system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5:What is the difference between a triad and a tong?
gpt
Tongs were largely based in America, and had their heyday in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of them started out as community centers and fraternal societies for immigrants living in Chinatowns, though many of them became involved in organized crime. The ones that are still around today have largely gone legit as trade unions or Chinese-American cultural groups, though they're still suspected of having shady ties to the criminal underworld.

Triads, however, have a connotation of being almost exclusively organized crime groups. They're largely based in mainland China, Taiwan, and Han-majority former European colonies like Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore. They're still going strong today in the criminal field.