Related Research Articles
A tong is a type of organization found among Chinese immigrants predominantly living in the United States, with smaller numbers in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. In Chinese, the word tong means "hall" or "gathering place". These organizations are described as secret societies or sworn brotherhoods and are often tied to criminal activity. In the 1990s, in most American Chinatowns, clearly marked tong halls could easily be found, many of which have had affiliations with Chinese organized crime.
The Chinatown centered on Grant Avenue and Stockton Street in San Francisco, California, is the oldest Chinatown in North America and one of the largest Chinese enclaves outside Asia. It is also the oldest and largest of the four notable Chinese enclaves within San Francisco. Since its establishment in 1848, it has been important and influential in the history and culture of ethnic Chinese immigrants in North America. Chinatown is an enclave that has retained its own customs, languages, places of worship, social clubs, and identity. There are two hospitals, several parks and squares, numerous churches, a post office, and other infrastructure. Recent immigrants, many of whom are elderly, opt to live in Chinatown because of the availability of affordable housing and their familiarity with the culture. San Francisco's Chinatown is also renowned as a major tourist attraction, drawing more visitors annually than the Golden Gate Bridge.
Laurence Michael Yep is an American writer. He is known for his children's books, having won the Newbery Honor twice for his Golden Mountain series. In 2005, he received the biennial Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal for his career contribution to American children's literature.
Like many other communities, the older Chinatowns face certain social problems. Although Chinatowns are now generally viewed and valued as tourist attractions, their earlier reputation was that of dangerous or dilapidated ghettos and slums, sites of brothels, opium dens, and gambling halls.
The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related shooting attack that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California. The five perpetrators, members of the Joe Boys, a Chinese youth gang, were attempting to kill leaders of the Wah Ching, a rival Chinatown gang. The attack left five people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom were gang members. Seven perpetrators were later convicted and sentenced in connection with the murders. The massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force, credited with ending gang-related violence in Chinatown by 1983. The restaurant itself closed in 2006.
Wah Ching, meaning Chinese Youth, is a Chinese American criminal organization and street gang that was founded in San Francisco, California in 1964. The Wah Ching has been involved in crimes including narcotic sales, racketeering and gambling.
Fred Harry Lau is a former Chief of Police for San Francisco, having served from 1996–2002. He was the first Asian American to ever hold that position, and has been called the first Chinese-American to lead the police in any major American city. In 2013, he became the TSA Federal Security Director of the San Francisco International Airport.
Raymond Kwok-Cheung Chow, nicknamed "Shrimp Boy", is a Hong Kong-born felon with ties to a San Francisco Chinatown street gang and an organized crime syndicate, including the American branch of the Hong Kong-based triad Wo Hop To and the Hop Sing Boys.
Peter Chong is an organized crime figure previously convicted of racketeering and extortion who has been described by prosecutors as the former leader of the Wo Hop To syndicate in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The Jackson Boyz, JBZ or Jackson Street Boys, JSB are or were a San Francisco, California based Asian American street gang and criminal organization The gang, composed of Cantonese and Vietnamese members, has been centered in San Francisco's Chinatown, and was named for Jackson Street. The Jackson Street Boys also have a presence in other U.S. cities.
The Joe Boys, or JBS, was a Chinese American youth gang founded in the 1960s in San Francisco's Chinatown. The Joe Boys were originally known as Joe Fong Boys, after its founder Joe Fong, a former member of the Wah Ching. Most of their members were born in Hong Kong or were of Hong Kongese descent.
Sam Wo is a Chinese restaurant located in San Francisco, California. The restaurant's first location on 813 Washington Street was famous for being a venerable mainstay in the local Chinatown area, having been in the same location since 1907. Sam Wo gained notoriety in the 1980s for being the employer of Edsel Ford Fung, who was known locally as the "world's rudest waiter". The restaurant was closed in 2012 due to safety concerns, and reopened in 2015 on nearby Clay Street.
San Francisco Chinatown: A Guide to Its History & Architecture is a book by Philip Choy, first published in 2012.
As of 2012, 21.4% of the population in San Francisco was of Chinese descent, and there were at least 150,000 Chinese American residents. The Chinese are the largest Asian American subgroup in San Francisco. San Francisco has the highest percentage of residents of Chinese descent of any major U.S. city, and the second largest Chinese American population, after New York City. The San Francisco Area is 7.9% Chinese American, with many residents in Oakland and Santa Clara County. San Francisco's Chinese community has ancestry mainly from Guangdong province, China and Hong Kong, although there is a sizable population of ethnic Chinese with ancestry from other parts of mainland China and Taiwan as well.
Crime in San Francisco is a public health issue.
The Dragon Gate is a south-facing gate at the intersection of Bush Street and Grant Avenue, marking a southern entrance to San Francisco's Chinatown, in the U.S. state of California. Built in 1969 as a gift from the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the style of a traditional Chinese pailou, it became one of the most photographed locations in Chinatown, along with the older Sing Fat and Sing Chong buildings.
The White Tigers were a Chinese American street gang that was prominent in New York City's Flushing, Queens and northern area of Chinatown from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s. They were formed in 1980 by immigrants from China of the ethnicity of Cantonese and Toisanese, and ABCs. They adopted the color white as their clothing to match the name of the set. Throughout the 80s, the gang was often engaged in bloody turf wars with other Queens gangs such as the younger Green Dragons. Their activities included extortion, kidnapping, illegal gambling, racketeering, drug trafficking, human trafficking, arson and murder.
The Boston Chinatown massacre or Tyler Street Massacre was a gang-related shooting in which five men were killed execution-style in a Boston Chinatown gambling den in the early morning hours of January 12, 1991. A sixth victim was seriously injured but survived. While no motive has been officially established, initial police reports and later FBI investigations indicated that the Ping On gang and one of the victims were vying for power in Boston Chinatown.
Joe Fong is a Macanese-American former gang leader who founded and led the Chung Ching Yee gang in Chinatown, San Francisco from 1971 until his arrest and incarceration in 1973, when he was eighteen years old. After his release in 1979, Fong attended college and graduate school.
Ping Yuen and North Ping Yuen form a four-building public housing complex in the north end of Chinatown, San Francisco along Pacific Avenue. In total, there are 434 apartments. The three Pings on the south side of Pacific were dedicated in 1951, and the North Ping Yuen building followed a decade later in 1961. Some of the largest murals in Chinatown are painted on Ping Yuen, which are prominent landmark buildings taller than the typical two- or three-story Chinatown buildings that date back to the early 1900s.
References
- ↑ Chao, Julie (9 March 1999). "Inside Chinatown's gangs". The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011.
- ↑ Associated Press. "Make first arrest in Golden Dragon Massacre 1977". The Hour-Norwalk, CT. Archived from the original on 29 April 2016. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
- ↑ "Inside Chinatown's gangs". sfgate.com. 1999-03-09. Archived from the original on 5 August 2011. Retrieved 11 March 2018.
- ↑ Notes from the Underworld Archived 2006-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ Wallace, Bill (23 June 2011). "Remembering Life Inside a Chinatown Gang". The San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
- ↑ Lee, Bill (1 April 2005). Born to Lose: Memoirs of a Compulsive Gambler. Hazelden Publishing. ISBN 9781592851539 . Retrieved 11 March 2018– via Amazon.
