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.

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Jason 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 Chaz

Oregano, and Attila the Valley Girl - as well as several short stories. Visit www.jasonmshannon.com to read the short

stories, as well as novel excerpts, or for links to download/buy. All novels are available in print and ebook. Chaz, Zimmer, Attila, and

One Night in Ikh Khulan are available in audiobook.

Buy my ebooks/audiobooks https://www.jasonmshannon.com/store

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Sources

Paluch, 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.