Our mission is to provide resources and support for the local Asian, South Asian, Pacific Islander American community, and increase the visibility and representation of the Asian American diaspora in Evanston’s civic, cultural and community spaces through the arts.
Business & Occupations: Laundry
For Chinese immigrants a major industry was the laundry business.
The earliest record of Chinese immigrants running a laundry in Evanston is from 1888, the time Wong Aloy arrived. Here we see two Chinese immigrants Sam Sing and El Lee (In fact Wong Aloy knew them) running laundries in Evanston.
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Chinese men were the first ASPA immigrants to come to Evanston and many found Laundry work, which was not something that Chinese men did back in China, one of the few lines of work open to them. In fact, Wong Aloy’s first job in San Francisco was in a laundry. The expansion of Chinese laundries extended to the Midwest, with the first Chicago store opening in 1872. By 1920, 30% of all immigrants from China worked in laundries.