Chinese Launderer: Difference between revisions
m
clean up
m (update links) |
m (clean up) |
||
Line 4:
Prior to the invention and mass production of modern laundry machines, doing laundry was a lengthy, hot, dirty and tiring chore. Naturally, many people turned to professional launderers to get the job done. In [[The Wild West]], many of these launderers were Chinese in origin. Since they were barred by law or custom from most other occupations, and they were willing to do hard work for low pay, this was seen as a good opportunity by the immigrants. Indeed, at one point, Chinese immigrants operated 89% of the laundries in San Francisco, and had a strong presence in other cities and towns.
Perhaps the most famous real life
By the 1930s, [[Big Applesauce|New York City]] had around 3550 Chinese-run laundries, proudly displaying "Hand Laundry" signs to show their commitment to [[Good Old Ways|traditional methods]]. Unfortunately, in an effort to drive the [[Yellow Peril|"dangerous foreigners"]] out of the city, laws were passed in 1933 to among other things restrict ownership of laundries to American citizens. (The laws of the time prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens.) After negotiations by the traditional Chinese social organizations failed, the openly leftist Chinese Hand Laundry Association was formed to fight this discrimination. They did a very good job at this, and in helping support their Chinese homeland against the Japanese invasion with infusions of cash. Unfortunately, in the 1950s, the [[Red Scare]] smeared the CHLA as "Communist" and membership sharply declined.
Line 10:
This trope also exists in the [[United Kingdom]], and is often associated with the London district of Limehouse, which was home to many Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (there is little sign of this today, with London's Chinatown having moved elsewhere).
Subsequent technological and social developments have pretty much killed off the
In most fiction, the Chinese launderer is a [[Funny Foreigner]], spouting [[Asian Speekee Engrish|pidgin English]] and clashing with customers over the amount of starch in shirts. They sometimes have bit parts in mysteries set in the appropriate time period, due to the use of laundry marks to identify where a piece of clothing has been.
Line 48:
* There was an episode of ''[[The Lone Ranger]]'' where a Chinese launderer not only had to deal with prejudice from the locals, but some bandits kidnapped his wife.
* The pilot episode of ''[[The A-Team]]'' had a scene in which Hannibal disguises himself as a "Mr. Lee" and meets with a prospective client at a laundry. Clients in later episodes [[Continuity Nod|would mention also having met]] Mr. Lee.
** Amusingly subverted in that while Hannibal plays Mr. Lee as a stereotypical
* ''[[Red Dwarf]]'': Curiously, despite being a corporation-owned mining vessel, the ''Dwarf'' still has a Chinese laundry.
* ''[[Get Smart]]'' seems to have a weird obsession with
* The ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode ''The Talons of Weng-Chiang'' features a Chinese Laundry, justified by being set in [[Victorian London]].
* Farnum from ''[[Deadwood]]'' tries to disguise delivery of a corpse in a wheelbarrow full of laundry to chinese pig-farmer Wu.
* The entrance to [[Special Unit 2]] underground headquarters is located in a dry cleaners run by an Asian man. Then a punk with a revolver runs in demanding all the money in the cash register. Every employee (including the Asian guy) then reveal themselves to be undercover cops by pointing their [[Hand Cannon
== Music ==
Line 94:
* A Chinese laundry gets attacked by a robotic "monster" in the fourth ''[[An American Tail]]'' movie.
* A Chinese laundry appears in the [[Daffy Duck]] short "China Jones".
* There's a
== Real Life ==
| |||