By Nico B. Frattellone (Pace University)
Introduction
For New Yorkers, the quintessential image of Chinatown contains the traditional hallmarks and assets of an ethnic enclave, such as pagodas or bustling street markets with vendors, and laundromats run by Chinese families. The history of Chinese laundries in New York City is nearly two centuries old, and they have served as the focal point of decades-long activism that bolstered Chinese New Yorkers. The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (CHLA), a civil rights labor union formed in Manhattan’s Chinatown in the early Great Depression, stood not only as one of the few labor organizations that combined race and class, but also one of the only left-leaning Chinese groups that supported international efforts to aid a wartime China. While the CHLA would come under scrutiny from federal organizations, their efforts in activism and community organizing were monumentally important in shaping the cultural, social, and political identity of Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown. The organization’s legacy as an intersectional political actor that merged issues that involved immigrant communities from lower socioeconomic classes, while largely forgotten in contemporary discussions of New York’s history as a site for union development, provides a model of change that can be valued by modern activists.
Chinese in America: Beginnings in Laundries and Discrimination
The beginnings of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans in New York were humbler than the larger number of new groups of immigrants that came to the island in the 19th century, namely the Irish, Italian, and Jewish groups.[1] Compared to the thousands of families and individuals that would enter Manhattan from Europe, it is estimated that by the 1850s, around 150 Chinese individuals (mostly bachelor-aged men) claimed permanent residence in New York City.[2] The makeup of this new group of immigrants was primarily traveling merchants and mariners.[3] Following the American Civil War, while there was a small burst in permanent Chinese residents, the formation of a Chinese-American community or ethnic enclave would not form until the late 1870s -1880s. Around the late 19th century, a small Asian immigrant community centered around Mott, Baxter, and Canal streets suffered. Namely, due to an overwhelmingly bachelor demographic[4] seeking cheap labor, and with them came the stereotypes of Chinese men as lowly, deviant, drug-abusing criminals. When writing about his experiences as a Chinese-born, naturalized American citizen, journalist and activist Wong Chin Foo wrote, “It is not necessary for me to remark that I was born in the Middle Empire [translation of China’s endonym from the word Zhongguo, or ‘Middle Kingdom’] and that I am now an American citizen; for ever since my advent in this land of the free I have been systematically styled a ‘pig-tailed renegade’, a ‘moon-eyed leper’, a ‘demon of the Orient’, a ‘gangrened laundryman’, a ‘rat-eating Mongol’, etc.’[5] These increasingly hostile perceptions of the slowly growing Chinese population in America would eventually manifest into law under the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, one of the first federal restrictions placed on immigration. From this point on, the once scattered population of majority male Chinese laborers would become increasingly insular from other groups in Manhattan. The creation of Chinatown came from the need for safety and community.
The rise of Chinatown in Manhattan would also see the growth of cheap male labor that would create a profitable industry for the Chinese laundrymen. Although the act of laundressing was regarded as feminine work, it was one of the few places where Chinese men could find regular work in cities. The act of setting up a laundry, or laundromat, was a rather safe investment and was becoming a need in a time of mass-produced garments. In another one of his articles, Foo investigates why laundressing attracted so many Chinese people: while he explains that Chinese immigrants could perform other highly skilled and valued forms of labor. The racial restrictions and the easy access to set up shop within a community like Chinatown were attractive to immigrants, thus creating a market for immigrants to expand into. These laundries were often the only option to make a sustainable living.[6] The industry was also one of the few that required minimal to no English-speaking skills and could be done in a single rented-out one-room business.[7]
Some of the earliest Chinese laundries were in urbanized areas along the West Coast, and eventually, East Coast cities would see the rise of these types of laundries.[8] The first Chinese laundry was formed by a group of immigrants in 1885 after being let go from a laundry plant in Belleville, New Jersey. Soon, more Chinese people sensed prosperity and joined the industry, growing enough in number to affect other laundries – namely those run by White, native-born New Yorkers.[9] However, the bubble of New York’s Chinese laundries would burst going into the 20th century, because of the Chinese Exclusion Act and a population decline. However, laundressing would become cemented into the cultural and geographical fabric of New York’s remaining Chinese population. By 1920, the third largest industry Chinese Americans were a part of was the domestic and personal service sector. Laundry workers made up a significant portion of those in this industry, accounting for roughly a quarter percent of the Chinese surveyed who were engaged in “gainful occupations.”[10]
The Rise of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance
Competition between White and Chinese laundries in New York City, although previously stifled by a limitation on the entry of new Chinese immigrants, would intensify during the Great Depression. Although Chinese and Chinese Americans did not make up a large percentage of the city’s population, by 1930, Manhattan had the largest number of Chinese laundries in the country[11]. Out of roughly the 30,000 people of Chinese descent who lived in the city, one-third of them were involved in the laundry and domestic service industry.[12] Chinese laundries posed an even greater threat to White American laundromats with the advent of mechanized washing. Groups formed to mitigate outbreaks of hostility between immigrants and native-born, White Americans, such as the quasi-governmental Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association (CCBA), which was formed in 1883. The CCBA would focus its efforts on helping newly immigrated Chinese, limiting the extent of Chinese Americans’ influence, and putting business over the well-being of residents, as exemplified by large fees for Chinatown residents to exist and live within the community.[13] By 1933, the catalyst that would birth Chinatown’s first and only laundry-focused labor union came from a decision of the New York City Board of Aldermen. A group of non-Chinese New York laundrymen and laundromat owners was able to push anti-Chinese rhetoric to the Board of Aldermen. This political body preceded the New York City Council. Through lobbying efforts, the Board passed an ordinance which financially restricted the Chinese through a yearly registration fee of $25 – roughly $633 in today’s currency – and stipulated single-manned laundries to apply for licensure, requiring a bond of $1,000 – which equates to over $25,000 today.[14] [15] The steep price of these fees gouged and inflated prices, regardless of the Great Depression’s impact on (you insert the community). For reference, the current cost of a surety bond as of 1933 in New York City, which applies for laundry ownership with 0-25 employees, is $500. In addition, the required 2-year license for an establishment with 0-5 employees varies from $85-425, depending on the month and year when the license is applied for. [16] The laundrymen of New York’s Chinese population were therefore being targeted, and with a lack of support from the profit-first CCBA, there was a clear need for organization.
Just months after the Board of Aldermen’s decision, New York’s Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance would go public. On April 24th, the CHLA published their declaration in a local-Chinese language newspaper, called the Chinese Nationalist Daily (Min Qi Ri Bao). The declaration was a heartfelt call to action created by the 254 laundrymen/contributors. In CHLA’s own words:
“However, we Chinese laundrymen in New York City never had a formal organization of our own. The organization that existed in the past exploited us in disguised names…Based on these reasons, we set up the preparatory committee of the New York CHLA, expecting to establish as early as possible an organization that truly represents the interests of the Chinese hand laundries. [With such an organization] we can not only unite ourselves to fight the city government collectively to abolish the discriminatory ordinance but also prevent such discrimination from occurring again in the future. Moreover, our own organization will be able to solve the problem of the rapid decline of service charges because of competition among hand laundry. Collective efforts will make the service charges rise again.”[17]
Two days after publication, the CHLA would hold its first meeting on Mott Street to collectively organize and strategize. At this meeting, the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance would transition from a small group of disgruntled laundry owners into a full-fledged body of activists. A democratically elected committee with representatives from each district of Greater New York, two secretaries to work in both English and Chinese, and leadership positions to guide the delegates was established. The organization would, “be set up along trade lines, thus avoiding family, clan, and geographic divisions…The CHLA thus became the first democratic mass organization in the history of New York’s Chinatown.”[18]The group’s first order of business was tackling the decision from the Board of Aldermen, challenging specifically the high fees. With legal aid from Polish-American attorney Julius Bezozo[19], the CHLA successfully lowered the price of annual fees by the late 1930s. CHLA’s presence in Manhattan’s Chinatown would rapidly change its political and social landscape, once stained with corruption, predatory practices, and exclusion, and then put it under the CHLA’s control.
Activism Methods and Activities for Advocacy
The CHLA provided Chinese immigrants with notable services that kept many, not just laundrymen, afloat. Their original mission was to protect one labor group from various forms of discrimination, but their actions would expand to all residents. The CHLA was able to independently support youth groups, women-centered organizations, and run the newspaper The China Daily News (Meizhuo Hua Giao Ri Bao)[20], established in 1940. The now-defunct newspaper would print and distribute from its Mott Street location, and act similarly to other popular Chinese-language newspapers, such as the Chinese Vanguard (Xian Feng Bao). What made this paper different was: one, it held active publishing during China’s war against Japanese occupation, and two, it was an openly left-leaning publication that connected many smaller Chinatowns throughout the city. A non-Chinese individual would see this newspaper as typical, with letters to the editors, advertisements for local businesses, and a front-page section dedicated to political news. The newspaper, once translated, however, provided revolutionary commentary on ongoing wars in the Pacific and current events in New York’s Chinatown.[21] Based on personal photos from Betty Yu, granddaughter of founding member Sui Woo and artist based in New York, the labor union was also noted for organizing casual picnics and outings to scenic areas, such as the Bear Mountain State Park in Upstate New York, in the name of team bonding.[22]Furthermore, their expansion was not only to Chinese immigrants, but to broader New Yorkers with common goals of democratizing and uniting alliances across cultural and ethnic lines. As a result, the number of members skyrocketed only a month after the CHLA became public, with estimates of over 3,000 members joining. This would make the CHLA the fastest growing organization within Chinatown and the most influential in Lower Manhattan in the 1930s.[23]
The CHLA was even more unique for this period due to its intense activity in international protests. The group was one of the earliest and most fervent protestors against the Japanese occupation of China, which began officially in 1931 with the invasion of Manchuria. The community’s ties to the Chinese mainland were deeply rooted in their Chinese heritage and identity, but also their political beliefs. This was exemplified by a simple slogan that would encompass these years of international activism: ‘to save China, to save ourselves’ (jiuguo ziju).[24] In the words of a leading historian on the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance, Renqiu Yu:
“The CHLA’s campaign clearly related Chinese Americans’ patriotic feelings to their struggle for survival in American society. It reflected the problems confronting Chinese Americans and their desire to seek solutions. To Chinese Americans in the 1930s, “to save China” and “to save ourselves” were inseparable. Since the 1850s Chinese immigrants had come to the United States, which they called ‘the Gold Mountain.’ Although they made great contributions to the agricultural development of the West and to the construction of the railroads in the 1860s and 1870s, the Chinese immigrants were insulted, discriminated against, excluded from most industries, and deprived of the right of naturalization…aiding China became a tradition in Chinese American communities.”[25]
As tensions arose between the Republican government of China, the Kuomintang, and the Japanese Imperial forces, the Chinese diaspora of New York supported a patriotic and nationalistic cause against the Japanese through protest. Early forms of anti-Japanese imperialism protest would begin shortly after the initiation of the war via organizing with similar groups, such as the American Friends of the Chinese People and other anti-Axis Power groups. The CHLA and its publication also organized massive, long-term forms of protests, including a boycott of Japanese goods at Madison Square Garden following the official declaration of war between China and Japan in 1937. This singular event reportedly had the backing of not only the Chinatown community and its mayor, Hy Lin, but also the support of 20,000 non-Chinese participants.[26] The CHLA was able to raise $10,000 in donations from roughly 1,500 laundrymen, with one notable result being the sending of 5 ambulances to China.[27] These various forms of protest and marches were crucial in changing the American perception of the war in China, as well as preconceived notions of the Chinese-Americans. Sympathy was gained from non-Chinese New Yorkers who recognized Japan’s position in the Second World War as a dangerous force to global stability and to Chinese prosperity on the mainland. The position of New Yorkers thus leaned to a greater understanding between Chinese and non-Chinese groups, with even political figures such as the of Borough President of Manhattan Stanley Isaacs, indicated in a 1940 memo that was published in China Daily News, in which he praised the efforts of the CHLA and their continued community action in the wake of China’s war against Japan.[28]
McCarthyism and Its Targeting of the CHLA
By the end of WWII, national political shifts would alter the perception of left-leaning organizations like CHLA. Upon entering the Cold War, tensions would arise specifically between the U.S. and Communist China. The two nations’ relationship had soured from prior beneficial policies such as ‘most-favored-nation’ status[29] and collaboration through non-governmental actors to satisfy both countries’ shared objectives of aiding the warring nation, often for the benefit of future American relations. Sino-American relations, which had historically oscillated between allyship to contention, worsened following the Communist Party’s victory in the Chinese Civil War over the Nationalist government. The win coincided with shifts in foreign American policy that sought to contain communist ideology from spreading both domestically and abroad, resulting in increased federal pressure to crack down on organizations that could be deemed as propagating ‘anti-American’ beliefs. This era, most commonly referred to as the Red Scare, was a period during the mid-20th century that has been colloquially titled the Age of McCarthyism after the figurehead of the campaign, Senator Joseph McCarthy, led to the political targeting of the CHLA. McCarthyism would enter the United States into a new state of political flux – it was a mass movement that used fear to peddle political stagnation and the development of left-leaning organizations, regardless of their true allegiance to communist thought, ideology, or organizations.[30] Although never openly identified as pro-Communist, the group was left-leaning and highly critical of the Republic of China, under the leadership of former President Chiang Kai-shek.[31] Through the newly formed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the CHLA and its members in Manhattan would become targeted. In declassified FBI documents regarding the investigations into the Alliance and its newspaper, along with interviews given by Chew Sih Hong, a formerly involved member of both the organization and its paper, record the government’s deep investigation into the CHLA’s activities.[32] The CHLA and its newspaper were placed under a Master Search Warrant; members who continued to stay active in the organization discussed in later years receiving stalking phone calls from the FBI, sentencing to court under the Trading with the Enemy Act,[33]and greater discrimination from many non-Chinese New Yorkers. As a result, the decline in the organization came as a trifecta of dropping membership rates from potential members fearful of persecution, individuals active in the group relocating back to China for safety, and the death of two prominent members.
Decline and Legacy for Chinatown
Since continuous attacks under suspicion of Communist infiltration, the CHLA never regained its past influence.. The newspaper would seemingly stop operations in 1989, and the CHLA downsized from a formidable activist force to a smaller, clandestine group within Manhattan’s Chinatown. Furthermore, organizations to protect Chinese and Chinese-American hand laundrymen have become obsolete. First, due to developments in technology, the art of hand laundry has been largely phased out. Secondly, no longer are people of Chinese descent relegated to solely blue-collar labor. The shifts in socio-economic status of second and third generation Asian-Americans have resulted in social mobility, with the descendants of these laundrymen going on to surpass their ancestors in educational attainment and salary rates.[34] Third, and most harrowing for long-time Chinatown residents, is that many of the businesses, organizations, and people who created one of New York’s most vibrant immigrant communities are being priced out due to a larger trend of gentrification in Lower Manhattan. For reference, statistical evidence shows residents of this area are more likely to be classified as ‘impoverished’[35] with rent prices increasing at a rate that out-prices average wages.[36] For communities of elders, immigrants, and working-class families, it has become a struggle to maintain small businesses and Chinatown’s cultural vibrance.
More recently, though, in the wake of COVID-19 and the so-called ‘China Virus’, a derogatory term that was hurled at people of Chinese descent, the younger generation of Chinese-Americans in Chinatown envisioned the spirit and legacy of the CHLA. Many grassroots organizations have subsequently sprung up in the 2020s, intending to broadly protect Chinatown’s cultural legacy through organized community action that brings together Chinese-Americans who call the Lower East Side their home. Think!Chinatown and Send Chinatown Love, in addition to more politically active groups, such as the Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence (CAAAV), have notably become epicenters for cultural, social, and political organization. Although their efforts are not limited to one ethnic group or labor force, the organizations utilize community bonding, print/digital media that chronicle ongoing local events, and ultimately restore this neighborhood’s historic ties to activism.
Conclusion
The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York came to fruition in a time when Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans had little protection beyond their communities. Coming to New York City in search of better opportunities, the laborious task of handwashing and laundressing, a historically devalued skill, was one of the few ways Chinese New Yorkers could sustainably earn money with little language skills or education. Although the Chinese Laundrymen were the backbone of Manhattan’s laundry business for many decades, discriminatory policies and derogatory rhetoric proliferated into the 20th century. It was from these experiences that the CHLA would be formed, serving as one of the only leftist labor organizations for people of Chinese descent in all of Lower Manhattan. Quickly gaining influence, the coalition would expand into community building, international activism campaigns, and greater solidarity across ethnic, racial, age, and labor barriers throughout the 1930s-40s. However, as the U.S. entered a post-war period of heightened paranoia and anti-Communist rhetoric, the CHLA’s influence plummeted because of investigations from the FBI and being ruthlessly targeted for ‘anti-American’ sentiment. Although the organization no longer exists, its legacy as a grassroots operation, fostering community, has left a legacy on the current political and social operations of Lower Manhattan’s Chinatown, as younger generations of Chinatown residents begin to formulate their own coalition to preserve the neighborhood’s legacy.
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Endnotes
[1] Min Zhou and John R. Logan. “Returns on Human Capital in Ethic Enclaves: New York City’s Chinatown.” American Sociological Review 54, no. 5 (1989): 809–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/2117755, 817.
[2] Frederick M Binder and David M Reimers, All the Nations under Heaven: An Ethnic and Racial History of New York City (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), 52.
[3] Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 1127.
[4] According to one census, 64.6% percent of Chinese men in New York were male and single (the total recorded was 3,201 out of a total recorded number of men of roughly 5,000). Women, especially those who were single, were lower in number and rate, indicating a bachelor pattern of migration. Information gathered from the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census. Chinese and Japanese in the United States 1910. Table 54 – Population Statistics Relative to the Chinese and Japanese in Selected States: 1910, Bulletin 127, directed by WM. J. Harris, Washington Government Printing Office, 1914, https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/03322287no71-80ch6.pdf.
[5] Wong Chin Foo. “Experience of a Chinese Journalist, from Puck” in Empire City: New York through the Centuries. Kenneth T. Jackson and David S. Dunbar (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 329-330.
[6] Wong Chin Foo. “Chinese Laundrymen: Wong Chin Foo Tells of the Business in New York.” Helena Semi Weekly Herald, January 3, 1889.https://www.newspapers.com/article/helena-semi-weekly-herald-1889wongchi
[7] Peter Kwong, Chinatown, New York: Labor & Politics, 1930-1950 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979), 61.
[8] Joan S Wang. “Race, Gender, and Laundry Work: The Roles of Chinese Laundrymen and American Women in the United States, 1850-1950.” Journal of American Ethnic History 24, no. 1 (2004): 58–99. http://www.jstor .org/stable/27501531, 59-62.
[9] Renqiu Yu. To Save China, To Save Ourselves: The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York. Temple University Press, 1992. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bs8b8, 9-10.
[10] Cheng T. Wu. Chinese People and Chinatown in New York City. PhD diss., Clark University, 1958. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. https://rlib.pace.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/chinese.
[11] Johnny Thach, “Organizing against Discrimination: The Chinese Hand Laundrymen Historical Niche and Ethnic Solidarity in America” (Master’s Thesis, 2015), https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=2171&context=gc_etds, 2.
[12] Renqiu Yu. “‘Exercise Your Sacred Rights’: The Experience of New York’s Chinese Laundrymen in Practicing Democracy.” In Claiming America, edited by K. Scott Wong and Sucheng Chan, 64–92. Temple University Press, 1998. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bsw5c.6, 67.
[13] Gor Yun Leong. Chinatown inside Out. Barrows Mussey, 1936, 47-50.
[14] 1 Inflation of currency was calculated using the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI Inflation Calculator. The exact date of the Board of Alderman’s decision is unknown, with even secondary and primary sources not explicitly stating when the decision was made. But given the repeated mention that the decision was made in early 1933, and the CHLA’s Declaration was made in mid-April, I estimated that the ordinance was made publicly known in March of 1933. This month its and year were used as the original date for the calculator, and I used the most recent date of February 2025 since that was the most recent the CPI Inflation Calculator could calibrate.
[15] Peter Kwong, Chinatown, New York: Labor & Politics, 1930-1950 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979), 62.
[16] NYC Consumer and Worker Protection, “DCWP – Industrial Laundry Lice Aldermens Application Checklist,” Nyc.gov, 2025, https://www.nyc.gov/site/dca/businesses/license-checklist-industrial-laundry.page. 14 Chinese Nationalist Daily, April 24, 1933, p. 1, and as translated in Renqiu Yu, To Save China, to Save Ourselves: The Chinese and Laundry Alliance of New York (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1992), p.35.
[17] Judy Yung, Gordon H. Chang, and Him Mark Lai, eds., “Declaration of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance (1933),” in Chinese American Voices: From the Gold Rush to the Present, 1st ed. (University of California Press, 2006), 183–85, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pppwn.34.
[18] Peter Kwong, Chinatown, New York: Labor & Politics, 1930-1950 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979) , 66.
[19] 81st Cong., 2nd Sess., Congressional Record (June 2, 1950): pt. 6, 12, https://www.congress.gov/81/crecb/1950/06/02/GPO CRECB-1950-pt6-12.pdf, 7998.
[20] Not to be confused with the Taiwanese publication of the same name.
[21] Renqiu Yu. “‘Exercise Your Sacred Rights’: The Experience of New York’s Chinese Laundrymen in Practicing Democracy.” In Claiming America, edited by K. Scott Wong and Sucheng Chan, 64–92. Temple University Press, 1998.http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bsw5c.6, 69.
[22] Betty Yu. Untitled. Ca. 1930s – 1940s, Photograph, Accessed 5 May 2025. https://www.bettyyu.net/invisiblelabor.
[23] Johnny Thach, “Organizing against Discrimination: The Chinese Hand Laundrymen Historical Niche and Ethnic Solidarity in America” (Master’s Thesis, 2015), https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi? article=2171&context=gc_etds, 48-51.
[24] Yilian wuzhollnian tekan [The CHLA fifth anniversary special bulletin]. New York: CHLA, 1938, 2.
[25] Renqiu Yu. To Save China, To Save Ourselves: The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York. Temple University Press, 1992. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bs8b8, 82.
[26] “PRO-CHINA RALLY TONIGHT: BOYCOTT, OF JAPANESE GOODS TO BE LAUNCHED AT GARDEN.” New York Times, Oct 01, 1937. http://ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/ newspapers/pro-china-rally-tonight/docview/101973125/se-2.
[27] “5 AMBULANCES FOR CHINA: COST, $10,000, SUBSCRIBED BY LAUNDRYMEN IN NEW YORK.” New York Times, Apr 23, 1938. http://ezproxy.nypl.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/5- ambulances-china/docview/102654992/se-2.
[28] Letter from Manhattan Borough President to Kung Chuan Chi. China Daily News, 8 July 1940, microfilm, New York Public Library, ZY-046, Reel 1.
[29] Baijia Zhang, “Understanding Changes in Sino-U.S. Relations from a Historical Perspective,” China International Strategy Review 2, no. 1 (2020): 1, https://doi.org/10.1007/s42533-020-00048-6.
[30] Ellen Schrecker. “McCarthyism: Political Repression and the Fear of Communism.” Social Research: An International Quarterly 71, no. 4 (2004): 1041-1086. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/sor.2004.0067, 1043-1047.
[31] Renqiu Yu. “‘Exercise Your Sacred Rights’: The Experience of New York’s Chinese Laundrymen in Practicing Democracy.” In Claiming America, edited by K. Scott Wong and Sucheng Chan, 64–92. Temple University Press, 1998. http://www\.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bsw5c.6, 81-85.
[32] Federal Bureau of Investigation and Freedom of Information Act, Joseph McCarthy Part 23 of 28, 121- 23278. Washington, D.C.: The Vault, 1976. https://cdn.preterhuman.net/texts/government_information/FO IA_FBI_releases/McCarthy,%20Joseph/mccarthy23a.pdf, 9-21.
[33] Renqiu Yu. To Save China, To Save Ourselves: The Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York. Temple University Press, 1992. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt14bs8b8, 186-189.
[34] Jennife Lee and Dian Sheng. 2023. “The Asian American Assimilation Paradox.” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 50 (1): 68–94. doi:10.1080/1369183X.2023.2183965.
[35] Poverty Rate in Lower East Side/Chinatown, 2022. NYU Furman Center’s CoreData.nyc, https://furmancenter.org/neighborho
ods/view/lower-east-side-chinatown (based on data from the American Community Survey and NYU Furman Center, accessed May 10 2025).
[36] Percent Change in Median Gross Rent and Renter Income in Lower East Side/Chinatown, Since 2006. NYU Furman Center’s CoreData.nyc, https://furmancenter.org/neighborhoods/view/lower-east-side-chinatown (based on data from the American Community Survey via IPUMS USA and NYU Furman Center, accessed May 10 2025).