Abstract Cliff Law grew up in the town of Hastings in Upstate New York and later moved to New York Chinatown in the late 1930s. His father, Harry Law, owned a foundry that manufactured laundry equipment in nearby Kingston and a hardware store in Chinatown at 11-13 Doyers Street (likely Excelsior Laundry Machines Co.). The oral history interview begins with Cliff recalling memories of Doyers Street, as well as discussing the history of 11-13 Doyers Street, the building his father purchased after a...

Abstract Daniel Chu was born in Kohanaiki, Hawaii in 1914, the tenth child in a large family of eight boys and four girls. His father’s parents were Hakka and had first migrated to Trinidad or Jamaica in the 1870s to work on rice or sugar plantations. After their contracts ended, they sent his father, who was eight years old at the time, back to their home village in Guangdong Province. When he was eighteen, they sent for him to join them where they had settled in Honolulu, Hawaii. Daniel’s mother...

Abstract Mr. Tam, a Toisan (Taishan) native, has worked in the laundry industry from the time he immigrated to the U.S. in 1951 to the time of the interview in 1980. Forced to flee after the communist victory in China, he was sponsored by his older brother, with whom he worked at Zhongshan Wet Wash before being able to strike out on his own in 1964. Due to U.S. immigration policy, he was initially unable to sponsor his wife and family and found being separated from them very stressful. Mr. Tam’s...

Abstract

In this interview, Winifred Chin discusses the garment industry in New York Chinatown before and after 9/11. Chin talks about Chinatown and how it has developed over the years. Chin’s mother worked in the garment industry in the 1950s. Back then, the garment industry was flourishing. However, Chin talks about how the garment industry has declined due to clothes being manufactured overseas.