Enduring Hardship: The Chinese Laundry in Canada

Gary Watson is a former lecturer in Chinese studies at Queen’s University and is now a multimedia developer in Mississauga.

Once a common feature of Canada’s urban landscape, Chinese hand
laundries survived largely unchanged until the 1960s, when synthetic
fabrics, dry cleaning, and improved home appliances made them less
important to many Canadian families. For many early Chinese immigrant
men, though, the laundry was among the few businesses that allowed them
to thrive, marry, and raise families in their new home.

Ban Seng Hoe’s concise and informative study of laundries and their
owners narrates the struggles these businesses faced. White Canadian
communities rarely welcomed early Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs,
despite the quality services they delivered. Several municipalities
actively discriminated against laundries by means of artificially high
business tax rates. Local newspapers in the early 1900s often ran
sensational but baseless stories about the unsanitary conditions in
Chinese laundries. Despite such difficulties, the laundrymen persevered
and prospered within the narrow space early 20th-century Canadian
society allowed them.

The real strength of Hoe’s study rests on careful research, much of
it based on interviews with surviving laundry workers and owners. They
tell their own stories of hard work, long hours, and frustration with
their marginalization, leaving little doubt about the difficulties many
early laundrymen faced throughout their lives. Particularly welcome are
the many excellent archival photos that show detailed laundry interiors,
technology, and locations in Canada’s developing cities. Enduring
Hardship is a valuable addition to the expanding historical and social
science literature on Canada’s vibrant Chinese communities.