An animated cartoon by Max Fleisher in 1929 used stereotypical and derogatory imagery of Chinese laundrymen set to the lyrics of the iconic song “Chinatown, My Chinatown,” which depicted the Chinese with “almond eyes of brown” as opium smokers “driftin to and from in dreamy, dreamy Chinatown.”
American Media Use of Racist Imagery of Chinese Laundrymen
Published by John Jung
A retired university professor of psychology, I am researching, writing, and speaking about aspects of Chinese American history related to the family-run businesses such as laundries, restaurants, and grocery stores that so many early immigrants operated to survive because racial discrimination excluded them from most other occupations. My interest originally stemmed from growing up and helping with work in my parents' Sam Lee Laundry in Macon, Georgia, where we were the only Chinese in the whole city from the late 1920s to the 1950s. View more posts
Chinese Laundries 
The St. Mary’s drum corps of SF Chinatown plays this song. Do they realize the lyrics?