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    Chinese Laundrymen: Macon, Georgia 1884-1956
    Chinese Laundrymen: Macon, Georgia 1884-1956
    Chinese Laundrymen: Macon, Georgia 1884-1956
    Ebook111 pages56 minutes

    Chinese Laundrymen: Macon, Georgia 1884-1956

    By John Jung

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    About this ebook

    A history of Chinese immigrants, all bachelors except one, who settled in Macon, Georgia, where they all ran laundries starting as early as 1884. All were gone by the late 1920s, except for the only one who had a wife and children, and by 1956, they had departed leaving Macon with no Chinese residents. Why did these Chinese come to the Deep South where they were so culturally isolated during a time when extreme racial prejudices existed throughout the region? What were their lives like and how did the Macon community regard them?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherYin and Yang Press
    Release dateSep 28, 2019
    ISBN9781393749325
    Chinese Laundrymen: Macon, Georgia 1884-1956
    Author

    John Jung

     John Jung is a retired psychology professor whose memoir, Southern Fried Rice: Life in A Chinese Laundry in the Deep South described the lives of his immigrant parents and his siblings, the sole Chinese family in Macon, Georgia, where they operated a laundry from the 1920s to 1950s during the pre-civil rights era . Three additional books explore how Chinese immigrants from the late 1800s through the middle of the 20th century overcame harsh societal prejudices and laws against them to succeed in running family businesses such as laundries, grocery stores and restaurants.The goal of these books is to inspire, educate, and preserve the history of the many contributions of the Chinese to American society. His latest book, A Chinese American Odyssey: How a Retired Psychologist Makes a Hit as an Historian, describes the process and experience of a decade of research, writing, and speaking about Chinese American history.

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      Book preview

      Chinese Laundrymen - John Jung

      Why Chinese Opened Laundries?

      DOING LAUNDRY IN CHINA, as throughout the world, has traditionally been the task of women, not men.  Why then did the Chinese, almost entirely men, who emigrated to the U.S. and other countries in the mid to late 19th century enter the laundry business.  Chinese laundries became so prevalent among Chinese that the laundryman became a stereotype of Chinese men. But as a laundry trade journal noted, this situation is a bit odd since there were no laundries in China.

      A close up of a newspaper Description automatically generated

      THE STORY OF WHY SO many Chinese operated laundries for well over a century starting in the 1850s cannot be fully understood without a study of the historical and cultural context in which they developed. What circumstances led to the Chinese diaspora of thousands of Chinese men and boys from Guangdong province in southeast China starting in the middle of the 19th century to areas such as California, the Pacific Northwest, and Canada as well as to other distant parts of the world?

      What factors led to the discrimination and racism the Chinese encountered in these host countries that eventually led to laws excluding Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S. and Canada and denied them the opportunity to become naturalized and have voting rights? How did the Chinese manage to still gain entry despite these adverse conditions?

      What set of conditions in the mid to late 19th century created an unprecedented increased need for providers of laundry service?  With the industrial revolution, the U. S. moved from an agrarian society of farmers to an urbanized society of factory workers, office workers, and merchants living in closer proximity in growing cities and towns, conditions that called for clean clothing that were less important for farm workers. 

      Additionally, greater awareness and concerns about the diseases caused by germs by the 1800s increased the desire for clean clothes as well as bathing. Being able to afford clean clothes became a marker of higher social standing. Finally, from a moral view, cleanliness became a virtue next to Godliness.

      In the 19th century frontiers of the west, women available to do laundry work were few, and ships transported laundry to Hawaii for washing, a costly and time-consuming solution. In the large cities of the East, crowded housing conditions did not allow laundry to be done easily in residences, flats, and apartments. These conditions made it possible for the first time in history that doing laundry became a business opportunity. All these factors served to create an increasing need for laundry services.

      Denied entry to many forms of work including mining, fishing, logging, farming, and factory work during the mid-19th century, Chinese immigrants started washee washee laundry businesses, an occupation unattractive to whites. Washing and ironing laundry day and night, week after week, and year after year was no easy way to earn a living but it was one of the few options available to the Chinese.

      Chinese came to dominate the hand laundry business for decades in the last half of the 19th century before the rise of steam laundries operated by whites. Some ineffective opposition to Chinese laundrymen came from Irish and black washerwomen involved as domestics doing laundry for households, but Chinese laundries concentrated on clothing of workers, merchants, and businessmen rather than those of children and women. Much stronger attacks on Chinese laundries came later from white operators of steam laundries.

      The low cost of starting and operating a hand laundry was a major reason why so many Chinese immigrants entered this type of work.  Around 1900, it cost about $500 to buy a laundry, a considerable sum at that time especially since white-run banks would not make loans to Chinese.  A large sum of capital was needed to run an import business or restaurant as they involved an inventory of goods, supplies, or equipment. Starting a laundry required far less capital. Still, according to one estimate, the costs were still considerable and beyond the means of new immigrants. It would take many years for an individual to save enough from his meager wages to buy his own laundry.

      Pooling of funds and rotation of credit were common practices for starting small business enterprises by Chinese and other Asian immigrant groups as a strategy for quickly raising larger sums of capital for an individual with insufficient funds.

      The woi or hui was a mechanism that provided a pooled source of funds from, say, about 20 to 30 other Chinese who each contributed the same amount.  Everyone wanting to obtain the pooled amount made a secret bid as to how much interest they would be willing to pay to receive the total amount, and the highest bidder wins.  The other participants had the right to bid again in future months.  This process is repeated each month until every member gets a chance to receive the large

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