What is "tong"

Tong \Tong\, n. [Chinese t'ang, lit., hall.] In China, an association, secret society, or organization of any kind; in the United States, usually, a secret association of Chinese such as that of the highbinders; in the U. S. the tongs have been frequently associated with criminal activity and gang warfare.

Tong \Tong\, Tonge \Tonge\, n. Tongue. [Obs.]
--Chaucer.

"Chinese secret society," 1883, from Cantonese t'ong "assembly hall."

Etymology 1 n. An instrument or tool used for manipulating things in a fire without touching them with the hands. vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To use tongs. 2 (context transitive English) To grab, manipulate or transport something using tongs. Etymology 2

n. A Chinese secret society or gang.

Tong (population 17,069 - 2001 UK census) is a Ward in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, named after Tong village which is its oldest settlement. The population at the 2011 Census was 20,608.

The Tong political ward includes the urban areas of Dudley Hill, and the council estates of Bierley, West Yorkshire, Holme Wood, Tyersal, and stretches across the length and breadth of the main thoroughfare, Tong Street. Tong Village (off Tong Lane), in contrast, is a small, rural village surrounded by farmers' fields, and home to a historic local cricket club, Tong CC.

The ward is in the extreme southeast of Bradford District in a green wedge of land between the urban areas of Bradford and Leeds, the centre of the former being to the northwest and the centre of the latter being about to the northeast. Although surrounded by Green Belt, most of the settlements nearest to Tong are urban in character, Tong Street being to the west of the village, Drighlington to the south, Gildersome, to the southeast and New Farnley to the east. The rural village of Bankhouse and the Moravian settlement of Fulneck are about to the north of Tong with Cockersdale to the southeast.

In Chinese culture, the word tong means "hall" or "gathering place". In North America, a tong is a type of organization found among Chinese living in the United States and Canada. These organizations are described as secret societies or sworn brotherhoods and are often tied to criminal activity. Today in most American Chinatowns, if one can read Chinese, one can find clearly marked tong halls, many of which have had affiliations with Chinese crime gangs, especially in the 1990s.

Today tongs are, for the most part, members of the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Associations, which are pro- Kuomintang traditional groups. Today these associations provide essential services for Chinatown communities such as immigrant counseling, Chinese schools, and English classes for adults, among countless others. Tongs follow the pattern of secret societies common to southern China and many are connected to a secret society called the Tiandihui, which follows this pattern. Other groups worldwide that follow this pattern and are connected with the Tiandihui are known as hui, hongmen, and triads.

Tong or Tonge may refer to:

Tong is a Chinese surname. Tong as transcribed in English however represents of a number of different Chinese surnames.

There were 8,589 Tongs in the United States during the year 2000 census, making it the 3,075th surname overall and the 121st surname among Asian and Pacific Islanders.

Tong was also listed among the 200-most-common Chinese surnames in a 2010 survey of the Registered Persons Database of Canadian health card recipients in the province of Ontario. Tong may be the romanisation of the very common surname Zhang , as well as others such as Deng , Zhuang , Teng , and a number of Tongs (童, 同 and 佟).