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By Root 1372 0

underground cellars where, one observer noted, “scarcely a single ray of light or breath of pure, fresh air ever penetrates. These rooms are filled with bunks like the rooms for passengers on ships and steamers, and by the dim, flickering light of a little oil lamp the poor wretches who den there crawl into their miserable couches.” When contemplating how they were able to tolerate such conditions, two factors must be kept in mind. The first is that their sacrifices were providing better lives for their families back home. The second is that many no doubt believed their discomfort to be temporary and refused to see the conditions in which they found themselves as the long-term reality of their lives.

The new economics of Chinatown—the elaborate terracing of wealth and position—soon found expression in an informal but all-encompassing power structure. At the foundation was a tier called the clans, who addressed the basic daily needs of Chinese laborers, such as housing. One level up, the clans of each district were organized into civic associations. Finally, at the pinnacle, ruled six powerful district associations, at the time known as the Chinese Six Companies, and later as the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of America. The Six Companies anointed themselves the supreme power in Chinatown, with the ostensible purpose of resolving disputes, protecting members, and guarding the welfare of the entire community. So powerful were they that before the first Chinese consulate appeared in the city during the 1870s, the Six Companies served as unofficial ambassadors of China, acting as the voice of the Qing imperial government in the United States.

The Six Companies had evolved out of the need of the emerging Chinese business elite for order. The white man’s government had demonstrated that its mission was to suppress, not protect, Chinese interests. Chinese businessmen may have organized their own guild in San Francisco as early as 1849, and certainly by 1850 a number of immigrants from Guangdong had formed the Kong Chow Association, literally, “Pearl River Delta,” one of the first Chinese American organizations in America. When tensions arose between Cantonese people of different dialects and districts, the association split into two groups, which became the first two of the Six Companies. Later, four additional organizations appeared in the 1850s, with offices in prominent neighborhoods in San Francisco.

The Companies’ influence on a new Chinese worker began the moment he arrived at the docks. Representatives would be there to load the new arrival’s luggage onto a wagon and bring him into Chinatown, ostensibly to find him food, lodging, and work, but also to make sure he joined one of the associations, explaining that his dues would be more than offset by the social services the Six Companies provided. The Six Companies did in fact provide services. In San Francisco they created a safety net for the Chinese workers, lending them money when necessary and helping out when they were sick. They settled disputes between members, opened a Chinese-language school, maintained a Chinese census, and channeled remittances for their members back to their home villages through the district associations.

Their services extended into the spiritual realm as well, supporting joss temples, which were places of peace and meditation. During that era, a Chinese émigré could identify a house of worship by the tinsel on its balcony or the dragon figures on its balustrades. Stepping inside, he could ponder his fate in darkness, inhaling the aroma of burning incense, listening to prayers chanted to the music of gongs and drums. The decor within the temple-the idols sculpted from wood or plaster, the red and gold calligraphy, the glass lanterns filled with oil, the carved art from Chinese myths—transported the worshipper into a world that seemed to transcend both America and China.

The Six Companies also lavished attention on funerals, which could be huge, almost theatrical productions. Beginning typically at the home or store of the