Tong Kee

[2][3] Tong Kee, who became known as Aki in Hawaii, was a rice plantation and mill owner at Waiau, in the ʻEwa District, on the island of Oahu.

Shipments of the ballads arrived from San Francisco on May 13, 1887, and were distributed widely despite attempts by the government to seize the printed pamphlets.

This publication and the scandal would have a negative impact on the king's and his cabinet headed by Walter Murray Gibson and lead to increase anti-Chinese sentiments among the foreign white community.

[8][9] Ultimately, this scandal became one of the corruption charges which led to the July 1887 coup of the king by his opponents and the forced signing of the 1887 Bayonet Constitution which restricted his executive power.

[10] The new constitution also disenfranchised the naturalized Chinese residents of the kingdom and ushered in a race-based suffrage system which completely excluded Asians from voting or citizenship.

"The Opium Racket", from the Gynberg Ballads . An illustration on the ballad erroneously depicted Little You Lie wheeling a wheelbarrow full of bags of gold into the palace