New Fujianese immigrants recently started a fashion of holding banquets for various occasions – most often to celebrate birthdays. The real motive for these gatherings, however, appears to be to collect red envelop money. The authorities here caught wind of this new trend and started to show up at the banquets to take photos of individuals who could be engaged in criminal activity.

The trend only started about a year ago. Most of the people holding and attending banquets are new immigrants in their 20s. Some people have their own business, while others have not held steady jobs since graduating from high school. Many still live with their parents. With lots of time on their hands, there is much time for entertainment that is expensive, so many feel the financial pinch.

To give red envelop money at wedding and birthday banquets is a common practice in the New York Chinese community. Someone must have come up with the idea of holding birthday banquets in restaurants and collecting red envelope from guests. The money contained in each envelop is not very large, ranging from dozens of dollars to hundreds of dollars. But a banquet of over a hundred guests can bring in over $10,000.

The idea quickly caught on and more people started to give banquets. Some people who gave money before now want their own banquets to get the money back.

Banquets are important income-generating events for restaurants. Although some guests who do not look over 21 years old consume alcohol, no restaurant dares to ask a guest to show his or her ID.

In the past few months, the authorities have started to show up at the banquets uninvited. Some guests told of being stopped by the plainclothes men, before entering or when leaving the restaurants. Some were asked to show IDs and were even photographed.

People who know the situation said that some of the guests are allegedly gang members, and that banquets represent a good opportunity for authorities to get information, which is why the police are showing up.

According to NYPD, federal law enforcement officers are permitted to take photos in public places as log as those photos are used only internally. The federal authorities have allegedly used these photos to identify criminals and made arrests in recent months.

Interestingly enough, the banquet trend has slowed after the police started to show up.