[2]: 820 The Wah Ching were a youth gang formed in Chinatown in 1964 to protect newly arrived immigrants from China against bullying by Chinese-Americans who had been born and raised in America.
[3] In addition, existing Chinatown leadership, with ties to the Kuomintang in Taiwan, were staunchly anti-Communist and would pay the youth gangs to break up Red Guard rallies and beat them.
[2]: 821 Joe Fong's group had splintered from the main Yau Lai in early 1971,[4] and claimed to be independent of any existing Chinatown organizations.
Joe Fong moved his operations to the Richmond District on the western edge of San Francisco and renamed his group the Chung Ching Yee (after the heroes of the Water Margin) in early 1972.
[2]: 822 An escalating series of retaliation and murder between the Joe Boys and Wah Ching culminated in the Golden Dragon Massacre of September 1977, which occurred as a direct result of an ambush during the sale of firecrackers in Chinatown's Ping Yuen public housing complex on July 4 that left Felix "Tiger" Huey (a Joe Boy) dead.
The Joe Boys were targeting Wah Ching leadership, who were present that night at the Golden Dragon; the massacre left 5 people dead, and 11 others injured, but none of them were gang members.