Tong Wars

April 11, 2016
Historian Seligman (The First Chinese American) provides a definitive look at more than 30 years of violence in this fascinating and nuanced examination of Manhattan’s Chinatown. The story begins in 1878 when a man named Tom Lee left San Francisco on a mission from the Six Companies, the umbrella group of fraternal societies “at the apex of Chinese society in the United States.” His goal was to help develop, protect, and represent New York’s Chinese community. After arriving in New York, Lee quickly infiltrated the city’s source of power, Tammany Hall, a social organization turned corrupt political machine. He landed the position of deputy city sheriff, even though most Chinese New Yorkers could not vote at the time. Seligman traces how Lee’s positioning in the city’s police force and the struggling Chinese community led to “four bloody wars and countless skirmishes fought intermittently over more than three decades” by the sworn brotherhoods, which were “organized ostensibly for social purposes but very much involved in criminal activity.” He places the violence in context, explaining why Chinese-Americans could have no faith in the police or the courts to get justice, and how their systematic exclusion from American society alienated them. This is the best kind of true crime book: a solid social history as well as a gripping narrative of murder and revenge.

May 15, 2016
A new history of turf wars between rival New York City Chinatown brotherhoods from the turn of the century to the Depression reveals the shabby justice and bigotry practiced on immigrants by American authorities. A journalist and "China hand" proficient in the languages, Seligman has been able to interpret historic archives--e.g., New York City newspapers, indexing of census records--regarding Chinatown as previous historians have not. As a result, his work is richly textured and avoids black-and-white judgments regarding the tongs, or secret brotherhoods, which served a vital function in helping advocate for and protect the fragile community of Chinese immigrants in the wake of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. The author examines the beginning migrants mostly from California in the 1870s, such as the early Hong Kong-born merchant and community leader Wo Kee, who first staked out a general store and boardinghouse at 34 Mott St., just south of Canal in an Irish neighborhood of cheap rents. According to Seligman, the Chinese gravitated toward mutual aid societies as a way to re-create the hierarchical structures they knew back in the old country, and they also needed conduits to deal with the corrupt Tammany Hall bosses and police. The new organization, Loon Yee Tong, was established by spokesman Tom Lee in 1880 and gradually morphed into the On Leong Tong, which took control of the vice dens, including lucrative enterprises of gambling, prostitution, and opium. Meanwhile, another brotherhood, the Hip Sing Tong, originally from San Francisco, was muscling its way into the Chinatown turf, extorting businesses. The author dutifully follows the tit-for-tat wars between the two tongs over the next three decades, involving such illustrious kingpins as Charlie Boston and Mock Duck, and yet the notorious dens of inequity in Chinatown comprised a small percentage of the overall violence prevalent in the rest of the city. In this entertaining book, Seligman ably demystifies the stereotypes in an age rife with discrimination and unchecked police abuse.

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Starred review from July 1, 2016

In the early 20th century, rival gangs (known as tongs) in New York City's Chinatown fought bloody battles over territory and to settle old scores. Historian Seligman (The First Chinese American) presents a detailed description of these events. The author traces this rivalry to the arrival of Tom Lee in New York in the 1870s. Lee made connections with local authorities, which allowed him to offer protection to illegal gambling operations. His organization became known as the On Leong tong. In the 1890s, the West Coast-based Hip Sing tong moved in under the leadership of the notorious Mock Duck and challenged Lee's enterprises. This led to a series of four wars that finally came to an end in the 1930s. Throughout this work, the author provides context by explaining how major turning points such as the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and the collapse of the Qing Dynasty impacted the Chinese immigrant community. He illuminates the lives of early Chinese settlers in America, which enhances the narrative's value. VERDICT This thoroughly researched and fascinating work is highly recommended for those interested in organized crime or the early history of New York's Chinatown.--Joshua Wallace, Ranger Coll., TX

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016
Historian Seligman brings to light the Chinatown of New York City in the first three decades of the twentieth century, a dangerous place for honest Chinese immigrants, who were preyed upon by Chinese criminals, the police, and federal agents. What made life in lower Manhattan especially precarious was the presence of tongs, or secret societies, who profited from controlling gambling, opium, and prostitution, while paying off the authorities, like the much-chronicled Irish and Italian gangs of the 1920s. This is propulsive narrative history. Seligman takes us through the origins of Chinatown in the late nineteenth century, after the work on the transcontinental railroad was completed, forcing many Chinese to move east to make their livings. He focuses on the warfare among the tongs and the inventive forms of corruption inflicted on the Chinese by the gangs, police, and judges. The depth of this research is remarkablethe product of uncovering and analyzing accounts in old newspapers, census and court records, and material in the National Archivesand his results are delivered compellingly. A story about immigrants and their suffering that needed to be told.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)