Available From UC Press

Only My Brothers the Patriots is a historical examination of the overseas Cantonese sworn brotherhood, the Hung Mun Chee Kung Tong. Established in the mid-nineteenth century, the Chee Kung Tong brought together Cantonese migrants across the Americas, Western Europe, Southern Africa, and Australia and New Zealand for the purpose of mutual aid and protection. Building on its size, geographical spread, and financial resources, the brotherhood maintained transnational social and political connections that gave it considerable influence within local Chinatowns and demanded the attention of politicians in China and Taiwan. Fredy González studies the Chee Kung Tong as a window into the global spread of the Cantonese diaspora, arguing that humble migrants were willing and capable of forming transnational connections on their own, without the help of outside figures from mainland China. 

Fredy González is Associate Professor of Global Asian Studies and History at the University of Illinois Chicago and is author of Paisanos Chinos: Transpacific Politics among Chinese Immigrants in Mexico.

“Fredy González corrects the public's misunderstanding of the Hung Mun Chee Kung Tong as the Chinese mafia and helps us understand how this transnational organization played important roles in China and the Chinese diaspora.”—Zhongping Chen, Professor of History, University of Victoria

"This tour de force of prodigious and dogged research traces the global reach of the Chee Kung Tong (CKT), the preeminent voluntary association of the Cantonese diaspora in the Americas and Australasia. A long-overdue study of the arc of CKT’s transnational politics that linked these migrants to home—from their critical participation in the overthrow of the Qing dynasty to the formation of the Chinese Republic—this book clarifies the historical salience of diaspora as homecoming for the Cantonese. Diaspora and home then fade in relevance after World War II, when the Cantonese accepted options to localize in countries of residence in response to the rise of the Communist Party in China and the global Cold War."—Evelyn Hu-DeHart, Professor of History and American Studies, Brown University

“González’s rich study challenges the boundaries of overseas Chinese studies and advances a rhizomatic notion of diaspora. With great originality and care, it shows how the Chee Kung Tong brotherhoods had distinct cultures and a meaningful presence not only in Chinese national history but also in global history.”—Shelly Chan, author of Diaspora’s Homeland: Modern China in the Age of Global Migration