Fuhgeddaboudit!

Although martial arts schools weren't exactly new in New York, all of them were concentrated in Chinatown in Manhattan. They were also very traditional and "closed" to outsiders.

For centuries, most kung fu masters refused to teach anybody who wasn't Chinese. Although there were exceptions, it wasn't until the wake of Bruce Lee, Kung Fu masters around the world decided to magnanimously open their schools to foreigners.

As far as Shen knew, a US Navy Veteran opened the first public Karate school after the war, and later founded the United States Karate Association which became the largest karate organization in the world.

It was only 1942 right now so Shen was truly a revolutionary and "ahead of the times" in others' perspectives.

But then again, this was the MCU and for all he knew, there could be aliens disguised as grandmasters recruiting people, brainwashing them, and teaching them how to fight. Quite hypocritical now that he thought about it, since he was literally an alien disguised as a martial arts grandmaster recruiting talents and teaching them how to fight.

As far as his brainwashed HYDRA minions go, it was legally questionable, morally disgusting but very effective. So personally, he liked it.

Either way, the newly opened Ryōzanpaku dojo in Brooklyn attracted the attention of many people with curiosity, hope, doubt, malice, and greed.

This formerly abandoned four-storeyed building encompassed an enormous area close to the main street. Not to mention all the businesses and properties in the neighborhood, although abandoned and run down, they too were still very valuable due to the prime location.

Now that the abandoned buildings and the entire run down neighborhood had been further transformed into beautiful, exotic Asian-fusion structures, making them almost invaluable, it was only a matter of time before greed would overwhelm self-preservation for many.

The Chinese people always stayed in Chinatown not just because of the sense of community or due to discrimination. The public security in New York was one of the worst in the country at this time.

Due to the rapid flow of immigrants from all over the world, combined with the isolation, marginalization, uncertainty, the deplorable condition and social disorganization of the slums, people came together to form many ragtag group of criminal gangs.

Largely motivated by a desire to exercise some power or control over a chaotic environment, conflict was therefore imminent. Gangs and other criminal groups were virtually unfettered from forging their own wedges in the social and physical disorder. Street gangs thrived in such environments, regardless of age and gender.

Youth gangs became an integral part of the New York life. Young men swaggered about the city staking out territories, picking fights, and defending their "turf" against neighboring ethnic groups and new immigrants.

Nevertheless, these gangs were largely inconsequential.

"The Godfather's" portrayal of the late 40s Mafia was the best depiction of organized crime at this time. Because of its committed, disciplined rank and file and economic base in extortion, the Mafia emerged as the dominant organized-crime group to survive Prohibition.

At the turn of the century, the Italian Mafiosi attempted to replicate its Sicilian operation throughout Western Europe and America. By 1920s, the Mafia had initial success in establishing "families" throughout Italy and even mid-size cities in America. Following this success, they entered the booming bootleg liquor business of the prohibition era.

However in New York, the largest bastions of organized crime was dominated by the Irish, Jewish and "local" English Americans. The arrival of the Mafiosi and Italian-American gangs created sparks in an already hostile three-way situation.

The Prohibition had transformed these ethnic gangs into sophisticated criminal enterprises, skilled at smuggling, money laundering and bribing police and other public officials.

During this time, due the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and the Nazi, there was a sudden massive influx of Italians, Polish, Austrians, and other immigrants in New York which worsened the already deplorable condition of the slums.

The Sicilian Mafia in Italy, which was flourishing was also now under attack from the Fascist regime. Many Sicilian Mafiosi escaped to the United States, where they got involved in bootlegging and became part of the burgeoning American Mafia.

This in turn increased ethnic hostility between the Irish, Jewish, Italians and English which soon turned into a full blown bloody war.

These gangs out-manned and out-gunned the police, and both the National Guard and the regular army were summoned on occasion to quell the fights.

Not long after, more fighting gangs took root after the arrival of African American migrants from the South and Latino immigrant groups.

An enormous influx of African Americans arrived in New York due to the "The Great Migration." By 1930s, some six million African Americans had moved from rural areas of the Southern states to urban areas in the Northern states, making up 14% of New York City's population.

This period also saw the largest new group of immigrants. Several million Latinos (from Central America, South America, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean) were wrenched from sugar cane fields, shantytowns, and highland villages to be confined to the dilapidated and inhospitable New York slums.

The addition of several millions of poor Latino and African American families made New York one of the most concentrated foci of poverty in the entire nation.

By the time of World War II, Harlem was one of the first Black ghettos in America, and the area could not have been riper for the sprouting of street gangs. More than two-thirds of the entire New York gangs were now Latino or Black.

By the 1940s, six-way race riots involved Irish, Italians, Jews, Latinos, African Americans, and other large gangs.

Although other major cities like Philly, Chicago & Los Angelese were swarming with gangs too, they were nowhere as organized, and certainly not as ferocious as the Gangs of New York.

The most prominent crime organization of this time in the MCU was "The Maggia."

The Maggia was an international crime syndicate that originated in southern Europe (mostly Italy). They were not a monolithic organization, but was instead a coalition of many "families", all of which are independent of each other.

They usually didn't cooperate, much less coordinate with each other.

Their only shared connection was through the familial and marital ties between the leading members of each family. That, and the agreement not to interfere with each other in their respective area of expertise, or tamper with the other families' territory.

The Maggia were mainly involved in rather low profile, conventional crimes and systemic corruption. They relied on true and tried methods of enforcement: intimidation, property damage, legbreaking, kidnapping, and contract assassination.

During the Prohibition, The Maggia reached the height of their influence. Their widespread bootlegging of illegal liquor even earnined them a legendary reputation.

Their control of the alcohol traffic gave them the means to control most of illegal gambling, loan-sharking, prostitution, and then the narcotics traffic.

New York City at this time, had been divided between five major families of the Maggia:

The Manfredi Family conducts its activities along traditional Maggia lines, and is heavily involved with the narcotics trade. Thery were shown to be active in the "Agent Carter" series and even years later in the "Spiderman: Far From Home" movie.

The Hammerhead Family specializes in extortion, loan-sharking, and the protection rackets. In the comics, they were eventually succeeded and led by a newcomer known as Hammerhead, an amnesiac with an Adamantium skull and an affinity for 1930s gangster films.

The Nefaria Family was involved in blackmail, industrial espionage and supplying weapons. Count Luchino Nefaria was the descendant of a long line of Italian noblemen, and he inherited a vast fortune.

As a young man, Nefaria quickly made himself a powerful force in the Maggia through the offering of large sums of money to established Maggiosi, the financing of major criminal operations for the Maggia in return for shares of power, the advanced weaponry his scientists devised for him, and his own immense talent for criminal strategy.

The Libris Crime Family were experts in illegal gambling, and counterfeiting. They are the only crime syndicate that never suffered any major arrests in the comics nor any of the series.

The Costa Family specialized in "hits," kidnapping and torture. They were also involved in prostitution and human trafficking.

The Costa Family was responsible for the death of Frank Castle's family, which led to Castle becoming the Punisher.

Various criminals gangs have attempted to unify the American East Coast's independent criminal groups so as to compete with the Maggia's domination of organized crime but they all eventually failed.

Then, there were the Chinese Tongs — a word literally meaning "Meeting Hall".

As chaos was growing in New York, the Chinese began setting up their own highly structured tongs in Chinatown which eventually put the other street gangs to shame in running a criminal operation.

The highly organized Chinatown gangs mainly controlled opium distribution, gambling, and political patronage. They had also established a notable street presence as a result of their active involvement in extortion, robbery, debt collection, and protection of Asian-owned vice businesses.

Due to the ever growing Chinese population, and absence of the Japanese, the Chinese immigrants established their influence early on with no opposition.

But not even close knit communities like Chinatown was necessarily safe anymore.

What began as community-based support groups turned into criminal syndicates. Secret brotherhoods fought a war as bloody as any in gangster lore. With hatchets and meat cleavers, pistols and automatic weapons and even bombs, these men turned swaths of America's largest city into a killing zone.

Their illicit involvements grew as tongs splintered and formed rivalries. There were also some Tongs that were originated as secret societies in China. They were further divided into different factions

New York City saw four major tong wars fought between the 1900s and the 1930s, and each broke out for a different reason.

The first started over control of gambling; the second was about the "ownership" and murder of a woman. The third broke out over opium distribution, and the fourth was fought because of a defection from one tong to another.

There were many minor wars almost everyday which could be triggered by a variety of inter-gang grievances, from the public besmirching of another Tong's honor, to failure to make full payment for a "slave girl", to the murder of a rival Tong member.

But literally anything could begin a war, there was even a case of conflict over a cat which led to a war between two Tongs.

This at least showed that these Tongs had not yet been completely seized or unified by the Mandarin & His Ten Rings.

Like Bruce Lee, Shen was also being ostracized by a lot of the Chinese for teaching Kung fu to foreigners.

He was even branded as a traitor by some for "colluding" with foreigners and building his own "Chinatown", all the while allowing the entire world to reside there. Not that it even mattered, nor did he care.

By now everyone knew that even the Chinese community didn't really support him, so he was just a wealthy person with no backing in Brooklyn. Almost all the mafia groups and gangs were eyeing him with malice, and greed waiting for someone to make the first move.

Again, this didn't matter to him at all but even if it did, he wan't truly alone. Just as he had gained enemies, he had also gained a massive public following.

Ultimately, his acceptance of everyone and the unintentional efforts at cross-cultural exchange led to a greater acceptance of him among the American public, and immigrants from all over the world.

The beautiful and exotic neighborhood that he built also attracted some tourism which in turn, created income and job opportunities for people willing to join him. Not to mention the many businesses and factories that he already owned all over the country, everyone who came to him was provided with food, accommodation, training and a proper job.

All this combined with giving the dojo a Japanese name as a form of "peaceful protest against human rights violation" attracted an influx of people to his cause.

Many people joined him to either help him further his goals, seek opportunities, or safe haven for their family against the cruel, harsh world.

There were countless volunteers organizing support groups under his banner to provide services in the community. They helped with almost everything from translation, and education, to burials, business licenses, and immigrant resettlement.

At this time, Shen was fighting against a few robust men in worn-out clothes in the practice room.

Although their skills weren't even close to Shen, they were experience fighters proficient in hand to hand combat.

Shen redirected an incoming fist with his palm and returned a fast but light jab of his own, which sent his opponent kneeling over clutching his abdomen.

Shen lightly dusted off his hands and looked around the room where no one was left standing except for him.