The Life of Si Tu Mei Tang

In 1868, Situ Meitang was born into a poor peasant family in Chikan Town, Kaiping City, Guangdong Province. At the age of 12, he crossed the ocean to the United States with townspeople to make a living, working as an odd-job man in a restaurant at Chinatown. At that time, in order to protect their own interests, many overseas Chinese joined organizations such as the Zhigongtang of Hongmen. The Zhigongtang of Hongmen was the largest民间civilian association organization for the lower-class masses of overseas Chinese in North America at that time. It followed the tenet of "loyalty, justice, unity and mutual assistance" and took "overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming" as its slogan. In 1885, Situ Meitang, at the age of 17, took an oath and joined the Zhigongtang of Hongmen, embarking on a road that would influence his whole life.