Questions | Yonkers | Chinese Communities

Life in a Laundry: Chinese in Pre-World War II Yonkers

Document 4

"They (the Chinese) become laundrymen here simply because there is no other occupation by which they can make money as surely and quickly. The prejudice against the race has much to do with it. They are fine cooks, neat and faithful servants, and above all, very skillful mechanics at any trade they have a mind to try. In the Western States, they are used in as many different positions as any other foreigners, and the laundry business is occupied only by those who fail to find other employment.

"But here in New York as yet there is no other alternative. Many an able-minded man as well as skillful mechanic who came to America to better his condition may be found wielding the polishing-irons in a New York Chinese laundry."

Document 4: Excerpt from Wong, Chin Foo. “The Chinese in New York.” Cosmopolitan 5 (March-October 1888): 297-311.

Document 4 Short-Answer Questions

1. Why does the writer believe Chinese become laundryman, and what attitude “has much to do with it”?

Document 3 | Document 5

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