Kingston Lau is the patriarch of the Lau family clan. Through hard work, personal connections ("guan xi" in Mandarin), the occasional deployment of force, and a ready hand with a bribe ("campaign contribution"), Old Lau has created a financial empire for him and his extended family. He was born poor, a peasant in rural China, and moved to Shanghai when he was in his early teens. Luckily, a distant uncle who was a coal magnate in the region took kindly to him and offered him employ as an enforcer of the energy company's many deals. Lau learned negotiation through his hands.
Today, Old Lau lives in a $20 million mansion on an estate-sized lot in San Marino California, a short Mercedes drive away from the best Chinese food in the Western hemisphere. His family members visit often, as do his ex-wives, though they often prefer staying at The Langham Hotel nearby for discretion. Sometimes he is seen meeting unknown women, much younger than he is, at the Santa Anita race track...
While Lau seems to enjoy the fruits of his accomplishments, inside, he is by turns fearful, anxious, and angry. He is frightened that the collateral damage caused by his many business dealings will come back to hurt his family, especially his dear daughter Lucy, his secret favorite among his children. He is anxious that some day the Chinese government will find a way to steal his wealth out from under him or that the American government will find out that not everything he is part of is on the up-and-up. And he is angry that, despite his wealth and trappings and good English, he is treated as an outsider by other Americans. There was that time in Beverly Hills when a French restaurant told him it didn't have a table for him and his family, so he came back the next week and bought the entire restaurant. And promptly fired the hostess.
