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Whenever any discussion of organized crime in America comes up, we tend to first think of the Italian Mob, the Russian Mafia, and then maybe popularized cultural icons in Scarface, Casino, or the recent Denzel film American Gangster which all play off the organizational systems around the Italian Mob anyway. As Asian-Americans, our incorporation into American media (television, commercials, movies, and what not) has been slow, to say the least. The lack of an Asian presence in American media leads to the lack of thinking about Asian Americans and organized crime.

 

In this article, I’ve grabbed a very interesting and informative episode of Gangland which airs on the History Channel about the San Francisco Chinatown gangs. It’s a very interesting clip, and if you like, I’ve also wrote up a brief history of how modern Chinese organized crime developed.

But first, a little history…

History of Chinese Triads

The modern Chinese triads as we know them today initially formed towards the end of the Qing Dynasty in the late 19^th century. And first of all, not all Chinese people are ethnically the same. From the same light that western culture views all Asians as simply just Chinese or Japanese, the same logic follows when thinking of Chinese people. They’re all just Chinese right? Well no. China officially recognizes 56 ethnic groups within the country including Hmong, Mongols, Tibetan, Yaho, Li, Dai, and much more.

Anyway, way back in the day, the Manchu’s (From Manchuria, northeastern region in modern China) rolled down and took over China from the Hans (dominant ethnic group in China) and formed the final Chinese dynasty, the Qing Dynasty. If you’ve ever watched any martial arts movies and wondered why all the Chinese shaved the front half of their heads and grew out the back of their air and braided it (called queues). Ethnic Hans were required to wear their hair in queues as a sign of showing loyalty to the Manchus.

Throughout Qing rule, underground societies and Han organizations formed to resist foreign Manchu rule. Within these organizations, the seeds for the first triads formed. In the 1760’s, the Tian Di Hui, or The Society of Heaven and Earth, formed with plans to overthrow the Manchus and restore Han rule. To represent the society, the Tian Di Hui used triangular imagery representing traditional Han Chinese values of harmony between the three levels, Heaven, Earth, and Man.

The Qing Dynasty eventually fell before a single physical act of rebellion ever took place, and the early patriotically driven societies lost their purpose. Aimless in China, the once patriotic societies degenerated into criminal organizations extorting money from the public. The newfound criminal organizations maintained much of the former patriotic societies’ triangular structure, and later became referred to as “Triads” by British officials in Hong Kong.

Triads in China, Tongs in Chinatown

As Chinese began immigrating to America in droves towards the middle of the 19^th century, American Nativists (a nicer way to saying “red necks”) maintained discriminatory practices to Asians as they have every other ethnic group that has come to America.

The Chinese immigrants, to defend themselves, formed Tongs to provide mutual support within the Chinese communities and to protect members from Nativist assaults. The Tong developed independently of Triads in Mainland China. But without ultimate goals themselves, Tongs soon turned to criminal activity as well and began involving themselves in human trafficking, gambling, extortion, prostitution and the like.

 

Well anyway, that’s enough of a history lesson for today. You can get most of this information from just watching the Youtube videos I’ve attached.

Enjoy!

The History Channel – Gangland: Chinatown

Gangland Homepage: http://www.history.com/minisites/gangland

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