Chinese Begin Move From Laundry to Restaurant Business

Operating hand laundries were one of the few occupations available to Chinese immigrants in the mid to late 19th century. They came to dominate the laundry business, as described in a 1907 news article, until the early 20th century when white-owned steam laundries began to operate. In the 1920s demand for Chinese hand laundry services began to

Did Chinese “Create” the Laundry Business

Before the last half of the 19th century, most people throughout the world washed and ironed their own laundry, or had that chore done by domestic servants who also cooked meals and took care of young children.  Chinese immigrants in the U.S., and many other countries, may have “created” the laundry business. This occupation was

Two Women, Possibly White, Buy A Chinese Laundry

  When Chinese laundries change owners, the typical situation involves new or younger Chinese buying the business of a retiring Chinese laundryman.  In 1962, however, the Decatur, Illinois newspaper reported that Mrs. June Lafferty and Mrs. Shirley J. Mann, who don’t seem to be Chinese, bought the Sam Lee Laundry that allegedly dated back to

One of the Last Remaining Chinese Laundries Today

Excerpt from 2012 RTHK (Hong Kong) documentary on Chinese laundries.  After showing some media examples depicting extremely hostile attitudes toward Chinese laundrymen, I make  a visit to the Sam Sing laundry in West Los Angeles, one of the few remaining full service Chinese laundries still remaining to interview retired owner Jon Wong. Sam Sing Laundry

Fast Disappearing Chinese Laundries of New York City

A New York City blogger, Jeremiah Moss, who laments the vanishing landscape of long standing sites of New York City has described the closing of several Chinese laundries.   Moss noted that the Greenwich village Chinese laundry of Harry Chong that operated for 60 years no longer exists. Similarly, Lee’s Laundry in Greenwich Village closed in 2009

Early Chinese Laundries in North Carolina

Chinese laundries across the state of North Carolina in the late 19th and early 20th century sometimes received newspaper coverage. Some stories simply reported the opening or relocation of a laundry, while others dealt with human interest accounts of  some of the laundrymen and their lives. Some laundries paid for small advertisements of their services and

Images of Violence Against Laundrymen And A Visit To A Laundry Still Here Today

Around the end of the 19th century, graphic images of physical violence toward Chinese were common.  Using laundrymen to represent all Chinese, there were numerous newspaper and magazine drawings depicting physical attacks on them. I describe and show several of these images and read a short children’s song mocking the laundryman. Such images both reflected

Sam Lee Laundry, Champaign, IL (from 1920 or earlier until 1970s)

Sam Lee Laundry was one of the two most common names, the other being Sing Lee,  for Chinese laundries judging from business directories.  “Sam Lee” actually refers to a concept that can be loosely translated as “threefold profits” and not as the name of the proprietor of the business.  However, many customers would assume it

White Steam Laundries versus Chinese Hand Laundries

The early domination of Chinese laundries relied on hand irons, which was very laborious and time consuming.  At the end of the 19th century, steam powered laundry pressing equipment was changing the business. A Chicago Tribune article in 1901 praised the growth of the steam laundry and concluded that “in Chicago it is driving the Chinaman

Creating Negative Images of The Chinese Laundryman

A Chicago newspaper, Daily Inter Ocean, published an article in 1876,  “The Heathen Chinee as an Element of Chicago’s Population,”     that depicted Chinese laundrymen in unflattering terms. These views were typical of how Chinese laundrymen were portrayed across the country then and they persisted for many decades. “They come here, live on the cheapest