RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
196

CARL SMITH

"nese language to watch over the proceedings."

The effective discipline maintained by the associations within the Chinese community and their benevolent activities outweighed the danger of their usurpation of the functions of the officially constituted institutions to maintain law and order, so that, in spite of the apprehension they aroused, they were permitted to continue their activities.

Today the Committee of the Six Companies represent the conservative, wealthy portion of the San Francisco Chinese community. In recent years their recognised control has been challenged by an influx of youth with Hongkong Triad Society background. This challenge to community authority has produced many problems in San Francisco's Chinatown with an upsurge of extortion, gang fights and murder.

Even in A-chick's time the authority of the associations did not go unchallenged by other groups. An incident occurred in 1855 in which A-chick as community leader tried to act as peacemaker. A meeting with this end in mind was convened, but in the course of the meeting, Tong A-chick had to leave unceremoniously by leaping from a second-storey window.

A street fight between two rival secret societies led up to the incident. The Hung Shun Tong Society was the established group, but its power was challenged by the E Shing Society. When the members of one of the rival groups wanted to enter a Chinese place of entertainment which was controlled by the other group, they were refused admission. The reason given in the newspaper account was "because they spoke a different dialect from the proprietors of the house."

The next night the two groups were out in force with axes, knives, bamboos and bottles. The Hung Shun Tong could rally more fighters and routed the weaker E Shing group.

The fight occurred just below the quarters of the Canton Merchants Association rooms in Sacramento Street where a meeting had been called to investigate the causes of the previous night's
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
200

CARL SMITH

of the China Mail had been unfriendly to both him and his brother and was ready to publish any unfavourable report concerning the Tong family.

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In September 1856, the editor commented: "Numbers of the Tong family connected with the Hongkong Government have an unfortunate knack of getting themselves into scrapes, for we are told that A-chick... has latterly been rendering himself obnoxious to his countrymen in California as head of one of the hway (associations), and that even his life is in danger. We have heard that it is A-chick's intention to return to Hongkong.”

A-chick did not spend all his time visiting the Governor as representative of the Chinese, acting as community peacemaker, drafting letters setting forth the Chinese side of a controversy, or appearing in court. He was also a successful businessman.

Notices relating to his first arrival in California speak of him as an associate of his uncle. Their firm was that of Tun Wo and Company. Soon, however, Tong A-chick was the manager of the Sam Wo Company. There may have been an amalgamation of the two firms. The store of Sam Wo was on Sacramento Street above Kearny. It was in the heart of the Chinese commercial centre.

An 1853 account of the Chinese section says it was "the spot on which they first located their canvas houses in 1849, and they have stuck to it with remarkable tenacity."

The San Francisco establishment had direct links with a firm in Hongkong owned by the Tong family. The United States Customs House records for the port of San Francisco contain several ship manifests of goods shipped by the Hongkong firm and consigned to Tong A-chick.

These manifests show the kind of commodity in demand by the Chinese in California, items which could not be procured easily locally. Without these familiar products the sojourner would have felt more estranged and homesick.

The most popular imports were waterchestnuts, oranges,
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