A Chinese Association in North America: The Pao-Huang Hui from 1899 to 1904

-91A CHINESE ASSOCIATION IN ????? AMERICA; THE PAO-HUANG HUI FROM 1399 TO 1904* L. Eve Armentrout-Ma University of California, Davis The last decades of Ch'ing rule brought reform, revolution, and political parties. Sun Tat-sen's Hsing-chung Hui, founded in Hawaii in 1Ö94, and K'ang Yu-weifs Pao-huang Hui ( \ & ) , all of whom were Szu-i merchants of the Vancouver/Victoria area. 5° Yeh became the head of the Pao-huang Hui for all of Canada. 51 T'ang Ch'iung-ch'ang ( /f * £ \=p ), the Szu-i proprietor of a small business in San Francisco was one of the three founders of that city's Pao-huang Hui chapter, 52 and Honolulu's first branch included at least three Szu-i merchants. 53 Some early party organizers were San-i, however, suggesting that conciliatory leaders from both groups hoped the Pao-huang Hui could rise above ethnic boundaries. Since one of the roots of the original conflict lay in commercial competition, it would also seem significant that the Vancouver/Victoria founders had wanted the party to be called the Pao-shang Hui, and when another name was chosen, they still organized first the Pao-shang chu, and later, the Commercial Corporation. In the long run, this led directly to the replacement of the earlier ethnically orientated merchant guilds (the Shao-i kung-so and K'o-shang hui-kuan) by the more inclusive Chinese Chamber of Commerce. 5*- More immediately, it seems to have contributed substantially to community peace negotiations by providing a rationale (nationalism, class interests) and perhaps also a neutral setting for the negotiations. The upshot of it was that by 1900-1901, San-i merchants had given Szu-i more power in the Six Companies and agreed that all merchants should enjoy equal rights. -101In return, Szu-i ended the boycott of San-i businesses, and both sides took measures to end the "tong wars."55 All of this contributed significantly to the strength of the Pao-huang Hui. The party also benefited from the attention that K'ang and his followers paid to it. In addition to his own 1399 trip, between 1900 and 1904 K'ang sent a whole series of politically motivated, prestigious, and eloquent disciples to the Americas to strengthen the party. In 1900 Liang Ch'i-ch'ao was sent to Hawaii and in 1903, he toured North America. In 1900, his relative Liang Ch'i-t'ien went to the continental United States followed by Hsü Ch'in in 1901 (who also visited Canada and Latin America) and Ou Chu'-chia in 1902. In addition to these students of K'ang, several people well-known in the Americas (such as Yeh En) went on membership and fund-raising drives.'6 In each community through which these peripatetic organizers passed, the local Chinese received them enthusiastically and many rushed to join the party. As a result, by 1903 the Pao-huang Hui had 103 branches in all the Americas and probably over 50% of the Chinese in North America were members. The Hawaiian branches were still strong and in Latin America, the party had begun organizing in Mexico, Panama, Cuba, and Peru. 57 K'ang and other Pao-huang Hui organizers also used newspapers to publicise the party's aims and accomplishments and show concern for the membership. They enlisted the support of independent papers (such as the Chung Sai Tat Po) and established party papers. The Pao-huang Hui enthusiast T'ang Ch'iung-ch'ang of San Francisco, for example, persuaded the newspaper he managed (the Wen-hsien pao & ..J? iS^ ) to become the party's official San Francisco organ, -102-¡ fe in honor of which it changed its name to be Wen-hsing pao ( 3? TT $^).5d In 1900, Liang Ch'i-ch'ao helped found an official Paoli t. huang Hui newspaper in Honolulu called the Hsin Chung-kuo pao ( ^n 1^ I5] ài^} · By I9O3 there was also a Pao-huang Hui paper in Vancouver edited by Chih-kung t'ang leaders there. 59 In the same year, Ou Chú'-chia and T'ang Ch'iung-ch'ang established the official Chih...