Tongs

The original men who settled Chinatown may have felt lonely, out of sorts in a new country, or desperate for a job started to form groups called tongs. Tongs or associations were usually formed by men from the same hometown in China, by men with the same surname, or by men who worked in the same industry. The tongs served many purposes such as creating political alliances, loyalties amongst tong members, and more secretive crime schemes (6).

(flickr.com)