Hong

"Well, I was wondering where a guy goes to get sticky around here. I've been on the salt for a month with a bunch of smelly, puking onions. But I'm a good f*cking soldier. I can scrap with the best of them, and I'm loyal as sh*t. But if I don't get my c*ck sucked soon, I'll be begging you to kill me."

—Hong to Ah Sahm and Young Jun^[src]

Hong is a new recruit within the Hop Wei who is befriended by Ah Sahm and Young Jun after they come to his defense when he is being ridiculed for being gay. He sees them as his brothers and is willing to "dice or die" for them.

Biography

Arrival in Chinatown

Hong arrives in Chinatown as a new recruit for the Hop Wei. He quickly makes the acquaintance of Ah Sahm, who he's heard of, specifically how he can scrap but lost the fight to Li Yong in the tournament. Young Jun joins them, and Hong asks where he can find some sticky after being on the salt for the last month. So, they take him to Ah Toy's brothel, where Ah Sahm discovers Hong kissing another man. He asks Ah Sahm if he's going to tell anyone, to which Ah Sahm replies that Hong has bigger problems, as he's a Chinese man in America. They head downstairs, where Hong offers to help them in any way possible. So, when they take him to Fung Hai den and explain the war and how Mai Ling made a deal with the Fung Hai: molasses in exchange for muscle, Hong decides to confront the Fung Hai head on, taking out all three of them effortlessly and without any assistance beyond that of his own skills and the chain he wears around his neck.^[1]

Joining Ah Sahm and Young Jun

Ah Sahm and Young Jun overhear Hong exchange words with another new recruit named Shan. He's apparently aware that Hong is gay and mocks him. Young Jun approaches and repeatedly slams Shan's face into the table, warning Shan against messing with Hong.^[2]

Ah Sahm and Young Jun are contemplating their next move after losing all their opium when Hong offers to help them without even having all the details, though he's managed to learn the gist of it. He simply wants to help after they stood up for him.^[3]

Rooker's Mill

Hong, Ah Sahm, Young Jun, and Vega travel to Rooker's Mill, a border town near Mexico, to fight in a tournament hosted by Elijah Rooker for $2,500. Hong notices a few guys plotting on Ah Sahm after winning his latest fight and goes after them, using the chain he wears around his neck to even the odds against his three attackers, who he had little difficulty subduing.

SE2-E06-To-a-Man-with-a-Hammer-Everything-Looks-Like-a-Nail-03-Hong-Young-Jun

After Ah Sahm wins several rounds and impresses Elijah Rooker, he is invited to lunch in the main house, where Vega kills Rooker, forcing the four of them to fight their way through Rooker's Mill after Smits issues a bounty on their heads. However, they are arrested and placed in a cell, headed for Sacramento. Fortunately, this was all part of Vega's plan. Rooker's wife, Marisol, is her sister, and together, they staged all this to reclaim their family's land. Marisol also hands Ah Sahm the promised prize money, but the reunion is cut short when Smits track them down and kills Vega, only for Young Jun to kill him in return. After laying her to rest, Young Jun, Ah Sahm, and Hong return to Chinatown, where Father Jun and the tong await after learning the truth.^[4] Luckily, Ah Sahm manages to convince the tong that they were simply trying to save the Hop Wei from Father Jun's old ways. And this results in Young Jun taking the seat of leadership from his father.^[5]

The Violin Man

Hong explains his choice of a weapon to Ah Sahm and Young Jun. He used to know this gangster called the Violin Man. He was born into nobility, and he played from when he was two years old. His family was killed off during the revolution, and he ended up on the streets, where he learned how to scrap. He joined the tong, and after a while, his hands got so beat up from fights that he couldn't play anymore, so he pulled the strings off his violin and would carry them with him. And when he killed people, he would choke them out with the same violin strings, hence the violin man. With this story, Hong explains that the chain he fights with is his trademark. He has explained this to them as they sit in the middle of a Fung Hai den they've just raided.^[6]

The riot in Chinatown

When Chinatown is attacked by an angry mob of Irish men following the death of Mayor Blake, the Hop Wei are forced to join forces with the Long Zii to protect their home. And after the riot comes to an end, Hong, Ah Sahm, and Young Jun retrieve Jacob's hanging body from outside the Banshee after he was lynched.^[7]

Hong and Young Jun learn from Mai Ling that she and Ah Sahm are siblings. She does this in an attempt to further divide the Hop Wei. Ah Sahm tries to reason with Young Jun, and Hong even speaks to his genuineness and proposes they give Ah Sahm a chance to explain. After hearing Ah Sahm's story, Young Jun comes to the conclusion that Ah Sahm is being truthful and that Mai Ling coming into their home the way she did to blow his cover was a last resort. But when the time comes for him to choose between her and Young Jun, he wonders if Ah Sahm will make the right choice. Ah Sahm leaves, Young Jun looks to Hong for advice on what to do, but neither of them know what they would've done in his position either.^[8]

Meeting Marcel

Hong accompanies Young Jun to a gambling spot, where he locks eyes with a nightclub singer named Marcel, whose voice mesmerizes Hong until Young Jun calls him away.^[9]

After getting their counterfeit chop operation running and using it to pay for product with Happy Jack, Hong returns to the nightclub to sit in on Marcel's performance. Afterward, the two of them hook up in Marcel's room. Marcel questions how long ago did Hong cross the salt, to which he replies a few months ago. He's been in the tong ever since his father kicked him out at 14.^[10]

Personality

Hong is friendly, humorous and talkative to the point of being obnoxious. He is also very loyal to his friends, and appreciates any kindness shown to him. When Young Jun and Ah Sahm show him the ropes of Chinatown and defend him against persecution for being gay, he is very thankful and offers them any aid he can in return. His outgoing personality hides an unexpectedly cunning and perceptive nature, as he quickly deduced that Young Jun and Ah Sahm were acting outside the usual channels to up the tongs margins and that a recent problem had them in danger, though he admitted he couldn’t figure out the details beyond that. Hong also enjoys a good fight and has on multiple occasions instigated a match with groups of opponents.

Skills and abilities

Hong is an exceptionally skilled fighter. He tends to fight with a chain that he wears as a necklace, a skill he adopted from the Violin Man, an enforcer for one of the tongs who would carry a violin string around with him and strangle his victims.^[6]