TONG WAR-!—Eng Ying Gong and Bruce Grant—Nicholas L. Brown ($2.50).
Chop Suey and the Chinese tong are as American as hashed brown potatoes; neither is known in China; both sprang up to fill a need. Tong means association. The first tong was organized in San Francisco's Chinatown several years before the Civil War to protect its members from the invasion of competitors in business, from legal injustice (or justice). So effective was it that rival or imitative tongs were soon found wherever there were Chinese colonies. Tong leaders...
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