Here are some personal reflections and musings on the history of the Chinese laundry and the central role it played for the Chinese immigrants in North America from the late 19th to the mid 20th century. Why did these Chinese, who after all were not laundrymen in their homeland, become laundry operators in the U. S. as well as throughout the world? What social conditions led them into washing and ironing dirty clothes of other people as a means of economic survival?
Why did these immigrants come to America and what obstacles confronted them? Why were they, as a entire group, excluded by American law in 1882, despite their major contributions to society such as in building the railroads and farming the land? How did they overcome this barrier and other discriminatory laws directed against them?
What did running a laundry involve on a day to day basis? How might this life affected the direction that their children followed as they grew up? What lessons did their children learn that helped them rise from such menial beginnings into pursuit and achievement in prestigious and creative professional careers?
And, even though they are now as rare as drive-in movie theaters, how did the laundry contribute as one of the major, if not the most important, economic engines for the Chinese, allowing them and their children to succeed in America despite the racist animosity and hostility from white America?"
Click to view 61: Images of Some Old Chinese laundries
