Organized Crime Hong Kong

Bright, articulate, polite and full of promise, 16-year-old Coung Minh Hoang will soon go on trial for murder. Authorities say the Vietnam-born teen-ager, homeless at age 13 and abandoned by his parents, carved out a life for himself among the growing population of Chinese gangs in the San Gabriel Valley. It was a life of days spent far from school and of nights gambling. It was a life in tutelage to his gang dai lo , or big brother.

It has all the elements of a great Hong Kong action movie: * A daring gangster nicknamed "Big Spender" who kidnaps the son of one of the world's richest men, then brazenly shows up at the tycoon's Deep Water Bay mansion to collect the $100-million ransom. * Loyal henchmen with monikers like "Cunning Old Fox" and "Tall Guy Seven" who stage daylight jewelry store robberies and escape in a spray of automatic-weapons fire. * A beautiful girlfriend who braves arrest to attend her lover's trial.

Two days before Hong Kong publisher Leung Tin-wai launched his Surprise Weekly magazine, two men neatly dressed in suits came to visit him in his boardroom, shut the door, then chopped off his left arm with an 18-inch meat knife. As the men escaped, Leung's alert staff recovered the limb and a right thumb and preserved them in ice. Before he was wheeled into the ambulance, Leung reportedly muttered, "Why me?"

Two days before Hong Kong publisher Leung Tin-wai launched his Surprise Weekly magazine, two men neatly dressed in suits came to visit him in his boardroom, shut the door, then chopped off his left arm with an 18-inch meat knife. As the men escaped, Leung's alert staff recovered the limb and a right thumb and preserved them in ice. Before he was wheeled into the ambulance, Leung reportedly muttered, "Why me?"

It has all the elements of a great Hong Kong action movie: * A daring gangster nicknamed "Big Spender" who kidnaps the son of one of the world's richest men, then brazenly shows up at the tycoon's Deep Water Bay mansion to collect the $100-million ransom. * Loyal henchmen with monikers like "Cunning Old Fox" and "Tall Guy Seven" who stage daylight jewelry store robberies and escape in a spray of automatic-weapons fire. * A beautiful girlfriend who braves arrest to attend her lover's trial.

Bright, articulate, polite and full of promise, 16-year-old Coung Minh Hoang will soon go on trial for murder. Authorities say the Vietnam-born teen-ager, homeless at age 13 and abandoned by his parents, carved out a life for himself among the growing population of Chinese gangs in the San Gabriel Valley. It was a life of days spent far from school and of nights gambling. It was a life in tutelage to his gang dai lo , or big brother.