In 1995, members of the Jackson Street Boys, successor to an earlier local triad, started shooting at each other during daytime on the busy commercial street in Chinatown. The teenagers involved were caught and received long prison sentences one them is still in prison. They started shooting randomly, missed the gang members and ended up killing 5 other diners, including two tourists. They planned to assassinate members of the Wah Ching gang who were eating there. In 1977, members of one Chinatown gang went to the popular Golden Dragon restaurant on Washington Street just off Grant Avenue (now the Imperial Palace restaurant). Though Chinatown is generally a very safe place for tourists, there have been two alarming incidents in the modern era. Local gangs, and gangs associated with Hong Kong triads, have been responsible. There were also a number of criminal organizations, basically gangs, also called tongs, that exercised power over the Chinese community through fear and intimidation.Ĭriminal gang violence still occasionally breaks out into the tourist world of San Francisco's Chinatown. They still exist today in the form of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association. They were based on family names or places of origin in China, and generally run by well-to-do merchants. The Chinese Six Companies, were the main organizations which provided order and assistance to the San Francisco Chinese in Chinatown. Good Tongs and Bad TongsĬhinatown became a city within a city associations (tongs) were created by the residents and these organizations handled most of the affairs of the inhabitants: legal matters, criminal enforcement, banking, aid to newcomers, and more. Mary's Cathedral at Grant and Pacific Avenues was built in 1854 from bricks shipped around the tip of South America, and was the only building in Chinatown to survive the fire that followed the 1906 earthquake. The First Chinese Baptist Church, also in Waverly Place, was first built there in 1888, and rebuilt after the earthquake. There is a large Buddhist monastery on Sacramento and Grant, the Red Mountain Monastery.Ĭhristian churches were also built early on here. It is still a place of worship and is open to the public. The temple was created in 1852 the original building was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and rebuilt in 1911. She is seen as the protector of seafarers, and as such, much honored by Chinese immigrants in San Francisco. It is dedicated to the goddess Mazu (based on a real woman who died in 987 A.D.), called Tin How, or Empress of Heaven. The Tin How Temple (or Tien Hou) in Waverly Place is the oldest Chinese temple in the United States. Chinese Religious BuildingsĬhinese immigrants built temples in Chinatown, both Taoist temples, focussing on honoring ancestors and praying to Chinese gods, and Buddhist temples. New arrivals still often settle in Chinatown, although the residential areas of the Richmond and Sunset Districts in the western half of the city have become majority Chinese areas over the past few decades. See more on the Angel Island Immigration Station.Īpproximately one third of SF residents are Asian, and most of those are Chinese. The building where they were held has been turned into an interesting museum and is worth a visit.
via San Francisco were held on Angel Island while their applications were being processed. The SF Chinese population decreased somewhat after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 the change in immigration laws in 1965 saw another surge in Chinese immigration into San Francisco and it continues today.Īfter the immigration laws were tightened, Chinese attempting to enter the U.S.
0 kommentar(er)
