Chinatown was once a “bachelor society”: single men lived in the many rooming houses that dotted these streets. While many had wives and children back in China, the Head Tax and then the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act made it impossible for their families to join them in Canada. Missing their families, some men worried what would happen should they die alone in this foreign land. To ensure there would be money for a proper burial, it was not uncommon for these bachelors to sew money secretly into the lining of their clothes.
曾幾何時，唐人街是個“獨身漢的社會”。那時有不少單身男性居住在街上的客棧。雖然他們當中很多都有妻兒在中國，但是由於“人頭稅”和1923年排華法的關係無法將家人帶到加國團聚。在惦念家人之餘，他們有些亦擔心自己一旦客死異鄉的話，不知該如何安排身後事。為了確保身故之後有足夠金錢辦好喪禮，這些獨身漢很多時會暗中將錢放入衣服的夾層內縫好收藏。
