Hip Sing Association
Encyclopedia
The Hip Sing Association formerly known as the Hip Sing Tong was a Chinese-American criminal organization based in New York's Chinatown during the early 20th century. They, along with their rivals the Four Brothers
and the On Leong Tong
, would be involved in the violent Tong wars for control of Chinatown during early 1900s. During the 1930s and 40s, the Hip Sings were involved in drug trafficking operations with the Kuomintang
(KMT) and later the Office of Policy Coordination
(OPC). They would later establish chapters in Chinese-American communities throughout the United States in major cities such as Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco (the latter being subject to a major drug raid by authorities in 1996).
The Hip Sing Association has several branches in the United States including in:
Four Brothers (tong)
The Four Brothers was a New York-based tong which rivaled the On Leong and Hip Sing Tongs for control of Chinatown during the early 1900s. Their murder of 21-year-old Bow Kum, recently "bought" by a member of the rival On Leongs to take as his wife, began a violent gang war between the three Tongs...
and the On Leong Tong
On Leong Tong
The On Leong Chinese Merchants Association or simply Chinese Merchants Association, formerly known as the On Leong Tong , was a tong society operating out of its territory in Mott Street in New York's Chinatown. Established in November, 1893, the tong fought a violent war for control of...
, would be involved in the violent Tong wars for control of Chinatown during early 1900s. During the 1930s and 40s, the Hip Sings were involved in drug trafficking operations with the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
(KMT) and later the Office of Policy Coordination
Office of Policy Coordination
The Office of Policy Coordination was a United States covert psychological operations and paramilitary action organization. Created as an independent office in 1948, it was merged with the Central Intelligence Agency in 1951....
(OPC). They would later establish chapters in Chinese-American communities throughout the United States in major cities such as Chicago, Seattle and San Francisco (the latter being subject to a major drug raid by authorities in 1996).
Branches
- Boise, IdahoBoise, IdahoBoise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
- 215 S Capitol Boulevard (defunct) - Boston, Massachusetts - 162 Lincoln Street
- Chicago, Illinois - 1121 W Argyle Street
- Cleveland, OhioCleveland, OhioCleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
- 4301 Payne Avenue - Denver, ColoradoDenver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
- 238 Broadway (defunct) - Doraville, GeorgiaDoraville, GeorgiaDoraville is a city in DeKalb County, Georgia, United States, northeast of Atlanta. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 8,330.-History:Doraville was incorporated by an act of the Georgia General Assembly, approved December 15, 1871...
- 5799 New Peachtree Road - Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis, MinnesotaMinneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
- 2633 Nicollet Avenue - New York City, New York - 15 Pell Street
- Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia, PennsylvaniaPhiladelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...
- 938 Race Street - Pittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh, PennsylvaniaPittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
- 529 2nd Avenue - Portland, OregonPortland, OregonPortland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
- 211 NW 3rd Avenue - San Antonio, TexasSan Antonio, TexasSan Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
- 1723 Bandera Road - San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
- 761 Clay Street - Seattle, WashingtonSeattle, WashingtonSeattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
- 420 8th Avenue S - Silver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
- 12705 New Hampshire Avenue
Further reading
- Bonner, Arthur. Alas! What Brought Thee Hither?: The Chinese in New York 1800-1950. Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8386-3704-3
- MacIllwain, Jeffrey Scott. Organizing Crime in Chinatown: race and racketeering in New York City, 1890-1910. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2004. ISBN 0-7864-1626-2
- Scott, Peter Dale. Drugs, Oil, and War: the United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. ISBN 0-7425-2522-8