The Golden Dragon massacre was a gang-related mass shooting that took place on September 4, 1977, inside the Golden Dragon Restaurant at 822 Washington Street in Chinatown, San Francisco, California, United States. The shooting was planned and committed by members of the Joe Boys, a Chinese youth gang, who were attempting to kill leaders of the Wah Ching, a rival Chinatown gang. The attack left five people dead and 11 others injured, none of whom were gang members. Seven perpetrators were later convicted and sentenced in connection with the murders. The massacre led to the establishment of the San Francisco Police Department's Asian Gang Task Force, credited with ending gang-related violence in Chinatown by 1983. The restaurant itself closed in 2006.

The incident was motivated by a longstanding feud between two rival Chinatown gangs, the Joe Boys (Chung Ching Yee) and Wah Ching, traced back to 1969, when the first victim was killed. The two gangs controlled different parts of San Francisco, with the Wah Ching in Chinatown and the Joe Boys in the Richmond and Sunset districts, and had been rivals since the Joe Boys splintered off from the Wah Ching in the late 1960s. The shooting at the Golden Dragon was an attempted assassination of Wah Ching leaders and was a direct retaliation for the shootout with the Wah Ching in Chinatown's Ping Yuen (Peace Garden) housing project (Chinese: 平園住宅房屋大廈) on July 4, 1977, which was sparked by a dispute over fireworks sales. That shootout resulted in the death of 16-year-old Felix Huey (Chinese: 許非力; sometimes romanized as Huie) and the wounding of Melvin Yu, both members of the Joe Boys.

Huey's murder, in turn, was seen as a reprisal for the earlier death of Kin Chuen Louie, a 20-year-old member of the Wah Ching who had been shot a dozen times on May 31 while attempting to escape in his car. Louie's death was later memorialized in a poem by Michael McClure, who came upon the victim shortly after the shooting. Including those victims in the Golden Dragon, 44 people had been murdered in gang violence in San Francisco Chinatown by 1977; Inspector John McKenna of the San Francisco Police counted 55 dead between 1969 and 1977.^{[failed verification]}

The raid was planned in a Daly City apartment. Preparations began in early 1977 when Joe Boys members began acquiring the weapons that would be used in the massacre; during the summer of 1977, Tom Yu, a leader of the Joe Boys, convinced a longtime friend who owned a home in Pacifica to store the weapons, wrapped in cloth, in the front closet of that home. On August 29, 1977, Yu met with Carlos Jon, a member of another gang; Yu asked Jon to keep track of Wah Ching and allied Hop Sing Tong gang members over the upcoming Labor Day weekend, showing special interest in where they gathered late at night. The conspirators decided to target the Golden Dragon because it was a favorite hangout of both the Wah Ching and Hop Sing Tong. The planned raid would also financially damage Jack Lee, a Hop Sing elder who co-owned the restaurant.

Yu gave Jon the phone number of the Pacifica home and asked him to call on the following Saturday (September 3). That Friday night (September 2), members of the Joe Boys gathered in Pacifica, retrieved the weapons and put them on display. Yu received a phone call at 1:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, and after a brief, private conversation, ordered the weapons to be put back into the closet. By this time, the group plotting the shooting consisted of Tom Yu, his brothers (Chester and Dana), Melvin Yu (no relation), Peter Ng, Peter Cheung, Curtis Tam, Kam Lee, and Don Wong.

Later that evening, the gang returned to Pacifica. Around 9:30 p.m., two members of the Joe Boys, Peter Cheung and Dana Yu, were asked to steal a four-door car, which would facilitate entry and exit for a quick getaway; they returned shortly afterward with a blue Dodge Dart and parked it in the home's driveway. The gang members retrieved the guns from the closet after the homeowners returned and went to sleep. At 2:00 a.m., Pacific Daylight Time on Sunday, September 4, 1977, Tom Yu received a phone call from Carlos Jon that members of the rival Wah Ching gang, including Michael "Hot Dog" Louie, one of its leaders, were present at the Golden Dragon restaurant in San Francisco's Chinatown (Chinese: 三藩市華埠金龍大酒樓).

Chester Yu drove a group of four Joe Boys (himself, Curtis Tam, Melvin Yu, and Peter Ng) to the Golden Dragon using the stolen Dodge. Forty minutes later, at 2:40 a.m., Chester Yu parked the stolen car near the Golden Dragon and stayed in the driver's seat while the others went to the restaurant. Armed with a .45-caliber Commando Mark III rifle (a modern clone of the Thompson submachine gun), two 12 gauge pump-action shotguns, and a .38-caliber revolver, the other three donned nylon stocking masks and entered the restaurant from the second entrance at 818 Washington, looking for members of the Wah Ching. During the trial of Curtis Tam, Chester Yu testified that Tam was wielding a shortened shotgun, Ng had a long-barreled shotgun and a handgun, and Melvin Yu was using the rifle. A crowd estimated at between 50 and more than 100 people, many of whom were tourists, were present at the restaurant at the time of the shooting.

According to Chester Yu, Ng had instructed Tam to fire a shot in the ceiling first so that "when the people panic and get down on the floor, we will decide who to shoot." Instead, without warning, the three randomly opened fire on the patrons inside the crowded restaurant, killing five people, including two tourists, and wounding 11 others, none of whom were gang members. In Tam's confession, he stated he had been forced to join the shooting and deliberately did not target any patrons; after he "heard Melvin start shooting, then Peter. I fired my first shot at the sofa. The second I aimed where nobody was." Testimony at Melvin Yu's trial showed he was the first to open fire, using the rifle.