|
· New Haven, Conn.: HRAF, 1994. CD-ROM(s)
· Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986. xv, 223 p.: ill., maps
A
guest from the Gold Mountain, if he has
not one thousand dollars, at least
he has
eight hundred. --
Gazetteer of Kaiping District
To
stay in a distant foreign country is a
tragedy long grieved since our
forefathers.
--General Li Ling of the Han Dynasty
The Chinese who came to America in the late nineteenth century were mainly poor peasants and workers who had to struggle to survive in the destitute circumstances of their times. The well-to-do Chinese gentry class--scholars, officials, and landowners--were the elite of Chinee society and had no need to leave their ancestral homes to pan for gold or to work in rail gangs in a distant land. But whether they were poor or rich, the Chinese rarely abandoned their homeland to search for another. When they went abroad, a wife and children frequently were left behind. Almost all emigrants hoped to return after having accumulated a fortune by trade or by labor in a foreign country. In America a Chinese laborer who could save up a few hundred dollars would consider it a small fortune and would usually retire to his native village in Guangdong. He could expect to spend his declining years surrounded by his filial sons and grandchildren, and when he died be laid to rest among the honored dead of a long ancestral line. Such a "situation-centered" Chinese culture, as cultural anthropologist Francis L.K. Hsu has called it, is quite different from the "individual-centered" American culture. 1 This cultural gulf was the source of much of the subsequent friction between Chinese immigrants and white Americans.
In spite of their strong ties to the homeland, Chinese
immigrants did not establish a miniature replica of traditional Chinese society
in America. They lived in an abnormal society full of young males, wandering
sojourners, whose dream was to put in a few years of hard labor and to return
home wealthy and respected "Gold Mountain Guests." This "sojourner's mentality"
had deep roots in Chinese cultural tradition. Nineteenth-century China was an
unsophisticated agrarian society. The great majority of the Chinese people still
embraced both Confucianism and Taoism, religious systems which, to a great
extent, reflected the inspirations and aspirations of peasants. A typical
peasant, who lived in a small rural village, rarely traveled, and had
insufficient knowledge of geography to go far unless he was directed or
accompanied by someone else. He idolized Lao Tze's famed Utopia in which "the
next place might be so near at hand that one could hear the cocks crowing in it,
the dogs barking; but the people would grow old and die without ever having been
there." 2
He observed Confucian filial duties as binding restrictions: "While father and
mother are alive, a good son does not wander far afield." 3
Emigration was generally looked upon as banishment, a severe punishment next
only to death. Out of these beliefs grew the concept of sojourning, an idea that
stressed the temporary nature of one's absence from home.
The Chinese sojourner's society in
America was markedly different from the home country in two ways. First, the
population was almost totally transient and, second, there was a great scarcity
of females. Mainly because of the seasonal or temporary nature of available
work, there was scarcely a Chinese laborer in America who had not lived in
several places along the coast. The fluidity of Chinese society was best
demonstrated by the phenomenal increase in the Chinese population in the 187os
and by the fact that every year hundreds of Chinese returned to their native
land because of seasonal unemployment. As a result, relatively few Chinese owned
property, real or personal, in America, a situation that often led to the
complaint of American local governments that the Chinese did not pay a fair
share of taxes. 4
This
social instability also made possible the rise of Chinese quarters or Chinatowns
in American cities. In the late 1870s, between onefifth and one-fourth of all
Chinese in the United States were in San Francisco; most of them resided in
seven or eight blocks of that city. The situation was more or less the same in
Sacramento and in other urban communities. In these small and often crowded
quarters, the Chinese built temples and public halls, established stores and
businesses, and opened restaurants and wash houses. They retained their native
customs and formed a nation within a nation; a tendency characteristic of all
immigrant groups in America. The men continued to wear their hair in queues--a
peculiar hairstyle imposed on them since the seventeenth century by their Manchu
conquerers--while most of their women practiced the tradition of foot-binding.
They also retained their national habits in food, reading, and mode of life, a
capsule of which was the popular reader titled Mirror of Mind.
This book was made up of selections from a great number of
Confucian writers. It also contained anonymous sayings and proverbs that had
been handed down by tradition. A work of twenty chapters, its subjects included:
"The Practice of Virtue," "Heaven by Rules," "Filial Duties," "On Restraining
the Passions," "Diligence in Study," "Peace and Righteousness," and "On
Sincerity." The book was much studied by all classes of Chinese; a quotation
from it was generally recognized and applauded in whatever company the quotation
might be repeated. 5
Confucian emphasis on reciprocity and
righteousness undoubtedly had exerted great influence on the Chinese immigrants,
some of whom frequently formed close and respectful personal relationships with
Americans. During the Civil War, Leland Stanford employed a 15-year-old Chinese,
Moy Jin Mun, as a garden boy. During his three years' service, Moy won the
affection of Mrs. Stanford, who wanted to adopt him. But Moy's older brother,
who had also cooked for the Stanfords, objected on the grounds that it would
violate Chinese custom. The brother sent young Moy away, but before Moy departed
the Stanfords gave him a gold ring as a token of remembrance. Moy Jin Mun
carefully kept the ring until his death in 1936. 6
A similar
story is that of Dean Lung, who was a long-time servant of General Horace
Walpole Carpentier, a Columbia University graduate and a successful California
entrepreneur. Carpentier retired in New York, taking with him his Chinese house
servant Dean Lung. One evening, in a drunken frenzy, Carpentier beat his servant
into unconsciousness. The next morning, when he regained his senses he was
surprised to find Dean Lung attending to his usual household chores. Carpentier
asked how he could prove his gratitude for Dean Lung's impeccable loyalty? Dean
Lung replied that he wished the general would do something to help the American
people understand Chinese culture and history. Carpentier subsequently donated
$10,000 to his alma mater in the name of Dean Lung. Dean Lung also contributed
his lifetime savings of $14,000, and in 1901 Columbia University established a
Chinese Department and a Dean Lung Professor-ship of Chinese Studies.
7
Typical products of Chinese culture, Moy Jin Mun and Dean Lung won the respect
of their American employers and displayed their strong sense of righteousness
and their fidelity, which were among several virtues the Chinese brought to
America.
Chinese festivals and
seasonal celebrations became important social events for the Chinese living in
America. The Chinese Lunar New Year, which usually falls in late January or
early February, was the occasion of a gala atmosphere in every Chinese-American
community. A thorough cleaning of the household ushered in each new year.
Workers, craftsmen, farmers, merchants, and professionals collected debts, paid
their bills, and settled all accounts in order to begin the year with a clean
slate. On New Year's Eve, a rich dinner which symbolized the hope for abundance
for the forthcoming year was attended, in cases where that was possible, by
every member of the family, and presents of money in red envelopes were
exchanged. But the height of the celebration took place on New Year's Day when
people put on their best clothes and offered greetings to relatives, friends,
and acquaintances. A dragon or lion parade was staged in the midst of thundering
firecrackers, designed to chase away evil spirits and bring good luck in the new
year. For several days, Chinatown would bloom with colorful lanterns and bright
banners; its inhabitants were aglow with smiles and optimism.
The Chinese also celebrated lesser festivals
while sojourning in America, although some observances have been slightly
modified. One favorite was Spring Festival, known also as Qingming or Pure and
Bright. This festival took place in early April; in it the Chinese paid respect
to the dead by visiting and sweeping the tombs. They also offered meat,
vegetables, cakes, fruit, and the like to the spirits of the dead. Flowers and
make-believe paper money were laid on the graves and, if the dead were cremated
and ashes preserved in a temple, incense was burned in front of the urns
containing the remains. Another popular festival was the May Fete, known also as
the Dragon Boat Festival. It occurred on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month.
The May Fete commemorated the patriotic deeds of an ancient poet named Ch'ü Yüan
(343-290 b.c.) who, after losing favor with his prince, drowned
himself in a river. Ever since, Chinese people have wrapped cooked rice in
leaves, rowed their boats out, and thrown this food into the river so that
hungry fish and spirits would not bother their dead hero. Finally, there was the
Mid-Autumn Festival, which took place on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar
month. It was a time for making and eating moon-cakes and for family reunions.
Women took this occasion to offer peanuts, melon seeds, water chestnuts,
sugarcane and other gifts to the Moon Goddess while men prayed for prosperity
and bright futures for their careers.
Between
the more elaborate festivals, Chinese immigrants took time from their work to
enjoy opera and other forms of Oriental music and to play chess. Chinese opera,
a dramatic art form that possesses the elements of action, dialogue, and
singing, was the most popular pastime among the Chinese working class. Most of
the opera plots were based on familiar stories, hence the audience could
actually learn a few lines from the actors and actresses; female roles were
usually played by beardless males. As San Francisco's Chinatown grew, several
theaters were built; one was called the Ascending Luminous Dragon, another
claimed to be the Newest Phoenix. Later, when opera became increasingly in
demand, traveling troupes were brought from China and regularly visited small
Chinatowns across the country. Chinese chess, which has 16 pieces on each side
and is quite similar to Western chess in rules and strategy, was widely played.
Any game was likely to draw a crowd of spectators. For those who did not like
chess, mah-jong was often an alternative amusement. Still a few others, who
brought Chinese musical instruments across the Pacific, could play moon guitar,
gong, harp, flute, and drum.
Life
in Chinatown was bustling, noisy, and colorful. A typical street included signs
advertising fortune tellers, barber shops, butcher shops, doctors' clinics, and
a variety of stores. For a few cents, a fortune-teller would predict a
customer's destiny, dissect the characters forming the customer's name, or read
his palms. For a few more cents, the fortune-teller could even decipher the
"eight diagrams" for his customer and could conjure up his dead relatives to
talk with him. Not far from the fortune-teller was a barber shop, whose trade
emblem was a washstand and basin placed just outside the doors. On the same
block, Chinese doctors and druggists abounded. Some specialized in feeling the
pulse and dispersing herbal prescriptions; others claimed to be experts in
curing wounds and fixing broken bones. Inside a typical Chinatown store were
scrolls hanging on the walls and Chinese characters written upon red papers
which were pasted on doors or over money chests. On the scrolls were quotations
from the classics and famous poets, while on the red papers were popular rhymed
verse, such as "Wealth Arising Like Bubbling Spring," and "Customers Coming Like
Clouds." Chinese merchants and customers frequently began their bargaining with
polite conversations about the quality of the scrolls and the philosophical
meaning of the verses.
Most Chinatowns also
included narrow streets or alleys given over to shabby apartments, dens for
opium smoking, gambling joints, and brothels. From these unsanitary areas came
the Chinese criminals; their existence had an important negative impact on the
image of the broader Chinese community. According to San Francisco police
records, which are probably typical, during the period from 1879 to 1910,
Chinese arrested on criminal charges constituted 8.8 percent of all arrests. Of
the Chinese arrested, only 11 out of 100 were convicted, the majority for
violations of municipal health and fire ordinances. The San Francisco Board of
Health was controlled by anti-Chinese physicians who credited "Chinatown with
introducing and disseminating every epidemic outbreak to hit San Francisco." To
them, Chinatown was more than a slum, it was "a laboratory of infection, peopled
by lying and treacherous aliens who had minimal regard for the health of the
American people." 8
But Dr. Joan B. Trauner has argued that the pronouncements by the Board of
Health were often characterized by political and social expedience, rather than
by social insight. The Chinese were made medical scapegoats in San Francisco.
9
Chinese wage earners, while holding
or looking for jobs, usually sought temporary accommodation in the most
inexpensive place possible. It was not uncommon for 15 or 20 bachelors to share
a small room. In San Francisco's Globe Hotel in the 1860s, some 300 to 400
transient Chinese laborers were housed in extremely congested conditions,
highlighting for the authorities their housing problems. In 1870, the California
legislature passed a "Cubic Air" law which required a lodging house to provide
at least 500 cubic feet of clear atmosphere for each adult person in an
apartment. When the Chinese landlords and lodgers resisted complying with the
law they were put into prison en masse. Later, the Cubic Air Board
adopted the notorious "Queue Ordinance" whereby every male prisoner was required
to have his hair cut by a clipper to a uniform length of one inch from the
scalp. In carrying out the ordinance, a San Francisco policeman named Matthew
Noonan cut the queue of Ho Ah-kow, a Chinese prisoner, to the very inch
prescribed in the ordinance. The Circuit Court in California in 1879 ruled that
the ordinance was unconstitutional and that Ho be awarded a $10,000 compensation
by Noonan and the San Francisco city government. 10
In addition to
housing-ordinance violations, Chinatowns were notorious gambling havens. The
most common forms of Chinese gambling were fan-tan and lottery. Fan-tan players
guessed the exact coins or cards left under a cup after the pile of cards had
been counted off four at a time. Fan-tan later became very popular among the
Japanese and Filipinos; some lost all their hard-earned money before they could
return to their native lands. The same consequences befell many a Chinese
worker; many were so impoverished they could not pay for their ashes to be sent
to their native villages in China for permanent burial. The lottery game was
also known as the white dover card sweepstakes. Any person who wished to enter
the game bought a randomly assigned sweepstakes number. In the lottery saloons,
about ten of which existed in 1868, drawings were held twice a day; and the odds
of winning were probably about the same as in modernday "keno" in a Las Vegas
casino. Many white Americans were attracted to the lotteries; but the
unquestioned winners were the saloon owners. There are indications that the
gambling-house operators received protection from corrupt police officers. In
his testimony before the California Senate Committee in 1876, a Chinese witness
estimated that there were about 200 Chinese gambling houses in San Francisco and
probably a dozen in Sacramento. He indicated that fantan gambling operators were
required to pay police officers $5 in "hush money" each week and lottery owners
$8 a month for the privilege of keeping their businesses open. 11
Another factor that contributed to a negative Chinatown image
was opium smoking. Originally introduced to China by English merchants from
India in the late eighteenth century, this vice not only drained gold and silver
out of China but enfeebled the Chinese population and demoralized their society.
When pressed by the English to legalize the opium trade, the Chinese Emperor
Daoguang (1821-1850) was reported to have vehemently exclaimed: "I know that
wicked and designing men, for purpose of lust and profit, will clandestinely
introduce the poisonous drug, but nothing under heaven shall ever induce me to
legalize the certain ruin of my people." 12
Chinese refusal to legalize the opium trade ultimately led to the infamous Opium
War, in which China suffered her first defeat at the hands of a European nation.
But the war did not solve the opium issue and for several years opium was not
contraband in the newly annexed British colony of Hong Kong, from where the
Chinese carried opium into the United States.
The
biggest supplier of opium was Hong Kong's Fook Hung Company, which annually paid
an opium monopoly tax of between 200,000 and 300,000 dollars to the British
authorities. Since the United States did not have specific laws against opium,
the drug was sold openly in the streets. Opium dealers did not advertise their
business, but smoking dens could easily be located by their red cards, which
announced: "Pipes and Lamps Always Convenient!" An 1876 estimate noted more than
200 opium dens operating in San Francisco's Chinatown; the addicts, mostly
Chinese, exceeded 3,000. 13
Although opium was not declared illegal until 1909, it was listed as "special
merchandise" on which the United States Customs imposed a heavy import duty. In
1887 a Chinese minister reported that, of the tariff revenues levied on Chinese
imports by the United States Customs, 840,000 Chinese silver dollars were for
rice, 150,000 for silk and cloth, and more than 750,000 for opium.
14
The high duty rate on opium encouraged smuggling. In 1886, the San Francisco
Customs authorities broke a smuggling ring and confiscated $750,000 worth of
opium. When the United States Congress finally banned opium, the price per pound
jumped from $12 to $70. The high price caused most of the opium dens to close
their doors; nevertheless, illicit activities continued because desperate
dealers knew how to operate around the law and squeeze profits from die-hard
addicts.
Another Chinatown social evil, prostitution, was
exacerbated by the shortage of Chinese women in America as Table 3 shows.
|
Year |
Number of Chinese males per 100 females |
|
1860 |
1,858 |
|
1870 |
1,284 |
|
1880 |
2,106 |
|
1890 |
2,678 |
|
1900 |
1,887 |
This skewed sex ratio of the Chinese population
existed even in Hawaii; there, in 1890, of the 16,752 Chinese, only 1,409 were
females and, in 1900, among the 25,767 Chinese, only 3,471 were females.
15
"There were more monks than rice porridge," as the Chinese described the
situation; prostitution was inevitable.
Prostitution, the world's oldest profession, was,
of course, not a unique Chinese vice All seriously deprived classes in American
society have been plagued by this evil. But anti-Chinese agitators in the late
nineteenth century nonetheless held the Chinese particularly culpable. They
charged that Chinese prostitutes, who demanded less money for their services,
spread the practice among young white males, exerting a bad influence on the
entire community. Whether such charges were true or not, government
investigations made clear that the Chinese were not solely responsible.
Prostitutes received protection from corrupt policemen and other officials and
could not have operated without such cooperation. 16
Chinese prostitutes were mostly
imported from Hong Kong and held under contract by underworld figures. The
Reverend Otis Gibson, who provided shelter for runaway Chinese prostitutes,
testified in 1876 before a special Congressional committee that he had seen some
of the contracts and found them to be replete with false promises and outright
fraud. Once in America, the girls were quartered in the small alleys of
Chinatowns, notably on Jackson Street of San Francisco and I Street of
Sacramento. They lived in small filthy rooms of 10 by 10 or 12 by 12 feet.
17
If the girls failed to attract customers, or refused to receive company because
of illness or other reasons, they were beaten with sticks. When such punishment
did not work, the house mistress tortured them in a variety of sadistic and
cruel ways. A great many, terrified by such savage treatment, ran away before
the expiration of their contracts. Some slipped back to China, others went to
the country for temporary hiding; the most fortunate found shelter in the Gibson
station-house. However, countless numbers of unfortunate girls were passed from
owner to owner, never escaping their vicious captivity.
It was impossible to ascertain the
exact number of the Chinese prostitutes in America. Conservative estimates put
the figure between 1,500 and 2,000 in 1870, but a Chinese official who visited
California in 1876 reported that there were approximately 6,000 Chinese women in
the United States and that 80 to 90 percent were "daughters of joy."
18
Although some municipal laws were passed and sporadic enforcement measures were
taken, the problems remained, mainly from police corruption and the ease with
which brothels were moved from place to place. Since there was no local supply
of Chinese women, some reformers hoped to end the evil by cutting off the supply
from Hong Kong and other Chinese ports. Consequently, in 1875 the United States
Congress passed the Page Law to stop women "of disreputable character" from
coming to America. Nevertheless, pimps continued to find ways to elude the
authorities, and prostitution, like opium, remained a problem in Chinatowns.
In order to protect the interests of brothel
owners, an association of Chinese villains, known in San Francisco as "the
highbinders," was formed. The highbinders, who lived off the prostitutes by
levying upon each girl a weekly fee, left behind them a trail of mayhem,
blackmail, and murder. It was this lawless element in Chinese society which led
many Americans, such as Frank M. Pixley, spokesman for the municipality of San
Francisco, to conclude: "I believe that the Chinese have no souls to save, and
if they have, they are not worth saving." Pixley's ethnocentric view of the
Chinese was typical of nineteenthcentury America; it was echoed in a special
Congressional committee report: "Upon the point of morals, there is no Aryan or
European race which is not far superior to the Chinese as a class."
19
Of course, such racist expressions were not unlike those of the chauvinistic
mandarins who, as late as the 1870s, continued to call the Europeans and
Americans "Western barbarians."
The problem was that
opportunistic American politicians could easily portray the Chinese opium
smokers, hookers, gamblers, and highbinders in San Francisco as typical
representatives of the Chinese race, just as the narrow-minded mandarins'
perception of Westerners was limited to a handful of European drunken sailors,
greedy American merchants, and unscrupulous vagabonds lurking in China's treaty
ports. In actual fact, the Chinese community in America consistently denounced
prostitution, gambling, and other vices which they knew gave Chinatown an
unsavory reputation. When Mayor Andrew J. Bryant of San Francisco childed the
Chinese leaders about prostitution problems, the president of one of the Six
Companies replied: "Yes, yes, Chinese prostitution is bad. What do you think of
German prostitutes, French prostitutes, Spanish prostitutes, and American
prostitutes? Do you think them very good?" 20
Realizing the harm prostitution had done to their community, several Chinese
civic groups, such as the Chinese Society of English Education, the Chinese
Students' Alliance, Chinese Native Sons, and Chinese Cadet Corps, took steps in
the late 1890s to drive the practice out of Chinatowns. Leaders of these
organizations monitored the wharfs to prevent suspicious Chinese women from
landing, while young students went directly to the brothels, destroying
buildings and furnishings, to drive out the offenders. Such actions were
dubiously legal and probably inefficient, but fair-minded Americans could not
deny that most Chinese immigrants were as opposed to corruption and vice in
their communities as was anyone else. Furthermore, Chinese lawless activities,
which were part of the unsettled frontier society, were more of an American than
a Chinese phenomenon.
As soon as the Chinese arrived in
America, church workers sought to convert them to Christianity, but the majority
of nineteenth century Chinese retained their religious traditions, which were
syncretic, tolerant, and nondogmatic. Chinese religious concepts pictured the
universe as a trinity of heaven, earth, and man; heaven directs, earth produces,
and man cooperates. When man cooperates, he prospers; on the other hand, if man
does not cooperate, he destroys the harmonious arrangements of the universe and
suffers the consequences in the form of natural disasters, such as floods,
droughts, and famines. Heaven replaces the Judeo-Christian concept of God. In
Confucianism, one of the most important duties of the Chinese emperor was to
maintain the proper relationship beween himself and heaven. By moral conduct, he
set an example and maintained harmony between the processes of heaven and of
mankind. Hence, the emperor was called the Son of Heaven; his life had cosmic,
universal significance, not merely national, and he ruled with the Mandate of
Heaven. Within this general context, a Confucian could be an agnostic or even an
atheist, or he might worship a variety of local deities.
Confucianism allowed the widest individual discretion in matters of
personal belief, and paid little attention to matters of God and afterlife. This
tolerance was difficult for Christians to understand because they generally
demanded an unflinching faith in a fixed creed. 21
The Chinese also practiced Taoism, a religious idea
centering around a search for a long and serene life, to be attained through
simplicity, tranquility, and harmony with nature. Some Taoists pursued not only
health but immortality, or at least longevity, by means of physical exercise,
breathing control, diet, alchemy, the use of medicine, and good deeds. Having no
sense of orderly divine revelation, Chinese Taoists resorted to extreme means to
ascertain the future. Various kinds of divination developed, such as the use of
phrenologists, geomancy readers, physiognomists, mediums, and fortunetellers.
Taoists also promoted the multiplication of gods and goddesses, and believed
that famous people enter their pantheon after death. Accordingly, most Taoists
did not have an overpowering attachment to any one deity. 22
Many Chinese were also influenced by yet another
religion, Buddhism. The fundamental truths on which Buddhism was founded are not
metaphysical or theological, but rather psychological. Buddha taught that
suffering results from desire; therefore, the goal of his religion is the
extinction of desire, the end of pain, and entry into nirvana. After its
Sinicization, Buddhism played down its foreign elements and made itself as
Chinese as possible. The abstract concept of nirvana was replaced by a concrete
idea of happiness, hence the Western Heaven of Amida Buddha was given
prominence. 23
Chinese Buddhism increasingly accommodated itself to the already present
Confucian and Taoist beliefs by the Later Han Dynasty (A.D. 25-220) and the
three great religions survived and generally mingled peacefully into modern
times. It was entirely possible for a Chinese to consider himself a loyal
adherent to all three systems. The Chinese call this the harmony of the Three
Teachings; they developed a classical, syncretic religious tradition. Many
Chinese therefore had a Confucian cap, wore a Taoist robe, and put on a Buddhist
sandal.
With such a seemingly rational religious tradition in China,
it is understandable that American missionaries had difficulty in converting the
Chinese to the more exclusive and dogmatic Christianity. But they quickly seized
the opportunities afforded by racial discrimination and social injustice as
issues to make their Christian God omnipresent to the Chinese immigrants, and to
act as liaison between Chinatowns and white society. Among the more prominent
early Christian workers were the Speers, the Loomises, and the Gibsons. In 1852
Dr. and Mrs. William Speer, who had been Presbyterian missionaries in Canton
from 1846 to 1850, established a medical clinic in their San Francisco mission
to try to gain influence in the Chinese community. They also established a
newspaper called The Oriental, a bilingual periodical with printed matter
suited to American readers on one side of the paper and the other side printed
in Chinese for Chinese readers. They worked hard to allay prejudice and to help
the Chinese and the Americans better understand each other. Because of Speer's
poor health, the paper operated for only two years; the clinic was closed after
four years. 24
In 1859, the Speers' mission was reestablished under
leadership of the Reverend A. W. Loomis and his wife, also former missionaries
to China. They set up a free school to teach the Chinese the English language
and the gospel. Their activities set a precedent that was followed by most of
the Chinese Christian churches. In 1868 the Reverend Otis Gibson organized a
Methodist Episcopal Church in the San Francisco Chinatown with a social-welfare
program to aid the poor; similar mission programs were also established by the
Reverend W. C. Pond for the Congregational Church and by the Reverend John
Francis of the Baptist Church. Social programs, however, did not result in mass
conversions of Chinese to Christianity, but did slowly expand church influence
in the Chinese community. By 1892 Chinese were listed as members of 11
denominations in North America and had established 10 independent congregations
and 271 Sunday Schools in 31 states of the Union. The expansion of Chinese
Christian faith was accompanied by the appearance of numerous denominational
associations. By the turn of the century, the Association of the Presbyterian
Mission, for instance, claimed to have a membership of more than 1,000 in 12
states. 25
Impressive as these gains seemed, many Chinese Christians continued to hold
syncretic religious views; Christians frequently practiced ancestor worship,
followed traditional Chinese wedding and funeral rituals, and paid occasional
respect to Taoist gods in Chinese temples. Before World War II, except among the
native-born, orthodox Chinese Christians in America were still scarce.
In
addition to loyalty to their own religious traditions, Chinese resisted
Christianity because of sojourner mentality, American racism, and community
pressure. For a sojourner, his mind, heart, and soul remained in China, and he
satisfied his social and psychological needs through clan/family organizations
and community activities. This mentality was reinforced by flagrant anti-Chinese
racism. If the Chinese were encouraged to go to the white man's heaven, why
could they not freely immigrate to the white man's country? In his reasoning,
the Chinese immigrant could discern a patent hypocrisy among white Christians
whose Bible taught justice and love but whose deeds against the Chinese were a
shameful and undeniable record of injustice and violence. Finally, community
pressure was also an important reason for the church's failure to convert large
numbers of Chinese immigrants. Leaders of the Six Companies, for example, viewed
Christianity as a threat to Chinese culture and Chinese social institutions. On
a few occasions they made desperate moves, using harassment and social ostracism
to discourage the increase of Chinese Christians. 26
The Six Companies' attempt to dissuade early
Chinese immigrants from becoming Christians was only one of the hundreds of
incidents that placed this powerful organization at the center of controversy.
Chinese immigrants were not only socially and economically divided, they also
represented a variety of regions, cultures, and languages. The rich and more
respectable merchants were generally the San-yi (from the three districts of
Nanhai, Panyu, and Shunde), the petty merchants, craftsmen, and agriculturalists
were mainly among the Si-yi (from the four districts of Enping, Kaiping, Taishan or Xinning, and
Xinhui) while the laboring class came from a variety of regions. For example,
the San-yi people at times controlled wholesale merchandising, the garment
industry, and overall manufacturing. The Hakkas (Guest Settlers) dominated the
barber business; the tenant farmers engaging in fruit growing in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta were mostly Zhongshan immigrants. 27
Each region
spoke its own local variation of Cantonese, so there was a basic correspondence
between Chinese class structure and dialect groups. The people
from Guangzhou (Canton) and the San-yi spoke Cantonese, and that dialect came to be
considered standard. Most people from Zhongshan district, about 30 miles south
of Guangzhou, spoke a dialect closely resembling
the standard Cantonese, but the surrounding countryside spoke a dialect akin to Amoy. Except
in the Sacramento Delta and Hawaii, the Zhongshan immigrants have always been a
minority in America's Chinese communities. On the other hand, the Si-yi people,
who made up the bulk of Chinese immigrants, spoke a dialect almost totally
incomprehensible to the city dwellers. Finally, among these heterogeneous groups
were the Hakkas. Originally migrating from North China, the Hakkas were quite
scattered with strong concentrations in Jiaying and Chaozhou and other districts
of Guangdong province and Fujian province. They spoke a dialect more akin to
Mandarin than the other groups. Though the Hakkas never comprised more than 10
percent of the Chinese population in the continental United States, they made up
about 25 percent of the Chinese in Hawaii. 28
Among these dialect
groups there was a long history of rivalry, and sometimes conflict. The
Cantonese called themselves Puntis, which meant "the natives," and considered
the Hakkas invaders. The Hakkas and the Puntis had long felt hostile to each
other in China, and a dreadful internecine strife between them had taken place
in the southwestern districts of Guangdong from 1864 to 1868. Both parties
procured arms and even armed steamers from Hong Kong, and inflicted heavy
casualties on each other.
The instability of the bachelor society and the dialect/regional divisions in America were cornerstones of the social organizations that emerged. In China, social organizations were normally formed on the basis of a common regional origin. One of the most important types of organization was the huiguan. A huiguan was a traditional and lawful association of fellow-provincials away from home, either visiting or on business. In the nineteenth century, when mercantile pursuit was not encouraged by Confucian ethics, the status of merchants was much lower than that of scholars, officials, and landowners. Since there were no specific laws to protect their interests, merchants needed patronage from officials, who could benefit from certain financial arrangements the merchants might consider it wise to make. As a result, in major Chinese cities all kinds of huiguan were organized by merchants. In Shanghai, for example, one could find the Canton Huiguan, the Ningpo Huiguan, the Fijian Huiguan, and the like.
A second basis of social organization in China, and a much tighter one, rested on a coincidence between blood and region. In an agrarian society, the people of any one clan, those claiming a common ancestor, usually inhabited a village or cluster of adjacent villages. Agnatic descendants maintained these lineage alignments by keeping a common estate and by forming a clan association for the control, protection, and general welfare of their kinsmen. Another basis of organization, again agnatically defined, was the blood-ties association. Chinese who have the same surname, though they might come from different parts of China, could organize a huiguan on the grounds that they had a common ancestor in the distant past. In the modern city of Taibei, Chinese mainlanders have formed many such associations since 1949. The same situation existed when the Chinese emigrated to America.
When a Chinese
laborer arrived in the United States, the first thing he did was to seek people
who spoke his dialect,
and a bond of solidarity soon arose. This tendency was naturally strengthened by
his inability to communicate with Americans and those speaking other Chinese
dialects. The linguistic bond accounted to a great degree for the rise of so
many huiguans in Chinese communities. It is believed that in 1851 an influential
Si-yi leader named Yu Laoji founded the first huiguan, the Kong Chow Company (or
Gangzhou Huiguan), in San Francisco with membership open to all Chinese except
San-yi and Hakkas. Within a year, the more affluent San-yi immigrants organized
their Sam Yup Company (or Sanyi Huiguan) with branches in San Francisco and
Stockton. 29
In 1853, the Si-yi immigrants felt that the Kong
Chow Company could no longer accommodate their needs, so more than 10,000 of
them organized a new huiguan called the Sze Yup Company (or Siyi Huiguan).
Shortly thereafter, the Zhongshan immigrants founded their own Yeong Wo Company
(Yanghe Huiguan) and the Hakkas their Yan Wo Company (or Renhe Huiguan).
30
With the founding of these last two organizations a huiguan existed for all
Chinese in America. Near the end of 1853 the presidents of these various
organizations (Kong Chow Company excluded) met to form a federal association
called the Four Houses. Then, in 1854, over 3,000 Taishan natives left the Sze
Yup Company in order to form a more exclusive huiguan, the Ning Yeung Company
(or Ningyang Huiguan). The Ning Yeung Company proved so successful that the rest
of the Taishan people
soon joined it, leaving the Sze Yup Company defunct; ultimately the Sze Yup
Company lost its representation on the council of the Four Houses to the Kong
Chow Company. 31
The spin-off process continued when, early in 1862, the remaining Kaiping and
Enping Chinese left the Sze Yup Company to form yet another huiguan called the
Hop Wo Company (or Hehe Huiguan). Soon after that, both the Ning Yeung Company
and the Hop Wo Company joined the four Houses, which changed its Chinese name to
the Zhonghua Huiguan and its English name to the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent
Association; it was widely known to Americans as the Chinese Six Companies. A
similar evolution took place in the Hawaiian Islands among the Chinese
plantation workers, who also established a Chinese Consolidated Benevolent
Association. When the Chinese in America ventured farther to the East Coast,
they carried their huiguan identifications with them and quickly founded
clan/district associations in Boston, New York, and other cities.
In addition to the Six Companies,
the Chinese established the Zhonghua Gongsuo, Congress of the Six Companies,
consisting of elected officials of the huiguan organizations. Housed in a
building at 709 Commercial Street in San Francisco, this congress had a
permanent he adquarters and full-time officials, as with each of the six
companies. All matters affecting the general interests of the Chinese in America
were referred to this body. It settled disputes between individuals and the
companies, decided strategies for contesting or seeking relief from
unconstitutional or burdensome laws, devised ways to curb the importation of
prostitutes, and arranged for public dinners and other celebrations.
32
Anti-Chinese partisans claimed that the Six
Companies extended oriental despotism to the United States, placing Chinese
laborers under tyrannical control. They accused the Six Companies of importing
"coolies" and prostitutes under contract; of operating gambling and opium dens;
of establishing secret tribunals and codes of laws; and of illegally extorting
money from Chinese immigrants. A. W. Loomis, who worked in the Chinese community
for years, branded such charges "popular fallacies" and "groundless assertions."
33
In fact, the huiguan was designed to protect newly arrived kinsmen and
fellow-provincials from those who otherwise might take advantage of them. The
company building, therefore, served the same functions as the caravansary of
Eastern countries in the Middle Ages.
As soon as an immigrant
ship arrived from China, the company sent an interpreter to the wharf to welcome
the arrivals. In the company headquarters, the new immigrants were furnished
water, fuel for cooking, and a room in which to spread their mats. Chinese
laborers from inland towns and mining camps, embarking for return to China,
often stayed in the company houses instead of in the more expensive boarding
houses. The sick and indigent were also welcomed; the idle and irresponsible,
however, were quickly weeded out. The company houses forbade the concealment of
stolen goods. No strangers could be brought to lodge; no gunpowder or other
combustible material stored. Gambling, accumulation of baggage, drunkenness,
storage of victuals, and disposal of garbage were not allowed. Serious offenders
were turned over to the police of the city; lesser offenses could result in
expulsion from the company. For all except transients and invalids, the
membership fee was $10, in the 1850s. Finally, members intending to return to
China were required to make that fact known, so their accounts could be examined
and measures taken to prevent their departure if debts remained unpaid.
34
In
most of the company buildings there were special sections devoted to religious
purposes. These areas were furnished by voluntary contributions and were not
usually provided for in the constitutions of the companies. However, as a means
of gaining prestige among their fellow-provincials, wealthy merchants, whether
or not they were believers in idols, gave money to religious causes. Some
individuals obtained the privilege of taking care of the idols and earned money
from the sale of incense sticks, candles, and charms, and from donations and
fees from worshippers. In some company buildings an apartment was devoted to
worship of the spirits of deceased members. In it was an altar before which a
light was constantly kept burning. Friends
and relatives of the deceased made offerings on the
altar, behind which was the list of names of the company members who had died.
Because of religious beliefs and strong ties to China, bones of the deceased
were usually exhumed as soon as possible and sent home for permanent burial. But
gathering bones of the dead and sending them back to China was not a part of the
work undertaken by the company. Clan or blood-ties groups represented in America
in some instances undertook separately the performance of this obligation; but
very many remains were sent home by personal friends in America, the expenses
being paid by relatives in Guangdong. 35
The Six Companies kept a
register of names and addresses of all the Chinese in the United States; in
1876, for instance, it listed a total of 150,130. Li Gui, a Chinese official on
his return trip from the Philadelphia Exposition, interviewed leaders of the Six
Companies, and noted in his travel journal: "The Chinese of both sexes in
America amount to a total of about 160,000, of which roughly 40,000 reside in
San Francisco, 100,000 in other cities, and the rest spread out in the
hinterlands . . . Only about 2,000 non-Cantonese do not belong to the Six
Companies." 36
Two years after Li Gui's visit, the first Chinese minister to arrive in San
Francisco recorded these population statistics in his diary: "Sam Yup Company
has 12,000 members, Yeong Wo 13,000, Kong Chow 16,000, Yan Hop a few thousands,
Hop Wo Company has 40,000, and Ning Yeung 70,000." 37
The leaders of the Six
Companies were mostly successful businessmen who were wealthier and better
educated than most of their fellow immigrants; many occupied positions of honor
and power. However, realizing that in the old country they would not have a high
social status, these merchant huiguan leaders promoted Confucian ideology,
stressing the importance of clan/regional ties and choosing the company
president from among those members who had obtained the best Chinese education.
By the 1890s the huiguan made efforts to bring from China scholars who had
successfully passed the Chinese civil-service examinations, to serve as company
officials. In 1906, for example, there were four Juren (holder of the second
examination degree) among the company presidents and they were paid handsomely
for coming to America. Of the 14 presidents of the Sam Yup Company from 1881 to
1927, three had Jinshi degrees (holder of the first examination degree), nine
had Juren degrees, and one had a Gongsheng degree (holder of the third
examination degree). 38
The Six Companies
were often viewed as secretive, extralegal organizations because they arbitrated
cases of misunderstanding or quarrels among the Chinese. The fact that thousands
of Chinese acquiesced in the huiguan arbitration decisions led many white
Americans to believe that the Chinese in America feared jurisdiction of the
companies more than they did American laws or courts. Such Americans did not
understand the strong Chinese tradition of respect for elders, superiors, and
all those who occupied positions of authority and honor. Moreover, since Chinese
laborers were frequently represented in economic matters by the Six Companies,
those officials became the natural representatives to resist, in any possible
way, legal impositions and social indignities imposed upon the Chinese
immigrants. Accordingly, the huiguan officials often attended to cases in the
civil courts, hiring American lawyers and assuming responsibilities for legal
costs. Thus many poor and illiterate Chinese laborers who could not afford to
retain an attorney were defended in the courts. One of the leading scholars on
the Chinese Americans, Stanford M. Lyman, correctly characterized the Six
Companies as "an official government inside Chinatown and . . . the most
important voice of the Chinese immigrants speaking to American officials."
39
Before the establishment of the Chinese legation
at Washington, D.C., in 1878, the Six Companies functioned as representatives
for the whole Chinese population in America. After the Qing emperor sent
diplomatic agents to this country, the Six Companies and the Chinese legation
worked together and continued to control the internal affairs of the Chinatowns.
Whenever a high-ranking official visited or passed through California, the Six
Companies leaders seized the opportunity to entertain and consult with him. As a
matter of fact, the Qing imperial decrees and proclamations were, in most cases,
conveyed to the Chinese through the Six Companies. Nevertheless, the leadership
of the Six Companies began to shift its allegiance to the anti-Manchu forces in
1911.
San Francisco early
became and long remained the cultural center of Chinese Americans. However, by
the end of the nineteenth century, there were communities of Chinese in other
American cities, and these communities, because of their small sizes and
sectional characteristics, did not always follow the pattern of San Francisco.
Clan competition was characteristic of the larger Chinese communities in such
cities as San Francisco and Honolulu, but small Chinatowns were usually
dominated by a single clan/regional association and, therefore, had fewer
conflicts. Although such communities maintained close political, economic, and
social ties to San Francisco's Chinatown, they enjoyed a local autonomy. For
instance, theoretically, all Chinese clan/regional associations in America
belonged to an umbrella organization called the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent
Association (CCBA) with headquarters in San Francisco. The CCBA in Honolulu or
in New York, however, probably paid only lipservice to San Francisco's CCBA. On
certain controversial issues they functioned as autonomous and holistic
entities.
Although the Six Companies were the most
important and most famous, Chinese immigrants designed a wide variety of other
organizations to meet their needs in the new world. Typical were benevolent
societies, clan/family groups, trade and craft guilds, and several secret
societies. In 1903 the eminent Chinese scholar Liang Qichao visited San
Francisco and reported the existence within Chinatown of 10 public Chinese
organizations (including the Six Companies), 2 trade organizations, 9 benevolent
organizations, 24 clan organizations, 9 combined clan (blood-ties)
organizations, 25 secret societies, and 5 cultural societies. 40
Most of these organizations were called longs, which means hall or parlor.
Because of the proliferation of tongs, there was much confusion about the use of
the word. The American public often identified a tong as a group of criminals
who lived off the opium smugglers, gamblers, and prostitutes. But the
clandestine organizations of the so-called highbinders or hatchet men actually
constituted only a small percent of the Chinese tongs in America. Furthermore,
even these martial tongs had religious aspects and political origins as
distinctively Chinese as the Six Companies.
In traditional China the secret society was an underground
seditious organization directed against unpopular government authority. The
societies constantly changed their names to divert the attention of the
authorities. In the nineteenth century the most prominent included the Pure
Water Society, Small Dagger Society, Big Sword Society, and Copper Coins
Society. The origins of these societies are shrouded in mystery, but it is
generally believed that Chinese secret societies in America stem from the
notorious Triad Society of South China. The Triad Society was originally a
quasireligious fraternity established in the seventeenth century by a sect of
militant Buddhist monks of the Shaolin Monastery in the Fuzhou area. The name
Triad, or Three United Society, is apparently derived from the trinity of
Heaven, Earth, and Man; hence, it was also known as the Society of the Three
Dots and as the Heaven and Earth Society. Because of its connection with the
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) founded by the Emperor Hongwu, it also received the
names Sect of Hong, Family of Hong, and Red League. 41
The Triad Society, or the Hong League, was in some ways like
Freemasonry, professing such virtuous aims as obeying heaven and acting
righteously. Bound by oaths of blood-brotherhood, the members pledged to
overthrow the Manchus and restore the Ming house to the throne. This goal was
captured in such slogans as "By patriotism and loyalty we support the Han House,
with unity and cooperation let us annihilate the Qing Dynasty." The Hong League
led several rebellions against the Qing regime in the late seventeenth century,
but was defeated by the superior forces of the government. Many members paid
with their lives for their audacity; others went underground or escaped abroad.
In spite of these setbacks, Hong League loyalists embraced the idea of
nationalism and preached it, handing it down from generation to generation.
42
When transplanted overseas, the Hong League generally lost
its religious and political significance and became rather a fraternal order
which offered aid to travelers and the indigent. In America secret societies
were sometimes organized to unite members of minority family clans against
economic exploitation, including the invasion of their business interests by a
major family group. Since the American West lacked effective legal institutions,
the secret societies grew into mafiatype organizations, using violence and
intimidation to punishing enemies and to accumulate wealth. Emphasizing
fraternity and mutual assistance, the secret society had a three-point code:
secrecy, help in time of trouble, and respect for one another's womenfolk. This
code had its legendary origin in the third century a.d., when
China was divided into Three Kingdoms. Three strangers, named Liu Bei, Guan
Gong, and Zhang Fei, met in a peach garden and bound themselves under an oath of
brotherhood to be loyal to each other until death, to save the declining Han
Dynasty and to serve the people. Guan Gong was later idolized as the God of War
and as the symbol of loyalty and integrity. The Shaolin monks and Ming loyalists
of the seventeenth century perpetuated the code when they founded the Triad
Society. 43
According to Liang Qichao, many members of the Hong League
went overseas after the defeat of the Taipings in 1864. 44
Taiping historian Ling Shanqing wrote:
Yang Fuqing, the younger brother of Eastern King Yang Xiuqing
. . . in the seventh month of 1864, changed clothes and escaped out of the
fallen city of Huzhou with a foreigner. He went to Shanghai, then Hong Kong, and
from there he emigrated to San Francisco. After selling his jewels he got more
than a hundred thousand dollars. Using this fortune, he started the Three United
Society, a secret society aiming to rebuild the Taipings . . . Through this
secret society, he supported many Chinese who came to America. 45
The date of the founding of the first Hong
League in America is still debated. It is generally believed that even before
Yang Fuqing came to America, followers of another Taiping general, Chen Jingang
of Guangdong, had founded the first Hong League lodge at Barkerville, Canada.
But the celebrated San Francisco Chee Kung Tong, or I Hsing or Patriotic Rising
Society, was probably not founded until 1863, by either Lin Yin or Luo Yi.
Others maintain that the lodge of the Hong League began in the Rocky Mountain
mining communities and subsequently moved to Chinese settlements in northern
Montana and Canada. It is even possible that an authentic Hong League
organization was in full operation in British Vancouver as early as 1858.
46
It is not clear, then, whether the secret societies in
America were simply different branches of the parent Triad of China or emanated
from one branch of the Triad which first came to the New World. It is evident,
however, that the American Hong League was never a united body; it developed as
several separate societies, each claiming membership in the Triad family and
acting independently of the others. American ethnologist Stewart Culin notes
that by the 1880s Hong League organizations were active not only along the
Pacific Coast but in most major American cities. There was the Yi Xing or
Righteous Rise in Philadelphia, which adopted the name Hongshun Tong, or Hall of
Obedience to Hong, for its lodge. The New York Triad group called its
headquarters Lianyi Tong or Hall of United Righteousness, while the lodges in
Boston and Baltimore, which were handsomely decorated with votive tablets, were
said to have been founded by the same elderly man. In the mid-West the Triad
societies, notably those in St. Louis and Chicago, chose Hongshun Tong as their
names. 47
One interesting aspect of the secret society was
its unique Cantonese origins, a fact that has long intrigued Chinese officials
and American writers. According to Ji Ying, the Chinese Imperial Commissioner
who concluded a treaty in 1842 with the British to end the Opium War, the
Cantonese were "violent and obstinate," and "all classes were fond of brawls and
made light of their lives." He also characterized them as a people who "loved to
display their spirit and bravery," making them "habitual disturbers of the
peace." 48
Other Chinese officials, such as Minister Zhang Yinhuan, noted the same
Cantonese qualities--clannishness, courage, and alertness--qualities which had
in the past fitted them as leaders of rebellion and underworld activities. When
these qualities were transplanted overseas, combined with racial solidarity and
tightly guarded directorates, the secret societies became powerful
organizations. They commanded allegiance, collected money, and controlled
external relations of the overseas Chinese. Indeed, secret societies reflected
the peculiar genius of the Cantonese for political organization and social
control. The secret societies confined their interests exclusively to the
Chinese population and rarely terrorized non-Chinese residents. Their
intersociety feuds, however, were so frequent that the so-called tong wars were
viewed with alarm by outsiders.
It is not
clear when true tong wars began in America, but, by the late 1880s, the word
"tong" had come to have negative connotations outside of Chinatowns. Actually,
in the long list of Chinese tong organizations a large number remained
altogether free from intersociety feuds and unlawful activities. These were
often referred to as the nonfighting tongs. 49
Even so, it was difficult for outsiders to distinguish a militant tong from a
pacific one. This difficulty was compounded by overlapping membership, since
many people belonged to more than one tong. A respectable merchant, for
instance, had automatic membership in one of the Six Companies; he probably held
membership also in one or two benevolent tongs and at least one clan tong. He
might also join a secret society tong for protection against fighting tongs.
Economic motives and the preservation of clan prestige were the most important
causes of tong violence. Accounts of battles arising from these causes were
indeed numerous. In early May, 1869, for example, a battle occurred between two
rival groups of Chinese railroad workers near Camp Victory in Utah. The dispute
erupted over a $15 debt owed by a member of one tong to a member of a rival
tong. After the usual braggadocio, both parties sailed in, at a given signal,
armed with every conceivable weapon. Several shots were fired and all
indications of the outbreak of a riot appeared until a superintendent of the
Central Pacific restored order and averted a major disturbance. 50
The tong wars began escalating in the
1880s. For several years the Six Companies attempted to make peace among the
tongs, but to no avail. The problems eventually drew the attention of Chinese
officials when a vicious San Francisco tong feud in 1886 resulted in heavy loss
of lives and property. The Chinese legation in Washington issued a proclamation
warning that if "gangsters" continued these senseless feuds, the guilty would be
deported to China and their relatives in Guangdong would also be held
responsible. 51
The proclamation did little to quell the increasing violence in Chinatowns; more
and more Chinese were jailed because of their involvement in the intertong
strife. One consul-general named Zuo Geng decided to spy on the troublemakers
and tipped off American officials to aid in arrests and quick convictions.
Another, named He You, resorted to the radical method, which authorized Chinese
officials to jail the gangsters' relatives in Guangdong for crimes allegedly
committed in America. Measures such as these helped to combat the tong wars and,
by 1900, violence in America's Chinatowns had declined dramatically.
52
Furthermore, by the turn of the century, there were more native-born Chinese
Americans and they were less easily intimidated by criminal elements. Since
1921, tong wars have been practically nonexistent in American Chinese
communities. 53
With the passing of the fighting tongs, a new era of healthier growth in
Chinatowns had begun.
Looking at these community
organizations, it is clear that the Chinese sojourners tried to maintain
indigenous Chinese culture in a hostile new land. Chinese values, norms and
historically derived beliefs were distinctly expressed in their political,
social and religious behavior. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz, in relating
culture to behavior, wrote: "Culture is best seen not as complexes of concrete
behavior patterns. . . but as a set of control mechanisms--plans, recipes,
rules, instructions (what computer engineers call 'programs')--for the governing
of behavior." 54
Chinese informal political organization of the Six Companies, the subterranean
social structure of the tongs, and the fact that the Chinese embraced
traditional Chinese religions instead of Christianity set them off from the
American mainstream.
These community
organizations were designed to meet all the needs of Chinese residents and to
promote their interests. But because they were based exclusively on Chinese
ethnicity, the Chinese ended up exploiting themselves and pitting one group
against another; for the most part, the organizations failed to bring about
planned social change for group development. They failed to deal with the issues
most vital to the improvement of Chinese life in America. Efforts to stop
anti-Chinese exclusion laws, on which they expended so much energy and money,
proved to be impractical and misdirected. Chinese Americans did not have the
power to change the direction of United States policy to any significant degree.
In the final analysis, their lofty effort to maintain Chinese heritage,
language, and religion in America retarded the acculturation of the first and
second generations of Chinese in the New World.