Remembering The Wards Chinese People By Billy Truong

Remembering The Ward’s Chinese People By: Billy Truong

How This Would Look Like on Your Phone The App is called: “Remembering The Ward’s Chinese”

The Tour - Commemorating Chinese Immigrants

Stop 1: Yuen Hing Co. (24 Elizabeth St. ) Then: Yuen Hing Co Laundry Now: Nathan Phillips Square

Yuen Hing Co. About Chinese Laundries The Yuen Hing Co. laundry is a popular laundry that is spoken about today. Looking back, Chinese immigrants were unable to find jobs due to racism of white employers so they instead ran their own laundry businesses. Their goal was to have an affordable and valuable service that attracted single men in the workforce since laundry was considered a women’s duty at the time. The working conditions were terrible for Chinese people. They had to work in small and confined spaces, live in their shops to save expenses, and wash clothes by hand. Though the Chinese people were already suffering from the working conditions, they also faced discrimination and racism from the media and other competing laundry businesses. The white owners of competing laundry shops were trying to get the competitive edge against the Chinese laundry owners, spreading rumours that the Chinese laundries were dirty and would spread disease. They also considered Chinese laundry owners as evil because they were supposedly pushing white people out of business when in reality they were not.

Stop 2: Ghong Yee Laundry (48 Elizabeth St. ) Then: Ghong Yee Laundry Now: Give a Maracle a Chance + NPS

Ghong Yee Laundry About Chinese Laundries The Ghong Yee Laundry is another great example of the laundry businesses that existed in the ward. In continuation of Chinese laundries from the last stop, we will be talking about what these people are like. The people that ran these businesses were very goodhearted. The goal of these people were to make money to send back home. Some wanted to bring their families over and some wanted to support their families overseas and later return home. In their spare time, these people would watch performances, listen to Cantonese operas in halls and theatres, gambled, or attended English classes.

Stop 3: Joe’s Cafe & Chop Suey (56 Elizabeth St. ) Then: Joe’s Cafe & Chop Suey Restaurant Now: New City Hall

Joe’s Cafe & Chop Suey Historical Fact! Joe’s Cafe & Chop Suey was one of the more popular and historical Chinese restaurants at the time. It was owned by Keung and Henry Mah, and lost its licence after the Police Commission considered it as a “dive and cesspool”, as well as a suspected meeting place for prostitutes and criminals. History of Chinese Cafe and Restaurants: Unable to find jobs due to race, Chinese immigrants had decided to start up their own businesses and ran cafes and restaurants. This required them to work long hours in order to profit, as these stores were open from early morning to late at night everyday. In order to further increase their profits, the Chinese had to give up the luxury of sleeping in a house and instead slept in their stores. Having said, the Chinese people did not just face the hardships of running a business, but also faced discrimination. White people and the media often spread rumours about Chinese shopkeepers, saying that they imposed a threat to young white women and that their stores were a “den of iniquity”. Furthermore, Chinese shopkeepers suffered from disrespectful racist customers, as people would leave without paying, break and throw rocks at their windows, and broke furniture and dishes.

Stop 4: New Chinatown