39. Olive Yang | The Worst Gangster Names Ever (with Tia Voteary)

Olive Yang (1927-2017) was a Burmese opium kingpin in the Golden Triangle in the 1950s, who, working alongside exiled Chinese soldiers, pioneered opium trafficking on an industrial scale, and was a forerunner to more famous megakingpins like Lo Hsing Han or Khun Sa. They also may have been trans, or genderqueer, or nonbinary, and we're going to explore that today.The Kickstarter for TIGER BLUES is live nowhttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/harujinshounds/tiger-blues-a-queer-alt-history-steampunk-novel?ref=discovery&term=tiger%20blues&total_hits=20&category_id=47Jason Shannon is an indie Canadian author of science fiction and more. He has published 6 novels - The Zimmer Insurgency, The Hounds of Harujin, The Moon Panther, Rain's Agenda, The Rise and Fall of ChazOregano, and Attila the Valley Girl - as well as several short stories. Visit www.jasonmshannon.com to read the shortstories, as well as novel excerpts, or for links to download/buy. All novels are available in print and ebook. Chaz, Zimmer, Attila, andOne Night in Ikh Khulan are available in audiobook.Buy my ebooks/audiobooks https://www.jasonmshannon.com/storeUpcoming shows:Brampton Book Fair June 7Bracebridge Comiccon June 14Port Hope Comiccon June 21Belleville Comiccon June 22Brighton Comiccon June 28Hottest Street Sale July 12Flamborough Book Fair July 13Word on the Street Sept 27/28Audiobook for Rain's Agenda coming soonFollow my social media @harujinshoundsSourcesPaluch, Gabrielle. The Opium Queen: The Untold Story of the Rebel Who Ruled the Golden Triangle.Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 2023.“Burma Human Rights Yearbook 2008.” Human Rights Documentation Unit, November, 2009, https://www.burmalibrary.org/sites/burmalibrary.org/files/obl/docs08/HRYB2008.pdf.Accessed 10 March, 2025.“Current Conditions in Insein Prison.” Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG), 5 December, 1993,https://www.khrg.org/2014/02/93-12-05/current-conditions-insein-prison.Accessed 10 March 2025.Gibson,Richard M., and Wenhua Chen. TheSecret Army: Chiang Kai-Shek and the Drug Warlords of the GoldenTriangle.Singapore: Wiley, 2011. HanThit.“Bombblasts, gunfire at Myanmar’s biggest prison kills eight, includingguards.” Myanmar Now, 19 October, 2022,https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/bomb-blasts-gunfire-at-myanmars-biggest-prison-kills-eight-including-guards/.Accessed 10 March, 2025.“InsideBurma’s Insein Prison”. BBC, 14 May, 2009,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3006922.stm. Accessed 10March, 2025.Lintner,Bertil. TheRise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB).Ithaca, New York: Cornell Southeast Asia Program, 1990.Lintner,Bertil. “The Golden Triangle Opium Trade: An Overview.” AsiaPacific Media Services, 2000, March. McCoy,Alfred W. The Politics of Heroin: CIA Complicity in the GlobalDrug Trade, Afghanistan, Southeast Asia, Central America, Colombia –Revised Edition. Chicago: Lawrence Hill Books, 2003.Paluch,Gabrielle. “The Female Warlord Who Had C.I.A. Connections and OpiumRoutes.” The NewYork Times,21 July 2017,www.nytimes.com/2017/07/21/world/asia/burmese-warlord-olive-yang.html.Accessed 1 February 2025.Snow,Oliver. “Inside Insein.” Frontier Myanmar, 3 July, 2018,https://www.frontiermyanmar.net/en/inside-insein/. Accessed 10 March,2025.Sparrow,Gerald. OpiumVenture.London: Pan Books, Ltd, 1960.Winn,Patrick. Narcotopia:In Search of the Asian Drug Cartel That Survived the CIA. NewYork: Hachette, 2024.Yawnghwe,Chao Tzang. TheShan of Burma: Memoirs of a Shan Exile.Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 1987.