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The Six Companies
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The Chinese who immigrated to the United States were very diverse socially,
economically, regionally, culturally, and linguistically. Social organizations
in China were usually based on regional origin, including the important huiguan.
A huiguan was an association of men from the same district who were away
from their home on business or social trips. An even tighter bond of social
organization was based on common family ties in addition to common regional
origin; members of one clan tended to live in the same village or adjacent
villages. Another foundation of social organization was common family lineage
regardless of regional origin. This led Chinese with the same surname to form a huiguan
on the assumption of a shared distant ancestor. |
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| A Chinese man arriving in the United States would first seek out other
Chinese who spoke his dialect. This linguistic connection served as the basis
for many huiguan among Chinese Americans. In 1853, an attempt to form an
umbrella organization of the various huiguan, called the Four Houses,
lasted only a few years. Efforts at creating a viable federal association
finally succeeded in 1862 with the establishment of the Chinese Consolidated
Benevolent Association, commonly known as the Chinese Six Companies. |
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| Its ruling body was the Congress of the Six Companies. Headquartered in San
Francisco, the Congress was comprised of elected representatives from each huiguan.
The Congress arbitrated disagreements between individuals and companies,
contested discriminatory laws, attempted to curb prostitution, and organized
celebrations and other public events in the Chinese-American community. While
the Six Companies was set up to protect Chinese immigrants from being exploited
and discriminated against, critics accused them of encouraging and overseeing
all the vices associated with the Chinese-American culture: coolie labor,
prostitution, oriental despotism, gambling and opium dens, secret tribunals, and
monetary extortion of the immigrants themselves. |
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Source consulted:
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Shih-Shan Henry Tsai, The Chinese Experience in America
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986)
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