Organized Panel Session
This paper will examine the spread of fraternal mutual-aid organizations (secret societies) among Chinese overseas. Chief among these societies was the Hong Men Chee Kung Tong, which spread from San Francisco in the 1850s throughout the Americas and to Southeast Asia. Using both English- and Chinese-language newspapers, this paper will give an overview of the rapid spread of the organization during the late nineteenth century, at a time when anti-Chinese hysteria rocked Chinese communities in white settler societies. It will then briefly sketch some of the characteristics of these organizations in California, British Columbia, and New South Wales. In each of these places, Chee Kung Tong lodges were formed in large centers as well as small towns. The Chee Kung Tong provided for mutual aid and assistance for local Chinese, formed Chinese networks in each region, and gave its members prestige and power in numbers. The rapid spread of organizations like the Chee Kung Tong, this paper will demonstrate, suggests that Chinese throughout the diaspora maintained networks that were not necessarily dependent upon China for their survival. In so doing, this paper will question two common assertions among scholars of Chinese in the Americas: first, that these societies were mysterious or fenced off from local societies; and second, that they were largely apolitical or disconnected from events in China.