Wah Ching

Wah Ching (華青, Hanyu Pinyin: Huáqīng, Cantonese: Wah-ching) also known by slang as "Dub C" is a Chinese street gang that originated in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1960s. The name literally translates to "Chinese youth," and the group was comprised primarily of immigrant Cantonese boys from Hong Kong who banded together to combat the American-born Chinese who would often pick on them. The Wah Ching have been described as an organized crime group. From its origin in 1966 as a street gang, the Wah Ching has developed into a criminal organization, with alleged multi-international crime connections. During the 1970s and 1980s, the Wah Ching became an organization that controlled most of the criminal vices in San Francisco's Chinatown and Los Angeles' Chinese communities. During that time, there may have been as many as 200 Wah Ching members and 500 criminal associates in California. Although primarily headquartered in San Francisco, they have developed strong associations with Asian organized crime groups and gang members in Los Angeles, Seattle, Vancouver, Toronto, Boston, and New York--along with close ties to the Sun Yee On and the 14K Triad in Hong Kong. Today in Los Angeles, The Bay Area California, Vancouver, and the rest of the West Coast of North America there is an estimated 3,000 gang members of Wah Ching and an estimated 1,000 more affiliated with the Wah Ching Gang. The Wah Ching are affiliated with the red rag, and associate themselves as bloods. Wah Ching first received widespread media attention because of the 1977 Golden Dragon massacre involving another Chinese gang, the Chung Ching Yee (Joe Boys). The event took place at the Golden Dragon Restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown. The cause of the attack was vandalism by Wah Ching to the graves of several Joe Boy members and a shootout that took place a few months earlier that left one Joe Boy dead and two others wounded. Wah Ching is located in some of the Southern California area in cities such as Rowland Heights, Diamond Bar, Torrance, Hacienda Heights and San Gabriel Valley (the 626 area code). Their main enemies are the Asian Boyz (ABZ) and Vietnamese Boyz (VBZ). Both Wah Ching and Asian Boyz were featured on the television program, America's Most Wanted, following a vicious shooting at a pool hall. The Wah Ching also influence New York, in Chinatown, Sunset Park, and Flushing. Wah Ching is a highly ethnic Chinese youth culture, and is composed mainly of young men. The gang's usual attire are regular business attire, making it hard for officials to distinguish them from other citizens. Most Wah Ching gangs have no ties to the original, and are merely street gangs engaging in constant turf wars. In recent years, some Wah Ching members as young as 16 have been dabbling into murder. In 2001, a 17 year old Wah Ching member, who actually was an Advanced Placement student at Diamond Bar High School, shot and killed two members of the rival San Gabriel Killas (SGK) while attending a football game. More recently (December 2005) a 20yr-old Wah Ching member ran down a Chicano man with unknown gang affiliation in front of his house, and repeatedly backed over the man beyond the point of death, while holding down the car's horn to ensure that neighbors in the area saw the act. The Wah Ching Gang has an ongoing conflict with another rival Asian gang in LA, the Asian Boyz (ABZ) who also aligned themselves with the Vietnamese Boyz (VBZ) in opposition to Wah Ching. Wah Ching's move from its original home in the Bay Area to the southern California region is probably one of the sources of the disputes over gang turf. Currently, the gang has shown signs of mixed ideology. Despite the fact that Wah Ching in Chinese literally means "Chinese Youth," there are still some individuals of non-Chinese descent who claim to be members of the gang.