>Tang Xiaoxian: The first Chinese laundry in Phoenix

Tang Xiaoxian: The first Chinese laundry in Phoenix Phoenix City Tang Xiaoxian On February 9, 1848 (the 28th year of Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty), the first person from Guangdong Province, China...

Phoenix City Tang Xiaoxian

On February 9, 1848 (the 28th year of Emperor Daoguang’s reign in the Qing Dynasty), the American ship "American Eagle" sailed from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China to California, the United States for the first time. After 46 days of sailing, it finally arrived in San Francisco. Two Chinese men and a Chinese woman who came aboard the ship became the first batch of Chinese immigrants. At this time, it was just the second month after the news of the discovery of gold mines in California came out. As news of the discovery of gold mines in California spread to China, the number of Chinese who came to California increased to 325 in 1849 and 2,716 in 1851. In 1865, the number of Chinese immigrants surged to 50,000, 90% of whom were young men. The number of Chinese people is increasing, and Chinatown, a Chinese settlement area, is beginning to take shape. In addition to gold mining and railway construction, Chinese people also make a living by opening Chinese restaurants and laundries. The local English newspaper in San Francisco reported that more than 300 people attended a Chinese dinner in 1849; in 1851, the first Chinese laundry opened in San Francisco. After the completion of the railway across the east and west of the United States, a large number of Chinese workers poured into the city from the settlements at the railway construction sites. By 1870, Chinese workers in San Francisco accounted for half of the total number of employees in the city's four major industries. Many Americans believed that the Chinese had taken away their jobs. In the 1870s, a large-scale anti-Chinese wave occurred in the western United States. During the large-scale anti-Chinese wave in California, in June 1872 (the eleventh year of Tongzhi in the Qing Dynasty), five Chinese, three men and two women, left San Francisco, which has a pleasant climate all year round, and took a caravan, braving the scorching heat, dust and fatigue all the way to Phoenix, an inland city in the Arizona Territory that was hot and dry all year round and had just over a thousand residents, to start their new careers. They were the first Chinese to arrive in Phoenix and opened the first Chinese laundry in Phoenix. The laundromat opened in what was later to be Phoenix's first Chinatown area, covering eight blocks near the intersection of Adams Street and Montezuma Street (First Street). The so-called laundry is just a simple mud-brick house with a tent. In early Chinese laundries, washing, ironing, sewing, etc. were all done by hand. The laundromat is not only a place of work, but also a place where Chinese people eat and live, and their lives are almost isolated from the outside world. Chinese laundries are generally family-run workshops based on blood ties. The first Chinese laundromat in Phoenix was operated with integrity, high-quality service, and low fees, winning customer satisfaction. It also monopolized the laundry industry in Phoenix at that time, so that white laundromat owners had to place racist advertisements in newspapers to attack Chinese laundries in order to survive. In 1881, the Phoenix City Council declared that the non-brick "laundry room" was a public obstruction and must be demolished. Later a laundry license tax was imposed. Many people were fined for running laundromats without a license. In other parts of the Arizona Territory, there were Chinese before 1872. In 1872, the first group of five Chinese, three men and two women, came to Phoenix to open the first Chinese laundry. This historical fact was first seen in Thomas Edwin Farish: History of Arizona, published in 1915. It is also described in "Pioneer & Military Memorial Park Archaeological Project in Phoenix, Arizona 1990-1992 Volume 2" edited by K. J. Schroeder and published in 1994. This historical fact is also reported in Vince Murray & Scott Solliday: City of Phoenix Asian American Historic Property Survey, co-authored by Vince Murray and Scott Solliday, published in 2007. Today, the names of these five Chinese ancestors in Phoenix, their relationships, and the name and specific address of the first Chinese laundry they opened are all unknown. However, their spirit of enduring hardships, starting from scratch, defying discrimination, and working hard still inspires generations of Chinese compatriots.

Oil painting of a Chinese laundry from 1880. The first Chinatown plan in Phoenix surveyed in 1889, including 8 blocks adjacent to the intersection of Adams Street and Montezuma Street (First Street)

A sketch of a Chinese laundromat painted by a Western painter, which was published in a San Francisco English newspaper in the late 19th century