Tong (organization)

A tong (Chinese language|Chinese: 堂; Yale Romanization#Cantonese|Cantonese Yale: tong4; Pinyin: táng; literal: hall) is a Chinese American secret society. Although tongs were originally created for mutual support and protection, especially from other local ethnic groups hostile to the rapid Chinese immigration, their activities often flouted the law or became outright criminal.

History
Some of the first tongs formed in the second half of the 19th century among the earliest immigrant Chinese American communities. Many were outcasts or lacked the clan or family ties to join more prestigious Chinese surname associations, business guilds, or legitimate enterprises. As a result, they banded together to form their own secret societies for protection. These first tongs modeled themselves upon the Triad society|triads, underground organizations dedicated to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty, and adopting their codes of brotherhood, loyalty, and patriotism.

Unlike the triads, the tongs formed without clear political motives and soon found themselves involved in lucrative criminal activities, including extortion, gambling, people smuggling, and prostitution. Prostitution proved to be an extremely profitable business for the tongs, due to the high male-to-female ratio among the early immigrants. The tongs would kidnap or purchase females from China and smuggle them over the Pacific Ocean to work in brothels. The tongs constantly battled over territory, profits, and women in feuds known as the tong wars, occurring from the 1850s to the 1920s, notably in San Francisco, Cleveland and Los Angeles.

These criminal enterprises eventually became involved in political activities as well. When Sun Yat-sen formed his Revive China Society, with the purpose of overthrowing the Qing dynasty, he found a receptive audience among many of the Tongs in addition to legitimate organizations. Many of the Tongs worked closely with organizations and contacts in China and provided funding to advance their political goals.

The 1930s was an era of decline in violent criminal activities in the Chinatowns. Due to the efforts of middle class or second-generation Chinese activists, and campaigning by Christian missionaries, prostitution was on the decline. Since the Chinatowns had become a major tourist attraction, the tongs had become less willing to see a decline in their revenues from bloodshed and violence. The tongs had already spun off their operations into legitimate businesses, and organized themselves more professionally, and expanding their ranks to include legitimate merchants and businessmen.

Notable tongs

 * Bing Kong Tong
 * Hop Sing Tong
 * Hip Sing Tong
 * On Leong Tong
 * Suey Sing Tong
 * Ang Soon Tong 21
 * Kim Ghee Tong 21
 * Tong Tran
 * Pa Hai Tong 21
 * Four Brothers (tong)|Four Brothers