Racism toward Chinese in general was frequently expressed using images of the Chinese laundryman in cartoons that depicted him negatively.These pig-tailed,slant-eyed caricatures were portrayed variously as inept, effeminate, sexually starved, dangers to white women. Some cartoons expressed physical violence toward them while others displayed comical views of them, their language, and their clothing.
Filed under Racist Incidents
Every Chinese laundry eventually amassed packages of laundry that their owners never returned to claim. They had either forgotten where they left their laundry, moved away, or even died, but regardless of the reason, the laundryman did not get compensated for his labor in washing and ironing these clothes. I don’t know how widespread the following practice was but according to one 1900 report in New Orleans, speculators were getting rich buying up unclaimed laundry bundles for resale.
“The Chinaman is glad to let the clothes go for the washing dues against them, and the speculators strike any number of bargains, for generally linens worth a Chinaman’s work is worth a few cents asked for the charges against it. The speculators go around from laundry to laundry, and wagonloads of goods are bought up by him for almost nothing. It is pretty much of a lottery, for the wiley Chinaman does not permit the speculator to examine the contents of bundles before buying. He is like a man buying a pig in a poke, and the only guide he has is what the Chinaman tells him is in the bundle…. A bundle of laundry on which the dealer in them pays 50 cents for the washing will net him generally three times his outlay… “
“Traffic in washed clothes. Men who buy uncalled-for parcels at Chinese laundries.” New Orleans Times Democrat, July 27, 1901.
Filed under Laundry Operations
Here is some visual evidence in L. A. of the disappearance of once ubiquitous “Chinese laundries” that could be found in virtually every town in the country . The Kimball Chinese laundry in Temple City at 9424 Las Tunas, Temple City, still has its sign (left image) but in 2011, the storefront no longer appears to be a laundry (right image). Similarly, the second photo of the Wong Wing Laundry at 8372 Third St., Los Angeles shown in the left hand frame in 2010 was replaced sometime in 2011 by a women’s clothing shop as shown in the right hand frame.
Filed under Uncategorized
An animated documentary that clearly explains the background, issues, outcome, and legacy of the Yick Wo v. Hopkins (1886) decision that affected the fate of Chinese laundries in San Francisco, the primary occupation of Chinese at the time.
Yick Wo was a laundryman in San Francisco who contested the outlawing of all laundries in wooden buildings as racially biased since all Chinese laundries were in wood structures. He won the case as the Supreme Court ruled in 1886 that the law violated the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
Filed under Uncategorized
A Chinese laundryman went missing in New York in 1897. The newspaper account was more concerned with how his customers were going to get their laundry back than with the fate of the laundryman. Fortunately, his German landlord had the key to the laundry, but unfortunately, that wasn’t going to solve the problem because he could not determine the laundry articles belonging to each customer from the laundry tickets on which their inventory was written in, what else, Chinese.
About a decade later, a New York legislator proposed a bill to require that the writing on Chinese laundry tickets be in English. This proposal may not have stemmed from the earlier crisis and have been just a coincidence. The New York TImes coverage of the bill described two jokes played on the legislator by his colleagues. A ‘threatening’ letter was sent to him which was signed, “Mock Duck,” and a second one that praised the bill effusively was signed, “Theodore Roosevelt.”
Filed under Laundry Operations
Produced by Yvonne Gall of CBC-Radio, Vancouver, the 1-hour long program “Chinese Laundry Kids“ examines the experiences and memories of several Chinese who grew up working in their family laundries. It aired in April, 2011and on May 2 appeared on their website.
The origins for this program started last May at a fund raising event at Vancouver’s historic Chinatown family restaurant, Foo’s Ho Ho where ‘laundry kids’, Elwin Xie, Judy Fong Bates, and I spoke about our experiences growing up and working to help our parents run laundries. Yvonne was in the audience and found a compelling story in what she learned. A few months later she came to southern California to interview me and to make a visit to West Los Angeles to visit one of the last fully operational Chinese laundries in town. (Laundries should not be confused with “laundromats,” which are not at all the same). Yvonne is to be commended for the outstanding program that she produced for CBC-Radio.
If you miss the program, listen to a downloadable audiofile Chinese Laundry Kids
Following the interview, we visited two of the few remaining Chinese laundries in the Los Angeles area. The Sam Sing Laundry in W. Los Angeles is one of the last standing Chinese laundries in 2011. Jon Wong acquired it from a Chinese in the 1950s, and retained its name. He never had any hired help, relying entirely on family members to run the business. Albert Wong, his son has continued the operation the Sam Sing Laundry for the past 20+ years.
Albert Wong describing operations of the laundry
Some of the pressing machines, vintage 1950s, are still used daily at Sam Sing Laundry. The “Prosperity” brand pressing machine on the left is a shirt press and the two on the right were for pressing flat articles like trousers, sheets, and table cloths. 
The two vertical machines behind the front counter are used for pressing long sleeves on business shirts. 
This view from behind the front counter looks into a storage area. Beyond that area is the kitchen and eating space at Sam Sing Laundry. 
Yvonne Gall of CBC Radio interviews Albert next to his commercial washing machines in the back of the laundry.
We also visited a second laundry at West Pico Chinese Hand Laundry, 10, 516 W. Pico, Los Angeles that was once owned by Chinese but now is operated by a Korean couple. It is not really a ‘hand laundry’ as it may have been a generation or two ago. Despite strong racial hostility toward Chinese and their laundries, hand laundries were often preferred over white-owned steam laundries because clothes were better ironed and less likely to be damaged. Chinese laundries retained the “Hand” in their names long after they became steam laundries. Amy, a Korean, and her husband acquired this small laundry from the previous Chinese owner about 20 years ago. They hired 2 employees to help. Although electric irons have long since replaced the 8 lb. charcoal heated irons, there are 2 or 3 traditional ironing tables in a column along the left side. In the past, some laundrymen would use them as beds after the long workday ended as many of them lived inside their laundries.
Filed under Hard Laundry Lives
I wrote this book, Chinese Laundries, to tell why and how Chinese laundries originated and determined the economic, psychological, and social status of the laundrymen and, for some, their families. First- and second-hand accounts of work and life in their laundries, where many lived in the back, help us see and appreciate how much they achieved despite racial prejudice, hardship, and cultural isolation.
The laundry was the best, and at one time, the only, ‘ticket’ available to Chinese immigrants who came here starting in the middle of the 19th century to seek their fortunes on “Gold Mountain.” However, denied opportunities to most types of work by discriminatory barriers, the hand laundry became their economic lifeline, the meal ticket that enabled them and their descendants to overcome the obstacles confronting them to eventually achieve success on Gold Mountain.
Chinese laundries, born of necessity, became their stereotypical occupation, and in the early 20th century there was at least one located in virtually every town across the land. Today, however, they have all but vanished into history, made obsolete by social and technological changes. Their disappearance makes it all the more important to acknowledge the significant contribution that Chinese laundries made to the history of Chinese in North America.
Filed under Uncategorized
