Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Summer/105/Section 15/Joe Shing

Joe Shing
Born	1893
Occupation	Laundry Store Owner

Overview

Clothes are hung up to dry along an old streetway. Image Credit- "Laundry"

Joe Shing was a Chinese immigrant who owned a laundry store in Spartanburg, South Carolina in the 1930’s. He was interviewed by Ruth D. Henderson for the Federal Writers Project on December 24, 1938.

Biography

Early Life

Shing was born in Polo, a small town near Canton, China in October of 1893. He lived on a farm with his parents and at least three brothers, where they raised cotton, corn, and potatoes among other produce. While Shing stated earnings from the crops were “very little”, it was enough to provide the basic necessities for the family. He expressed gratitude for being able to raise everything needed to eat, as others in cities often went hungry or starved to death because food was so scarce at times.

The schools he attended held stark contrasts to those of China in the 1930s. Shing’s school held long hours with strict rules and most of his studies focused on teaching the history of patriotic and religious leaders, such as Confucius. While Shing claimed many elderly Chinese believed in idols, he noted that China also had many Protestants and Catholics “just like America.”

When missionaries came to China, Shing’s family- like many others- learned about America and started to hope to move to the “great country.” They continued to work on the farm until his father had saved enough to make a trip on his own, where he was unable to contact the family for months to share that he had successfully gotten a job. Once Shing heard back from his dad, he said he became “the happiest boy in China, maybe all the world.”

Luoshenfu by Gu Kaizhi (344–406 AD)

Adult Life

Career

Around the age of eighteen, Shing was also able to move to America, where he resided in San Francisco, California for three years working at his first job as a clerk in a Chinese grocery store. He claimed the job was one of the “greatest factors” in giving him an adequate start in the new country as he met others of his own race and could easily communicate in his native tongue. Similar on the farm, where he was not earning much, Shing worked diligently to make ends meet.

In 1914, Shing departed from San Francisco and arrived in Chicago, Illinois. There, his cousin offered Shing and his brother a job at his Chinese café, which is where they worked until 1918 when Shing saved enough money to start a laundry business in Athens, Georgia. The business lasted only two years, which Shing criticized as “very much bad luck.” Shing, similar to many traditional Chinese people, believed in certain superstitions to guide his life.

After losing his business, Shing moved to his present home in Spartanburg where he acquired a laundry store that had been in operation for over fifty years, started by Shing’s cousin, Joe Whot. This store became where Shing worked and lived, “embodying not only his business but also his home and all his worldly possessions.” The living area where he ate, slept, and cooked was confined to a small corner in the back of his two-story building, with surroundings flourished by authentic Chinese decorations.

Distinctive Chinese-style architecture characterizes the streets of San Francisco's historic Chinatown, one of the oldest and largest in the United States. Image Credit- "Chinatown"

Life as a Laundry Proprietor

Shing represented a typical Chinese immigrant at the time, who was lower-class and relied on working long hours of physically demanding labor to make a living. Almost all his time was spent at work, leaving little room for a social life or days off. His work was in a dimly-lit and condensed space and the laundry equipment he used was basic and unrefined. Shing employed two African American women to divide responsibilities, but he stated he still handled the “special work” of those who were hard to please. His business charged 25 cents for two shirts, twenty cents for dresses, and two cents for collars, which averaged 20% less than those of modern laundries.

Personal Life

While Shing had considered marriage in San Francisco, he claimed that he had decided to wait until he had “plenty money” for both himself and his wife. At forty-five years old, he was still unmarried and indicated that he had never been able to support two people with the minimum wages he was making. He stated he was “too old now to marry”, giving the assumption that he never would have a spouse.

The hardest task Shing ever faced, according to him, was learning English. Shing revealed he spent several hours daily when he first arrived in America, putting Chinese symbols to English letters, only to receive slow progress. He remained sensitive about his inability to fluently speak English as he claimed Americans looked down upon those who did not readily speak and understand the language.

Visiting China

Shing made three trips back to China after his arrival to America, the last one being in 1932. He noted that the China he remembered had changed drastically to be replaced with a country that replicated America. Shing stated that when he was 25 years younger, China did not have schools, roads, or automobiles. “New China” as he called the current China, had schools, good roads, many automobiles, and universities. The Chinese government, originally ruled by an emperor, changed to a republic, which improved the country according to Shing who claimed, “China lot better… Everybody have good time now.”

Social Context

The Great Depressions Toil on the Asian-American Community

Unemployed men outside a soup kitchen in Depression-era Chicago, Illinois, the US, 1931.

The Great Depression, the longest economic recession in modern world history, affected the majority of Americans throughout the 20th century. Among those severely impacted was the Asian-American community.

All around the nation, stories of devastatingly low unemployment rates, debt, starvations, house evictions, and increased suicides were reported in Asian-American communities. The economic fallout of the Depression substantially reduced consumer demand and the pricing of goods. Between 1929 to 1933, economic output fell by 52%, wholesale prices by 38%, and real income by 35% throughout the US. Many Asian Americans, who were already undercharging for their goods and services in comparison to their white colleagues, had to decrease their prices further to compete in the market. Along with other minorities, they were more susceptible during times of economic crisis as they were at the bottom of the labor market. In addition, Chinese Laundrymen throughout the East Coast were greatly affected as their earnings were cut by 50%.

"Probably the single most notable and painful feature of the Great Depression was not its depth, but its duration. It blighted the land for more than a decade."

In the United States, the Growth Domestic Product (GDP) rate fell by 50% in 1931. Company profits, which had been 10% GNP in 1929, went negative as customers decreased their spending rates and prices fell from $79 billion to $64.6 billion. Due to the reduced spending, 13,000,000 workers or 25% of the workforce lost their jobs over 4 years. Among the first who were laid off were Asian Americans who were forced to migrate home- seeking either to find more opportunities in their mainland or searching for temporary relief from the economic downturn.

"I remember wearing sneakers with holes in them. I would patch the shoes with cardboard and not tell my parents. We didn’t want to bother them, you know, they had enough to worry about. They worked so hard.” Lillian Louie, a child of Chinese immigrants in New York Chinatown during the Great Depression wrote in her journal.

Not only were conditions harsh in America, but the impact of the era was felt beyond borders. Asian-American immigrants often kept in contact with families in their homeland by letters and mail, many even financially supporting them by sending checks and “remittances” towards building homes, schools, and hospitals in China. When the Depression reduced wages and funds could no longer be sent, this worsened conditions back home and on those who relied on the money. Both sides of the Pacific faced stricken conditions throughout the Great Depression era.

Anti-Immigrant Sentiment, Racism, and Xenophobia in the 1900's

Anti-Chinese Wall cartoon in Puck

Racially Motivated Exclusion Laws and Tactics

Since the beginning of their arrival to America, Asian immigrants faced an endless history of exclusion and oppression. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 set a precedent for racism and prejudice felt by Chinese Americans during the 1900s as it banned all Chinese immigration into the United States and denied Asians the legal right to citizenship throughout the Great Depression Era. In 1924, Congressman Albert Johnson and Senator David Reed passed the Asian Exclusion Act which limited the number of Chinese immigrants to a maximum of 2% of the population already in America. These, along with a multitude of other strict immigration laws including the Emergency Quota Act of 1921 caused Asians living in the United States to be subjected to racial hostility, xenophobia, endless mockery for their physical features, and harassment towards their culture. The term “Yellow Peril” was used to associate Chinese immigrants as dangerous and a threat to the safety of other Americans. In the decades following the 1930s, most Chinese and other Asian Americans feared government authorities and programs, preventing them from receiving available relief and assistance the New Deal offered.

Throughout the 1930s, Chinese were barred from white schools, jobs, and neighborhoods because of their race. University-educated American-born Asians faced difficulty finding employment in the professional or “white-collar” fields as discrimination practices were prevalent.

"They go to college, learn a heterogeneous body of facts relating to anything from art to architecture and end their days in a fruit stand." --an American-born child of an Asian immigrant voices his frustration on the lack of opportunities available due to racial stigmatism during the 1900s.

Due to the Anti-Asian sentiments, Chinese immigrants turned to live primarily in Chinese urban areas where they could protect themselves and their culture. In these ethnic enclaves, “Chinese Americans both lived in America and in a world apart” and residents were united by their working-class economic status.

A political cartoon from 1882, showing a Chinese man being barred entry to the "Golden Gate of Liberty". The caption reads, "We must draw the line somewhere, you know."

Laundreymen Stereotypes

During the mid-nineteenth century when the Gold Rush brought the first wave of Chinese immigrants to the United States, the majority started laundries, that of which would later be uniquely identified to the ethnic group. When more immigrants arrived, they took over their family’s business till eventually, 25% of all Chinese immigrants were laundry proprietors and workers. Many Chinese saw laundries as an ideal opportunity because it required no special skills and Euro-Americans deemed the career as undesirable.

In the 1920s, laundry competition was high and white owners had the resources to equip their stores with advanced and more efficient machines. To combat this, Chinese laundry owners worked on average over sixteen hours a day and lowered their prices more. They had to continuously battle white competitors who tried to drive them out of business, some unfortunately failing. Those that survived often protested unfair government regulations and laws. In 1933, white officials proposed a law for U.S citizenship to be required to operate a laundry, setting high license fees and security bonds, beyond what any Chinese laundry proprietor was earning. There was an immediate response from the Chinese community as washermen organized the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance to create a public statement.

"Tens of thousands of Chinese laundry men would be stranded in this country, and our wives and children back home would be starved to death." --CHLA

In times of overt racism and discrimination, Asian Americans united together to protect one another.

Works Cited

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