This downloadable 1-hour long CBC-radio documentary produced by Yvonne Gall in April, 2011 examines the impact of growing up in a Chinese laundry as seen by four “laundry kids.” . 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.
Memorabilia Related to the Chinese Laundry
Elwin Xie, who grew up in his family’s Union Laundry in Chinatown, Vancouver. B. C., created a website that includes historic and archival photos, articles, and videos from many sources that document the Chinese laundry across the U. S. and Canada and the people who operated them. He also shares his photographs and memories from his own family’s laundry.
Chinese Laundries Across Canada
As in the U.S., Chinese laundries could be found all across the country as they provided one of the few opportunities for Chinese immigrants to earn a living. The Canadian Museum of Civilization created a virtual exhibit of a Chinese laundry using artifacts from various laundries including many from the Central Laundry that operated for decades in Winnipeg by Ho King in which you first enter a counter area of the laundry, and then a kitchen area where an original documentary shows interviews with the older generation of Chinese laundrymen and their offspring.
Life of A Chinese Laundry Family in England
Frank Wing Yow Soo ‘s father, born in China in 1897, came to England after World War I ended. Frank describes in detail the background of his father’s work in various laundries in different towns before opening his own laundry in Cheltenham, England, and later in Birkenhead. Frank and the rest of the family worked to help their father in the laundry until he converted it into a restaurant in 1958.
