1차 세계대전 이후 미국의 중국인 비밀결사

Chinese Secret Societies in America : After World War Ⅰ

The Chinese secret society that had existed in the US is commonly known as Tong . It is often defined as a secretive organization that is unknown to the public except for its own members and served itself as a part of the Chinatown s organization to help the original Chinese immigrants settle in the US. As implied in its own name, there would be no possible way to learn of the exact number of the secret societies in the Chinese-American community. I examined closely on the structural changes and a variety of aspects involved with the 20th-century secret society based upon the research centered upon its origin, function, organizational structure and other related aspects of the secret society after their first arrival in the US in the latter 19th century. The scope of their illegal activities narrows at the beginning of the 20th century. This structural change was inevitable due to Sun Yat-sen s Chinese Revolution in 1911 that led to Chinese-American s exodus to their mother country and the passage of the America s Immigration bill that restricted the citizenship only to the children of the US citizens. However, the World War Ⅱ offers an another impetus to the strong rebirth of the secret society. The Immigration Law in 1924 was eventually abolished in 1943, which gave America s strong ally, Chinese, more opportunities to become US citizens and widen the scope of their activities in the US. The door to America was widely open to people from various social classes such as soldiers, women, visiting professors, government officials, high-class- turned political exiles and the past power figures involved in the collapse of the republic in 1949. This, to say the least, served as a momentum for them to centralize their operations mainly in the western San Francisco and in the eastern New York by forming three Tongs; Gee Kung, Hip Sings and On Leongs. Since the 1950 s, the Chinese arrival to the US had actually contributed to the advent of the middle class in the US. After the 1960 s, a Chinese gang was somewhat related to the secret society, which was fueled by the citizenship wave and the shift in the general American sentiment toward the minority groups. The Chinatown, up until the 1960 s, was swarming with a number radical students and youth gangs. They used to deny all the allegations that they were directly related to the illegal drugs. However, the transformation of the secret society is clearly evidenced by the fact that the most people who were arrested in the Chinatown are found directly connected to the secret society members.