A Chinese Laundryman’s Fantasy of Revenge?

          Chinese laundrymen not only suffered from unfair laws and taxes and physical violence to the point of death, but even children often tormented them with mischievous acts such as throwing mud at washed clothing that a laundryman had hung outside  to dry before ironing.  Social commentators were sometimes sympathetic to

The Hard Life of A Laundryman, Yee Jock Leong (1884-1936)

An in-depth look at the difficult life of an individual Chinese laundryman can be more revealing than generalizations about Chinese laundrymen.  Even though the details will vary with individual laundrymen, there were many common challenges and obstacles that most of them shared from the immigration process, operating a laundry, being separated from family in many

“Laundromat” is NOT a synonym for “Laundry”

Sometime around the 1950s, laundry service became available for people who wanted to save some money and time washing and drying their clothes in small individual washing machines in  “laundromats.” Initially, laundromats were entirely self-service but  eventually some laundromats provided the option of having an attendant wash, dry, and fold the laundry for the customer.