Tong Wars
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The Tong Wars were a series of violent disputes beginning in the 1880s among rival Chinese Tong factions centered in the Chinatowns of various American cities, in particular San Francisco. Tong wars could be triggered by a variety of inter-gang grievances, from the public besmirching of another tong’s honor to failure to make full payment for a “slave girl” to the murder of a rival tong member. Each tong had salaried soldiers, known as boo how doy, who fought in Chinatown alleys and streets over the control of opium, prostitution, gambling, and territory.
In San Francisco's Chinatown district, the Tong Wars lasted until 1921, with the various criminal tongs numbering between nineteen and as many as thirty at the peak of the conflict, but it is hard to be absolutely sure, with such an abundance of splintering and mergers between the various tongs. While a loose alliance, consisting of the Chinatown police, Donaldina Cameron, the courts, and the Chinese community itself tried to stem the tide of the fighting tongs, it was the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 and subsequent fires caused by the earthquake that was the death knell for the tongs at least in San Francisco, as it destroyed the brothels, gambling dens, and opium houses that the criminal organizations had used for the majority of their revenue.
Despite being numerous, the tongs had some similarities.To join most tongs, there were no requirements placed on being from a specific clan or birthplace, as well as no particular economic status, since tong members seem to have come from all different aspects of society. Also, while most of the tong members were obviously Chinese, membership was not limited to the basis of nationality, as Japanese, Filipino, and even Caucasians were known, albeit rarely, to be part of a tong organization. All tongs used harmless and peaceful sounding names, such as The Society of Pure Upright Spirits and the Peace and Benevolence Society. This could be because many of these organizations original intentions and goals were good. Many of the “traditional” tongs were formed for the collective protection of their countrymen from discrimination by others, as well as criminals in general. The criminal elements of the tongs eventually either found that it was more profitable to participate in illicit activities, or the criminal elements of the tong wrestled power away. Tongs took an intense interest in attempting to corner the market on criminal markets, especially anything that would bring in a nice profit, such as prostitution, opium, gambling, and forcing Chinese merchants to pay “protection fees.” One interesting aspect of the tongs was that each organization had two to three fluent English speakers, who served a variety of functions for the tong such as skimming over the local newspapers so that if their group was mentioned, they could inform their fellow members. They also dealt with the “foreigner” lawyers and Americans if the need arose. Membership numbers varied from tong to tong, from as few as 50 to as many as 1,500 members in 1887. It was common for a tong to splinter when it accumulated too many members. One problem that was common throughout the period that would aid in the breakout of wars between the tongs was that some members could be a member of six tongs at any one time, so that if that member was killed by another tong in a war, one of his other five tongs he was a member of would, and sometimes did, seek revenge by declaring war.
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