The Chinese Laundryman: A Study of Social Isolation

by John Kuo Wei. Tchen, Paul C. Siu, John Kuo Wei. Tchen

Book Overview

Chinese hand laundries have been a fixture of America's urban landscape for over one hundred years. Yet little is publicly known about the workings of this familiar institution which originated shortly after Chinese immigrants had started to arrive in some numbers in California in the 1850s. At that time the Chinese worked in a wide range of occupations, hand laundries being one of them.
But with the faltering of the Western economy and as...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0814778747
• ISBN13: 9780814778746
• Release Date: June 1988
• Publisher: New York University Press
• Length: 354 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Chinese Laundryman: A Study of Social Isolation

This book is a MUST-READ for anyone interested in understanding Chinese Chicago in the 1930s from an "insider's perspective."Although the book centers on the lives of Chinese laundrymen, the countless interviews detailed throughout the book helps the reader understand what life must have been like for the average Chinese in Chicago not just that of Chinese landrymen.