Mutual aid clubs are still going strong in LA Chinatown. But their future is uncertain
LOS ANGELES — In a building with a green-tiled roof on Hill Street, most of the old men and women shuffling mah-jongg tiles and sipping jasmine tea shared a surname — Lee.
They were not blood relations, but the name, which means "plum" in Chinese, as well as their origins in China's Guangdong, or Canton, province, bound them like siblings.
This was the scene at the Lee club, established in 1935 and known in English as the Lee On Dong Benevolent Assn., on an afternoon late last year.
Whether occupying prominent real estate in a central plaza, like Hop Sing Tong, or tucked upstairs in an alley with no English sign, clubs based on common hometowns, last names or other affiliations are scattered throughout Los Angeles Chinatown.
As the neighborhood gentrifies and Chinese residents grow older and fewer, the clubs — called "tong," "gungso" or "wui" in Cantonese — remain a vital social glue.
In the 19th century, violent wars between tongs drew extensive.
