OT: Laundry Fu

[Ming Yue]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbTnRkEn8U8




Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go dump out my tee shirt drawer and refold everything.

[Ming Yue]

... and as long as I'm streamlining...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OazKbYP7Sd0

[SPJ]

I like the first clip.

I had trouble folding the shirts and then stack them in the drawers.

Instead, I just got a whole punch of hangers from target or tar jai,

I just hang all the shirts, so they dun get wrinkle after washing.

--

those were the days.

:D

[David Jamieson]

wow. so much of my life has gone to waste since kindergarten tying my shoes with that old, slow method. now i will finally have the time i need to watch monkeys pee in their own mouth on youtube!

hahahaha, what a great comment on the shoe tying thing.

[GeneChing]

San Mateo is right across the bay from our office.


Oldest Chinese Laundry in the U.S. Closes Shop After 140 Years (http://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/oldest-chinese-laundry-u-s-closes-shop-after-140-years-n675186)
by LING WOO LIU

http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_43/1774226/chingleelaundry_exterior_bobhsiangphotography_3dbf 6cb4be78c368826f3e0609f836ce.nbcnews-fp-1240-520.jpg
Ching Lee Laundry, the oldest Chinese-owned laundry in the U.S. (located in San Mateo, Calif.), closed its doors on October 29, 2016. Bob Hsiang Photography

Ching Lee Laundry, the oldest Chinese-owned laundry in the United States, closed its doors Saturday after 140 years of continuous operations by the same family.

On its final day of operations, a steady stream of the shop's longtime customers, some who've been coming to Ching Lee (which translates to "victory" in Cantonese) for generations themselves, came to bid farewell. Many brought with them flowers, cookies, cards, and tears.

http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_43/1774236/chingleelaundry_femalecustomerhug_bobhsiangphotogr aphy_f40e4193f676eeb710d3f03f318560b5.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg
Jacque Yee, a fourth generation family member to operate Ching Lee Laundry, hugs a long-time customer on October 29, 2016, the day the shop closed its doors. Bob Hsiang Photography

Ching Lee's third-generation owners, Jack Yee and his wife Evelyn, both 87, made the decision to close the shop due to Jack's ailing health, as well as rising costs.

"It deeply saddens me that this era is ending," Jacque Yee, the couple's daughter who has managed the shop with her father for the past 30 years, told NBC News.

In 1876, when Jacque Yee's great granduncle opened the doors of Ching Lee Laundry, he traveled by horse-drawn carriage to pick up laundry 20 miles away in San Francisco. By that time, the Gold Rush had brought tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants to California, but the Yee family was among the very first to make their way south of San Francisco, to suburban San Mateo, which was then home to just 932 people.

http://media2.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_43/1774231/chingleelaundry_carriage_bobhsiangphotography_bd7b 42a3efa1ee1f11aaeae0ce4d1d12.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg
When Ching Lee Laundry opened in 1876, the Yee family rode in horse-drawn carriages to pick up orders. Bob Hsiang Photography

Chinese immigrants dominated the laundry business during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. "Chinese were kicked out of fishing, farming, mining, you name it. They were being excluded from virtually everything else," John Jung, author of "Chinese Laundries," told NBC News. "Plus, out in the West, there were a lot of single men coming out and they weren't going to do their own laundry."

"I'M IN MOURNING. I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING. THANK YOU FOR ALL OF THE MEMORIES."

Reflective of the anti-Chinese sentiment of the late 19th century, a number of laws were enacted to curb the success of Chinese laundries. In 1886, a San Francisco laundry owner tested one of these laws before the U.S. Supreme Court. Yick Wo v. Hopkins challenged a law that forbid laundry businesses from operating in wooden buildings without a permit. The way the law was enforced, however, discriminated against Chinese laundry owners who were rarely granted permits compared to their white counterparts. The high court ruled that a race-neutral law, if administered with prejudice, was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause under the Fourteenth Amendment.

http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_43/1774331/chingleelaundry_lease_lingwooliu_e62064afe26f1b190 70ec8afab92a352.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg
An original 1918 lease for Ching Lee Laundry shows that the Yee family paid $10 per month to rent their shop in San Mateo, Calif. Ling Woo Liu

Another legal strategy that affected Chinese laundries was one that prohibited laundries from operating in specific neighborhoods. In 1897, a federal court ruled in favor of Hong Wah, a laundry owner in San Mateo, who challenged such a law. In its ruling, the court argued that property rights "cannot be deprived by the arbitrary declaration of any law."

Anti-Chinese sentiment in America culminated in the 1882 passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act. The only federal law in history to restrict immigration based on ethnicity, the policy remained in effect until 1943. A 1925 San Mateo phone directory shows that Chow Yee, Jacque's grandfather, was one of only 13 people and businesses with a Chinese name in the entire city. Like Chow Yee, the other Chinese American residents were engaged in service work — from cooks, to laundrymen to gardeners and grocers.

http://media1.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_43/1774241/chingleelaundry_machines_bobhsiangphotography_dc8c 1646103e8b939a55bc1f08e9b8b4.nbcnews-ux-2880-1000.jpg
Laundry pressing machines inside Ching Lee Laundry, which closed its doors after 140 years on October 29, 2016. Bob Hsiang Photography

"The older generations really endured hardships to make their way," Jacque Yee said. "Over the years, we've had so many windows broken by people throwing bricks, and people yelling, 'C*****, go home!'"


Today, one in five people in San Mateo are Asian American, and many of them work in technology. "There's a big disconnect between new Chinese immigrants, many of whom are highly educated and wealthy, who don't relate to the early history of Chinese Americans," Jung said. "What they may not know is that stereotypes from the last 100 years will still influence how they are perceived today."
http://media3.s-nbcnews.com/j/newscms/2016_43/1774246/chingleelaundyr_malecustomerhug_bobhsiangphotograp hy_b94cff919b1b908fb49d1010cac46f8c.nbcnews-ux-600-480.jpg
Jacque Yee, a fourth generation family member to operate Ching Lee Laundry, hugs a long-time customer on October 29, 2016, the day the shop closed its doors. Bob Hsiang Photography

More than history, Jacque Yee said that what was lost today was also a sense of community. Many of her most loyal customers packed Ching Lee's tiny waiting area in the final hour before it closed its doors for good. As each person came through the door, Yee greeted them by name, asked about their families and their health, and knew the specifics of the stains on their orders.

"I'm in mourning," said Therese Ryan of San Mateo, who started coming to Ching Lee in the 1970s. "I just can't believe this is happening. Thank you for all of the memories."

[GeneChing]

I luv San Francisco.


SF's Oldest Gay Bar Will Seriously Become a 'Kung Fu' Laundromat (https://sf.eater.com/2017/8/9/16120802/sf-gangway-oldest-gay-bar-kozy-kar-laundromat-owner)
Kozy Kar’s owner has applied to take over the Gangway
by Caleb Pershan Aug 9, 2017, 2:33pm PDT

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/tqfu4RzuySlISPzRsFguNXv7yR8=/0x0:632x669/920x613/filters:focal(331x349:431x449):format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/56130631/thegangways.0.jpg
Kevin Y./Yelp

A new owner for San Francisco’s oldest gay bar, The Gangway, may soon make it over as a laundromat with a kung fu theme, of all things. According to a pending liquor license transfer first spotted by the Chronicle, Sam Young, who owns the Boogie Nights-inspired Polk Street dive bar Kozy Kar, has plans to take over the bar at 841 Larkin, where the nautical Gangway opened in 1910 and came out, so to speak, as a gay establishment in 1961.

Current owner Jung Lee has tried to sell the bar before, though unsuccessfully, and a bartender tells Eater that no money has changed hands on the current deal. Young declined to speak to the Chronicle and has scrupulously avoided contact with Eater, but confirmed to SFist that the name of the business on his transfer application — Kung Fu Action Theater & Laundry — isn’t some kind of ruse. Young sincerely wants to open an actual laundromat in an area that doesn’t have many of them, one that would also screen kung fu movies for patrons waiting on their laundry. It’s not clear how the proposed laundromat would put The Gangway’s liquor license to use, if at all.

One could call Kozy Kar (1548 Polk at Sacremento) another film-focused business, in the sense that it plays 1970s porn on loop. “Custom vans, eight track players, CB radios, waterbeds, chain steering wheels, shag, mirrored ceilings, [and] van bar seats” are “just some of the amenities,” Kozy Kar advertises on its website, where it also flaunts negative Yelp reviews. “This place is gross and weird. I hate it,” one quoted reviewer declares, “I would give it 0 stars if I could” reads another. In 2009, the bar drew criticism for going so far as to post photos of negative Yelp reviewers in an effort to shame them. That didn’t appear to bother Young. “The more that is written about kozy kar, the more popular it will become,” he wrote in Eater’s comments section at the time. “There is no such thing as bad press.” In 2015 patrons criticized a sign at the bar that joked about date rape — that might have been bad press.

To be sure, The Gangway is a salty bar in its own right. Like Aunt Charlie’s on Turk Street, it’s a holdover from a time when the Tenderloin held its own vibrant gay scene, and like much of the neighborhood, it’s a little rough around the edges. A deal to sell the bar materialized last year but later fell through. That gives morning bartender John David a bit of hope. “We’ve been here before, an we’re not closing just yet,” he tells Eater.

These days, says David, the Gangway is “a busy neighborhood” spot. “Everybody’s here, everyone from the Uber yuppies to the older veterans. It’s a come as you are sort of place.”

“I can’t tell the future, but nothing will change until at least the end of the August,” he reassures patrons.

[GeneChing]

Interesting read. I'm skeptical of the shipping laundry to Hong Kong story.


https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/landscape/public/d8/images/2018/09/19/cropped2.jpg?itok=dOkEfNyW

IDENTITY
Why the Chinese laundry stereotype persists (https://www.goldthread2.com/identity/why-chinese-laundry-stereotype-persists/article/3000121)
Sierra Chiao
SEP 19, 2018
In this ad from the 1970s, detergent maker Calgon depicts its soap as the “ancient Chinese secret” behind Chinese laundromats.

The stereotype of the Chinese laundry gets routinely parodied in the media, because so many Americans are familiar with the small, Chinese-owned laundry.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJP5f-fsHrs

To trace the origins of this, we have to go back to the California gold rush of 1849. Initially, the thousands of Chinese men who moved to the west worked in mines, but by the ‘70s, growing anti-Chinese sentiment blocked entire industries from them, including mining, farming, and fishing.

There was increased prejudice against the Chinese community because the flood of immigrants competed for work, especially unskilled labor.

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An ad for detergent saying: "We have no use for them since we got this." / Photo: Alamy

The male-dominated scene of the gold rush did mean one thing though: no one wanted to do their laundry; it was considered a woman’s job. So clothes were shipped from California to Hong Kong to be washed for $12 per dozen shirts—taking several weeks—and later, to Honolulu for $8 per dozen. It was cheaper and faster than sending clothes back to the East Coast.

Seeing the opportunity, the first Chinese-owned laundry in America, Wah Lee, opened in San Francisco in 1851, pricing its services at $5 per dozen shirts.

Since many Americans of European descent didn’t want to be in businesses such as laundry, restaurants, and construction, the jobs ended up being filled by Chinese migrants. By 1870, laundries were almost exclusively Chinese-owned.

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Sam Wing Laundry in Alberta. / Photo: Alamy

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A Chinese laundry man from the 1920s. / Photo: Alamy
By 1870, laundries were almost exclusively Chinese-owned.

The lack of opportunities for Chinese migrants meant that many ended up staying in the laundry business. After all, it was easy to start your own business as laundries required no existing practical or language skill sets, no start up capital apart from soap, an iron, and a scrub board, and rent was saved by living in-store.

Literacy wasn’t a requirement either. A laundryman recounts the story of how some of them, illiterate to the point they couldn’t write numbers, drew circles that were the same size and quantity of coins required.

Many of the Chinese laundries won business by charging 15 percent less than white-owned laundries, but put up with gruelling 16-hour work days in uncomfortable work environments.

https://cdn.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/1320w/public/d8/images/2018/09/19/jgmwgy_jgmwgy.jpg
1879: The Laundry of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. / Photo: Alamy

Slowly, things changed. During WWII, anti-Chinese sentiment quieted and 1882’s Chinese Exclusion Act from 60 years prior was finally repealed, opening up industries and opportunities to a new generation of Chinese immigrants.

Today, the laundry business is hardly Chinese-dominated. But the community continues to be associated with the stereotype, thanks to the years their forefathers spent scrubbing the dirt out of customers’ clothes.

Sierra Chiao
Sierra Chiao is an intern with Goldthread, and is currently attending Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Catch her in the bubble tea line!