Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU All Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 12-2019 More Than Hatchetmen: Chinese Exclusion and Tong Wars in Portland, Oregon Brenda M. Horrocks Utah State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Horrocks, Brenda M., "More Than Hatchetmen: Chinese Exclusion and Tong Wars in Portland, Oregon" (2019). All Graduate Theses and Dissertations.edu/etd/7671 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in All Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU.
For more information, please contact digitalcommons@usu. MORE THAN HATCHETMEN: CHINESE EXCLUSION AND TONG WARS IN PORTLAND, OREGON by Brenda M. Horrocks A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in History Approved: ______________________ ____________________ Colleen O’Neill, Ph. Angela Diaz, Ph.
Major Professor Committee Member ______________________ ____________________ Li Guo, Ph. Committee Member Vice Provost for Graduate Studies UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY Logan, Utah 2019 ii Copyright © Brenda Horrocks All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT More Than Hatchetmen: Chinese Exclusion and Tong Wars in Portland, Oregon by Brenda M. Horrocks, Master of Arts Utah State University, 2019 Major Professor: Dr. Colleen O’Neill Department: History During the middle to late nineteenth century, Chinese immigration hit record levels in the United States.
This led to the growth of Chinatowns across the West Coast. Many citizens and government leaders argued that Chinese immigrants posed a threat to the American way of life and took jobs away from white men. These fears stoked anti- Chinese sentiment and were driving factors for riots and massacres protesting Chinese immigrants. The Sinophobia culminated in the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, which strictly limited Chinese immigration.
To help adjust to a new country, increased limitations on their labor, and widespread discrimination, Chinese immigrants created associations centered on addressing the needs and providing services denied to them by local and federal government. One type of group formed, known as tongs, particularly focused on physical and economic protection. Historically, examination of the tongs reduced them to criminals, referring to them as the gangs of Chinatown. This thesis shows that tongs were more complicated and played an important role in Chinatown.
They provided protection for their members, legal assistance when necessary, and helped men find employment. Tongs often fought one another in conflicts known as iv tong wars during the late nineteenth and into the early twentieth centuries. Looking at Portland’s 1917 Tong War, this thesis examines how local government, tongs, and other Chinese organizations fought one another for control of Chinatown. During the 1920s, tong wars declined and by the late 1930s, tong wars ceased to exist.
Tong wars ended due to the improved circumstances of Chinese immigrants and their descendants. Individually, and as groups, Chinese immigrants fought against prejudice in their jobs and communities. They hired lawyers and fought discrimination in the courts. Federal and local legislative changes took place, including the overturn of the Chinese Exclusion Act by 1943, which allowed for new immigration and the opportunity for immigrants to become citizens.
As members relied less and less on tongs for protection and assistance, most tongs transitioned from being key pillars in Chinatown to simple fraternal orders. This work broadens understanding of immigrant communities and the responses of immigrants to discrimination. (113 pages) v PUBLIC ABSTRACT More Than Hatchetmen: Chinese Exclusion and Tong Wars in Portland, Oregon Brenda M. Horrocks During the middle of the nineteenth century, vast numbers of Chinese immigrants arrived on the west coast of the United States.
Here, they sought a better life for themselves and their families back home. The new arrivals often became targets of violence and discrimination as anti-Chinese sentiment grew in the country. Chinese immigrants protected and provided for themselves by creating a variety of organizations in their communities. One such organization became known as the tong.
Many groups organized themselves around family names, regional background, or employment, but tongs accepted anyone who wanted to join. The promise of physical protection, economic gain, and acceptance in a community incentivized many Chinese men to join tongs. Tongs provided a space in which Chinese men could reclaim masculinity and practice traditional gender roles. Faced with discrimination, physical abuse, marginalization, and governmental neglect, tongs filled the power vacuum in Chinese communities.
Tongs became powerful leaders within Chinatowns across the West. Beginning in the 1880s, tongs clashed with one another in events known as tong wars. By 1930, the era of tong wars came to an end. Once the powerhouse of the Chinese community, tong influence declined as Chinese residents successfully gained recognition, and fought back against racism and legislative discrimination.
During the twentieth century, tongs transitioned from groups focused on economic gain (often through vice) and physical protection of its vi members to a fraternal order within Chinatown. Examination of tongs, tong wars, and the reasons for their decline creates greater understanding of Chinese communities and a broader understanding of how immigrant communities respond to discrimination within communities, and denied governmental protection and assistance. vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my committee members, Dr. Colleen O’Neill, Dr.
Angela Diaz, and Dr. Li Guo for their mentoring, edits, and encouragement. O’Neill, thank you for your guidance and helping me to improve my writing. Thank you, Dr.
Diaz, for your example, and for opening my eyes to the importance of transnationalism. Guo, I am thankful for your enthusiasm, and for introducing me to new ways of thinking about my project. I offer my special thanks to the Utah State History Department. Over the years, numerous professors within the department have shaped my education and provided invaluable advice.
I am grateful to each of you. Thank you to the archivists at the National Archives in Seattle, for guiding me through the Chinese Exclusion records. I am indebted to the archivists at the City of Portland Archives, especially Mary Hansen. She seemingly knows everything about Portland, and patiently helped me track down a few hard-to-find documents.
Thank you, Mary, for our conversations and sharing your knowledge with me. I would also like to express my gratitude for those at the Oregon Historical Society, particularly Elerina Aldamar. Thank you for taking an interest in my project and helping me find what I need. It means a great deal to me.
This thesis could not have been completed without the support of my parents. I love you both. Special thanks to my cohort, who became a second family to me. Finally, to Jonathan, thank you for believing in me.
Brenda Horrocks viii CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT. iii PUBLIC ABSTRACT. A NEED FOR PROTECTION: VIOLENCE AGAINST CHINESE IMMIGRANTS. 13 The Early Arrivals.13 The Change of American Attitudes .15 Violence Towards the Chinese .19 Legislative Restrictions Against the Chinese .36 Costs Group Organization.
FIGHTING FOR CONTROL OF CHINATOWN .41 Chinese Organization and Tongs .42 Government Failings and Filling Community Needs .45 Incentives to Join .48 Tongs and Chinese Masculinity .50 Exclusionary Violence and Tong Assistance .58 Portland’s Tong War of 1917 .61 Opposing the Local Government. TONG TRANSITIONS: THE CHANGING NEEDS OF MEMBERS AND COMMUNITY. 71 Unsettled Peace and the Continuation of Conflict .72 Tong War in the Courtroom .76 The Death of Tong Wars.79 Successfully Contesting Discrimination .87 The Evolution of Tongs .90 ix Contested Authority: The CCBA and Tongs in Chinatown .91 Tongs, Triads, and Gangs .99 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION The War of the Tongs, a film featuring an all Chinese cast, first premiered on February 19, 1917. The movie was written by a Chinese American and shot in San Francisco’s Chinatown.
The film follows Wong Wing, a tea merchant’s clerk, as he falls in love with a girl named Suey Lee. Another man, Chin Ting, a rich landlord and head of a local Chinese fraternal association known as a tong, also desires Suey Lee. This struggle grows and becomes the central conflict between the opposing tongs. A tong war breaks out as fighting ensues between the two groups, resulting in the death of several men, and only in the final moments is Suey Lee saved from Chin Ting by her lover.1 Ironically, the film portrayed a romanticized version of a very real conflict taking place only one state away.
At the time of the film’s debut, fighting in Portland’s Chinatown between the allied tongs Hip Sings and Bow Leongs against the Hop Sings and Suey Sings was already well under way. Sparked by a skirmish in Portland in early February, the tong war of 1917 quickly spread through Chinatowns across the West Coast. War of the Tongs portrayed a glamorized version of tong wars. The film depicted tong wars as moral battles, fighting for true love, the involvement restricted to tong members, and devoid of outside participants.
However, the reality of tongs and tong wars proved messier. Fighting often broke out over debts, Chinatown residents often found themselves in the crossfire, and local government frequently involved themselves in the conflict. 1 Bruce Calvert, “War of the Tongs,” The Silent Film Still Archive, Last modified April 2, 2008.com/war_of_the_tongs. 2 This thesis seeks to explore the Chinese associations known as tongs, the reasons for their existence, and the roles they played within Chinatowns during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Simplistically classifying tongs as the criminal component of Chinatown ignores the important contributions of tongs to their communities.2 I argue that tongs provided an important role in the community by checking government overreach. Tongs also provided physical protection for its members, which local law enforcement routinely denied them. Tongs developed as a response to the pervasive hostility and discrimination that greeted Chinese immigrants upon their arrival to the United States. Denied fair wages, access to labor, and equal standing before the law, Chinese immigrants turned inward for protection and assistance, creating a variety of associations.
While many groups organized around a family name, or status, the tongs offered a more egalitarian approach as they accepted members regardless of their socioeconomic background and independent of family names. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the majority of tongs participated in numerous illegal activities, including opium smuggling, gambling, and illegal immigration. Disagreements frequently arose between tongs over control of these ventures. Often disagreements developed into physical confrontations known as tong wars that lasted anywhere from a few days to several months.
However, during the 1920s and 30s, the wars declined rapidly and then stopped. I argue that tong wars ended due to 2 Scott D. Seligman, Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money, and Murder in New York’s Chinatown (New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, 2016). In his book, Seligman focuses on the illegal activities of tongs, the violence of tong wars, and the need for local government to bring an end to it.
3 Chinese residents successfully fighting against discrimination, both on group and individual levels, in the courts as well as the workplace. Combating discrimination not only brought an end to tong wars, but also altered the nature of tongs themselves. As members ceased turning to their tongs for assistance, most evolved into simpler fraternal organizations. The first chapter of this thesis centers on the beginning of Chinese immigration to the western United States, discussing the discrimination immigrants faced at work and in communities, along with the legislative restrictions placed upon them.
As the Chinese immigrant population increased in the west, so did anti-Chinese sentiment. As disgruntled workers argued that Chinese immigrants stole jobs from white workers and posed a threat to communities, angry citizens rioted, protesting the presence of Chinese. The sinophobia of the era also developed into violent action against the Chinese, as massacres of Chinese residents occurred in parts of California, Wyoming, and Oregon during the late nineteenth century. Surrounded by a hostile environment, many Chinese residents learned English, joined Christian churches, and assumed western styles of dress and grooming.