Institutionalization of the Chinese Tongs in Chicago's Chinatown

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Then in the 1970’s, the Federal Government had say in the expansion in the city of Chicago. The Federal Government wanted to build a federal detention in downtown with close proximity to the federal buildings located on Dearborn Street. They found a perfect location in the area of Clark and Van Buren. However, there was one catch to it. This was also the site of the second and lesser-known Chinatown headed by the Hip Song tong. So, the Federal Government came in and knocked down the buildings in that area that made the second Chinatown. They wanted to build their federal detention center. Once again, Chinese-American population is victims of the natural expansion in the city of Chicago. However, you may what happened to the Chinese that were living there? They could not move back in the Chinatown located at Cermak and Wentworth because they were excluded from it because of the contract they signed at the end of the tong war in the 1930’s. Where did these people go?

So now, the city of Chicago has to two Chinatowns, one north and one south.

North Chinatown looking West on Argyle.

North Chinatown looking East on Argyle.

Whatever happened to tongs during this whole process? Well, the tongs never gave up their criminal activities. This was until the late 1980’s and the early 1990’s when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the On Leong building in the Chinatown located at Cermak and Chinatown for gambling. A summary of the case can be found in the Congressional Hearing Records on Asian Organized Crime. The Department of Justice for this hearing prepared this summary. See the Appendix A to see the summary of the indictment and trial. Nowadays, the On Leong Building is now a community and religious center called the Pui Tak Center.

Front of the Pui Tak Center (On Leong building) in Chinatown.

Corner of the Pui Tak Center (On Leong building) in Chinatown.

We do not know for certain what the On Leongs down on Cermak and Wentworth and the Hip Sings on Broadway and Argyle actually do. We do know that these two organizations have store front offices in their respecitve Chinatowns.

Storefront office of the Hip Sing Association on Argyle. Sign above the door translates to "Hip Sing Association."

We, also know that these groups are sponsoring local events in their communities. See the Appendix to a see a flyer about the Lunar Chinese New Year celebration held in North Chinatown that was sponsored by the Hip Sing Association. There are rumors going around that these two tongs did not give up their criminal past. However, there is no concrete evidence to support this belief.

The tongs have been part of the Chinese-American community in America for the last hundred years. These groups survived this long period of time by institutionalizing themselves into their own community. At first, they provided social functions to help their communities to survive. Some time after that, the tongs went into criminal enterprises into order to make money and support their communities into selling illegal goods like liquor and drugs. The Chinatowns accepted these tongs in their communities by dealing with them personally. As shown earlier in the paper, the Chinese community ran their own community with no outside help of any kind. The problems of the tongs were dealt personally. These tongs lasted as long as they did because simply they were part of their community. Also besides the institutionalization factor, these tongs existed because no one really knew their operations because these groups were secret societies as shown throughout this paper.