By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

The secret societies of Chinatown have long been a mystery to most people in Our Honolulu. Let me, therefore, tell you what I learned while visiting temples and tongs and clubhouses last week.

There are more than 100 Chinese societies in Chinatown. Each society has to have a banquet every year to which they invite the presidents of the other societies. A former president said he has two wardrobes, one for before he went to a seven-course dinner once or twice a week, and one for after.

Chinese societies in Hawai'i fall into three categories. An example of one type is the Chee Kuang Tong behind a glass door and up an elevator in the Chinese Cultural Plaza at Maunakea and Beretania streets. You step into a large, quiet room with carved teak chairs against the walls. There's an altar on one side. An open door leads into a kitchen.

High Priest Henry Pang Lee, age 97, sits at a table folding paper money to burn for a celebration. At his back on the wall is a large picture of Sun Yat-sen. The Chee Kuang Tong is a secret society that grew out of the struggle to overthrow the Ching Dynasty in the 19th century.

The members had to be secret or they would have been executed. Two such tongs, the Bow Leong Sha, founded in 1892, and Won On Society, founded in 1905, merged in 1913 to form the Chee Kuang Tong. Chinese societies of this type were born of political struggle.

To check out another type of Chinese society, let's walk over to King Street and up a flight of stairs to the club room of the Lung Doo Benevolent Society. It's a lively place, women sitting against the wall, men around a table strewn with newspapers, all actively engaged in Chinese converstion. There's a kitchen in a corner; Sun Yat-sen is on the wall.

The members of this society all came from Lung Doo Village not far from Canton in South China and they are still coming. The Lung Doo Society formed in 1891 because the new immigrants couldn't borrow from a bank, they spoke a different dialect than other Chinese, and they didn't know anybody else.

At least half of the Chinese societies in Our Honolulu are benevolent societies. They keep springing up. The latest one, with a clubhouse by the waterfront, was formed by Chinese from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. They also have Sun Yat-sen, the Chinese George Washington, on their wall. Like many societies, they bought a building and rent out all but the rooms they use for meeting. The rent perpetuates the society.

A third type of Chinese society is made up of local families — the Chongs or Wongs or Chings or Lees — who want to honor their family ancestors and preserve their history. However, it doesn't matter if the society formed for political, social or family reasons; they will all hold a seven- or nine- course dinner at least once a year. That's two every week.

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073 or rkrauss@honoluluadvertiser.com