look more Asian as she grew older, making her mixed heritage less noticeable. This gave Emily some degree of happiness.
Emily’s mother Rachel died of breast cancer in late 2286, bringing the wandering caravaner back to Chinatown to pay her respects. Upon returning to Chinatown, Emily felt more accepted by the settlement’s residents and had the caps to do more than survive. That changed her view on Chinatown after years of viewing the place as second only to Hell. She decided after much deliberation to quit her job as a caravaner and finally settle down. Shuang Brown was saddened by her departure but was happy to see her feeling accepted after being ostracized for so long.
Emily bought some property in Chinatown, and she settled down for a comfortable living off her considerable wealth made as a caravaner. After settling in, Emily decided to put her caps to work by contributing to the Japanese community, her people. She at first considered donating to one of Chinatown’s militias but instead chose to preserve history by buying an old theater in 2287. That recent attempt has yielded little results as the theater’s original function has not brought many caps to help with upkeep or even attracted much attention from the Japanese community. Emily has gotten offers to buy the theater from Jade and Syoaran Wu and is considering both to cut her losses. On the other hand, Emily still feels like she should give the theater a shot, with her feeling of obligation and natural stubbornness both playing a role.
Emily Tanaka is a cold, anti social person who has difficulty interacting with others (though she has improved in recent years). She tries to make up for this with her punishing work ethic to this day but knows it really does not help, using it more as a coping mechanism now. Her sarcasm, stubbornness, and mixed heritage caused many in town to ostracize her at an early age. Emily blames the abuse she received for her anti social behavior, but there is no real way of knowing whether one came before the other. Luckily for her, Emily’s demeanor has markedly improved in last few years as she gained experience in the world outside Chinatown. Ironically, she is one of the few people in Chinatown who became more accepted as a result of being “worldly”.
Jade
Jade is a wealthy women who supposedly made her fortune in the Oregon Brushfire Wars and as a shareholder in the Oriental Caravan Company. In reality, Jade is a chem kingpin who has her claws deep in Chinatown, the rest of Seattle, and even farther out in other parts of Cascadia.
Jade was born Jia He in 2247, the only child of parents of Taiwanese heritage in Chinatown. Her father Chiang was a chemist who doted his daughter and her mother Hu was a former street artist who was apathetic about being a mother. Therefore, Jia was sent through the ringer of Chinatown’s schools and encouraged to succeed. That mostly meant Jia was able to excel at academics in her early years, though she showed little interest in anything besides school. This worried Jia’s father, who hoped she was not becoming anti-social. Jia’s relative isolation from others also led to her developing a fear of the unknown, mostly focused on diseases and radiation.
In 2266, rumblings of war in the south alerted many in Seattle who were either worried about NCR’s expansion or just wanted a bit of the action. To that end, the Free Army was formed by infamous mercenary Clyde Everett to fight on the side of the Northwestern Alliance. The promise of adventure the Free Army represented appealed to Jia, and she decided to join up. Her father was dismayed at her decision, but Jia’s mother cheered her on, reminded of her own past of youthful rebellion. Soon enough, Chiang relented and wished Jia good luck on her “fight”. As a parting gift, Chiang gave his daughter an old family pistol and pleaded with her to protect herself at all costs. She promised him that she would. With that, Jia left Chinatown for the Free Army’s assemblage at Tacoma.
As a young woman going into a camp of virile dirty violent men, Jia took into great consideration how she would conduct herself when in the Free Army. Buying a radiation suit to block radiation, germs, and prying eyes, Jia also took up the pseudonym “Jade” to build a sort of mystique around herself. She entered Tacoma and offered her expertise to the Free Army. They accepted her into their group and assigned her as an auxiliary helping with supplies, a position Jade asked to be in since she disdained engaging in violence. She was put in control of the Free Army’s logistics, controlling the ebb and flow of supplies. Jade also began creating combat chems as soon as the Free Army got on the move. Her chem-making skills were gained from years of studying the chem making process from a purely scientific standpoint, and she was finally putting all that book learning to good use. She did not use chems herself though due to the bad memory of a teenage flirt with Mentats.
Jade was part of the Free Army for about two years, and those were some of the best years of her life. That was despite most her time being spent in her brahmin-drawn trailer producing medicine and chems. Those were the years Jade met friends like Drake Terrenzi, Mahers, and Rosie Smith who she would remember for the rest of her life. She also witnessed numerous fantastic (and gruesome) things while wandering Cascadia alongside the Free Army which are now burned into her memory. She never liked Captain Everett, but that did not matter much, at least until he started making her produce recreational chems. Jade hated Everett for that at the time but would eventually silently thank him for putting her on the way to success.
Edna’s Hill was the breaking point for the Free Army and was Jade’s cue to call it quits. Attaching herself to Drake Terrenzi’s group, Jade splintered off from the Free Army and made her way back to Seattle. However, unlike many others in her group, Jade was in high spirits when she arrived back home. She had not experienced the trauma of being on the frontline and had gotten out of with more than she had gone in with (retaining her chem manufacturing apparatus). Upon returning to Chinatown in 2268, Jade was welcomed back with open arms by her parents. Her father Chiang advised her to take a long “siesta”, worrying about lingering trauma from her time at war. However, Jade did not take her father’s advice. Instead, Jade quickly moved to put her newfound expertise and resources to use to make her some caps. That unleashed a new evil into Chinatown, one that still remains to this day: chems.
Before Jade, chems had been present in Chinatown but only for medicinal use outside of some rare jet addicts. They were not outlawed per se but were instead seen as taboo, associated with outsiders and Geigers. Chinatown’s relative isolation from the rest of the wasteland helped hamper the spread of chems as well. Jade took advantage of Chinatown's vulnerability and unleashed a hoard of chems upon the community by 2270, pushed mostly by rebellious youth. Jade used her already present apparatus to create the chems outside Chinatown, hiring former members of the Free Army to protect the sites from raiders and curious wanderers.
Jade’s chems overtook much of the lower rungs of Chinatown by 2271 and made her rich, perhaps the richest woman in her community. However, that was not enough for Jade: and she wanted more: she wanted to take Seattle. Ever since 2271, Jade has been expanding her operations across Seattle’s underworld with her chems permeating all across the city and even out into greater Cascadia. This has involved some violence from Jade’s enforcers to stamp out opposing chem producers, but Jade sees it as necessary if distasteful work. Most were unprepared to be targeted and were therefore dispatched pretty quickly. Jade has people secretly embedded in the governments of Emerald City, Capitol Hill, and Chinatown as well as their caravans, and she actually has a public “representative” (puppet) on King’s Council. Her reputation as a powerful chem kingpin is known to just about everyone by 2287, and Chinatown’s ruling council is afraid to confront her directly, instead preferring to condemn chems and and targeting small-time chem dealers when they can. Jade is currently living a comfortable life in the Panama Hotel with her bodyguard and lover Yue Fei. Her current goals are to figure out the secret to Gollygoo, try to cheer up Drake Terrenzi, and manipulate the budding FNA in Seattle.
Jade’s beauty, work ethic, and intelligence have helped her numerous times over the years, though none of these advantages have helped her understand people that much. She has only started doing that recently and even then has no regrets about the lives ruined by her chems. Jade only cares about herself, her family, and her small group of friends. She masks this lack of empathy and other things quite expertly, with deception being one of her other greats skills. However, there is still a bit of naïveté behind what seems like a bloodless chem kingpin. Jade never experienced the true horrors of war like many of the other veterans of the Oregon Brushfire Wars and struggles to understand the trauma they experienced. She is also not fully understand the damning negative effects her chems have had on people’s lives, though it is unknown if she would care all that much.
Jialong Zhou
Jialong Zhou is a con man who originated from Chinatown but has mostly wandered the wastes until his return recently. He is seen as an outcast by most in Chinatown but is allowed to stay within the community due to the secret insistence of his family. Jialong has come and gone from Chinatown, but he is now back in the community, dealing in quick cons and underhanded jobs.
Jialong Zhou was born in 2262 to Chen and Mai Zhou, owners of the Sleepy Dog Restaurant. He has been something of a nuisance to Chinatown ever since. Turning to cons at an early age, Jialong was made a outcast rather quickly afterwards for anti social behavior, even though he was probably the most “sociable” person his age. A con artists at heart, Jialong’s luck eventually caught up with him, and he had to flee Chinatown in 2276 to avoid paying his debts to the chem kingpin Jade.
Jialong spent the next four years paying off his debt to Jade by conning people all over Cascadia. After pulling a job at La Mugre, Jialong finally got his debt paid off to Jade, and he was able to return to Seattle and Chinatown. This his return, Jialong has spent his time conning people inside and outside Chinatown which has further damaged his reputation. Currently, Jialong Zhou is considering whether to venture into back into the wasteland in search of thrills.
Jialong Zhou is quite an amiable person but has few friends since he is a con artist. He is very organized and inventive, which has helped immensely in his travels. He is kind of lazy though, preferring to con people rather than get a real job. Even though he is a con artist, Jialong still has a moral compass and abhors things such as murder, rape, and slavery. That has led to some interesting situations during his wanderings in the wasteland.
Shuang Brown
Shuang Brown is one of the most important caravaners in the Oriental Caravan Company, being the manager, and has a much more progressive view of the future than most in Chinatown, mostly due to his family's mixed origins and his time spent outside the community. Brown is not actively political but has increasingly been put on the spot by Chinatown's political elements which is slowly changing his mind.
Shuang Brown was born outside Chinatown in 2256 to caravaners from the community. The Brown parents were roamers who rarely returned to Chinatown. Shuang only came to Chinatown in 2267 when he was eleven. He traveled all over Cascadia and met many different people, quickly becoming acclimated to dissimilar cultures. The Brown family went as far south as NCR and visited many locations in between, especially Portland. He grew up in the shadow of the Oregon Brushfire Wars and watched as the opposing sides clashed. Shuang saw his first corpse at eight, sterling him against death at an early age. The Browns raised their son to be a caravaner just like them, to own a successful business in the future.
A wrench was thrown in the Browns’ plan when their caravan went belly up in 2272. As a result, the Browns returned to Chinatown to try to recoup their losses. Shuang was stricken with culture shock from Chinatown’s insular culture, and he struggled to get used to living in this hostile, more permanent environment. Nonetheless, he managed to adapt after a short time of torment and managed to thrive soon enough. Shuang even got married in 2276 to a nice Filipino girl.
Shuang still dreamed of getting back on the road and finally got his wish later in 2276 when he, with help from multiple friends, his wife, and his parents, founded Oriental Caravan Company. He was not met with immediate success, but Shuang managed to win out in the long haul, effectively competing with Lake Caravans and Northwest Trading Company. Shuang’s caravan was met with some pitfalls such as being caught in between the FNA and their enemies in several places and losing caravans to other forces, but it has overall been pretty successful. Still, Shuang has had to sell more and more of the caravan off over the years and now barely owns half of his creation. He hopes he will not be forced to sell more of it in the future.
Shuang is effectively seen as an outsider by many in Chinatown, an entity that wants to change the community’s core identity. Even though Shuang is something of an outsider, he is more or less apolitical, preferring to think about how Chinatown could be rather than change it himself. This contrasts with Syaoran Wu‘s much more active role in opening up Chinatown. Shuang does not discriminate by political view and tries to befriend just about everyone, traditionalist or progressive, insider or outsider. He is known for his rather laid-back attitude and his bizarre tall tales from the wasteland.
Sun Kang
Sun Kang is a ghoul and one of the last remaining survivors of The Tongmeng. Even though he worked for the Chinese Communist government before the war, Sun Kang has been welcomed into Chinatown over time as his pre-War loyalties have been forgotten. Kang has grown ornery in his old age and is not shy about revealing his opinions on things to the residents of Chinatown.
Sun Kang was born in 2055 to loving parents in the city of Nanning, China. Life in Nanning was tough for Sun, but he made do. Sun's parents had a large number of children and struggled to feed all of them as resources became increasingly scarce. Because of scarcity and Sun's penchant for laziness, he was sent to join the People's Liberation Army as soon as he was able. He fought in a few battles but did not distinguish himself. The PLA proved to be not the right fit for Sun as the Sino-American War intensified, and Sun was honorably discharged, instead being put in the Chinese cargo fleet. Sun found cargo ship duty to be a comfortable job, and he liked that a lot better than his life in the army. He and The Tongmeng ranged around the Pacific supplying the PLA where needed in various occupied countries.
That life and much of the rest of the world came to a crashing end on October 23, 2077. When the bombs fell, The Tongmeng was two hundred miles off the west coast of the United States, returning from a supply run from China to operatives in the now-retaken U.S. state of Alaska. The crew could see the explosions and feel the shockwaves even in the middle of the ocean, and their navigational equipment lost functionality, leaving the ship blind. The captain, Li Huwei, guessed that sailing east was his ship's best hope and used a rudimentary compass to navigate to the coast of what had been Washington. This reasoning worried Sun, but he did as he was told.
Steaming hesitantly through the fog and radiation, the ship managed to reach Puget Sound, but Captain Li knew the best hope of survival would be to land near a big city where they could scavenge the most supplies. Finally spotting the ruined towers of Seattle in the distance, he ordered his men to ground The Tongmeng on the nearest safe beach. Before the ship could land however, it was hit with another strong wave of radiation from Seattle's irradiated ruins. This was one of the first radiation storms. Quite a bit of the crew of The Tongmeng made it below deck before the radiation really hit. Everyone above deck was killed by radiation besides Captain Li Huwei and Sun Kang. They were knocked out and when they awakened, the ghoulification process began. The crew were afraid of the two ghouls at first, but they eventually accepted them back into their group.
The ship just kind of drifted for a couple of months off the coast of Washington, taking on supplies and consuming what stores they had left. Sun was given as few rations as possible due to his mutations and that angered him quite a lot. He may be mutated, but he was still hungry. The Tongmeng finally put in at the Port of Seattle, and the crew made their way into the city, now less affected by radiation. Sun Kang and the rest of the crew made their way through Seattle until they came to Chinatown, a place they might call their home. However, the community was actually divided on whether they should let the communists in at first, but the opposition eventually relented. Sun was happy to be let in, thinking this ethnic enclave would be a great place with similar features to mainland China such as culture, food, language, and lifestyle. That was not so as the community was very different from what he had expected and wanted.
Since his arrival in 2078, Sun Kang has had to adapt to his new environment and his deathless reality. The ghoul's laziness has prevented him from quickly learning English and American culture. He continues to resent his situation to this day and constantly complains about America. Sun mostly spends his days doing odd jobs to make ends meet and tells people about how pre-War China was so much better than the wasteland currently. Sun Kang contributes very little to Chinatown and is regarded as a bum by most of the population who ignore his inane ramblings either in halting accented English or raspy Mandarin. Sun's general laziness has not helped his reputation, and he continued to just lounge around Chinatown, occasionally taking up residence in the Panama Hotel but living elsewhere most of the time. Sun surprisingly does not really support Chinatown's traditionalists, as he is pretty much apolitical at this point. Whiskey is his drink of choice and aids in both his laziness and apolitical attitude.
Syaoran Wu
Syaoran Wu is the proprietor of Blue Heaven and a less reputable member of Chinatown's community, though that does not mean he cannot be congenial. Contrary to what his name may indicate, he is of mixed origins and was adopted by Chinese parents. Syaoran has much less of a sense of "community" than many others in Chinatown and delights in seeing the traditionalists squirm when given the opportunity. He is a broad ally of the progressives in Chinatown, if only for opportunistic reasons.
Born around 2226, it is unknown who either of Syaoran Wu's parents were. All that is known was that he was born a bastard and has continued to be one ever since. The little baby had no name at first but was adopted by a kindly Chinese family, the Wu Family. Syaoran proved to be a rather delinquent child, growing up in the shadow of economic hardship and the last breaths of the New Order. He loved his adopted family and his adopted father in particular, but he also seemed almost predisposed to getting in trouble. His mixed heritage only exacerbated things for many in Chinatown.
The years went on as Syaoran descended further and further into shady business dealings, skirting criminality. Syaoran built quite a sum of caps off his various “business ventures” over his young life in 2240s and 2250s. He eventually bought the underground club Blue Heaven in the 2260s on the cheap as many outsiders left as a result of the new culture laws. Blue Heaven was restructured to specifically target those outsiders who still visited Chinatown: caravaners. Syaoran and Blue Heaven have been doing good business ever since. The only bump in the road has been Syaoran’s various spats with Jade over Blue Heaven. Syaoran despises Jade for being “an insolent bitch” but sees her as a fellow traveler in the movement to open up the insular community. The two make unlikely bedfellows with Shuang Brown in this issue: a chem kingpin, a caravaner manager, and a club owner.
Syaoran has always been a boisterous person eager to talk at the first opportunity. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, but Syaoran cares little what others think. Otherwise, he would not own Blue Heaven. Syaoran's greatest pleasure in the world is forcing others into awkward situations and watching them squirm. This mostly means upsetting the moralists and traditionalists of Chinatown, which along with economic policies puts him in the minority view in the community. Nonetheless, Syaoran still wields respectable influence in Chinatown while being careful not to overstep his bounds. Syaoran knows there is a line to cross, even if he nudges closer every day.
Quotes
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