History Main / ChineseLaunderer

* ''Series/InLivingColor''. In the "Wrath of Farrakhan" skit, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan beams aboard the [[WhereNoParodyHasGoneBefore starship Enterprise]] and claims its crew are suffering from racial discrimination. When Captain Kirk denies this, Farrakhan asks Mr. Sulu an ArmorPiercingQuestion. "Who does the laundry around here?"

[[folder: Advertising ]]

At the end of the ad, she blows his cover:
-->'''Mrs. Lee:''' ''(shouting)'' We need more Calgon!
-->'''Customer:''' "Ancient Chinese secret," huh?

[[folder: Comic Books ]]

[[folder: Film – Animation]]

--> '''Vinny:''' Blew me right through the front window. It was like a sign from God. I ''found'' myself in that boom.

[[folder: Film – Live-Action ]]

[[folder: Literature ]]

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

[[folder: Music ]]

-->I sailed away to China
-->In a little row boat to find ya
-->And you said you had to get your laundry clean

[[folder: New Media ]]

[[folder: Newspaper Comics ]]

[[folder: Radio ]]

[[folder: Stand Up Comedy ]]

[[folder: Tabletop Games ]]

[[folder: Theater ]]

[[folder: Video Games ]]

[[folder: Western Animation]]

-->'''Daffy:''' Confucius say, "Can't squeeze blood from turnip."
-->'''Porky:''' Oh, yes. Also say, "B-B-Better you press shirt than press luck."

[[folder: Real Life ]]

Unfortunately, in an effort to drive the [[YellowPeril "dangerous foreigners"]] out of the city, laws were passed in 1933 to among other things restrict ownership of laundries to American citizens. (The laws of the time prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens, though many laundries remained in Chinese American hands as another precedent, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Wong_Kim_Ark United States v. Wong Kim Ark,]] established that people of Chinese descent born in the US are natural-born citizens of the US.) After negotiations by the traditional Chinese social organizations failed, the openly leftist Chinese Hand Laundry Association was formed to fight this discrimination. They did a very good job of it, and of supporting [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar the Guomindang's defense]] [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors of China]] against UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan with invaluable medical personnel and aid to reduce the appallingly high number of troop-deaths from wounds and disease. Despite ongoing support for the Guomindang, once [[RedChina the Communists]] [[UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport destroyed the Guomindang]] in the Chinese Civil War in 1950 the RedScare somewhat inexplicably saw the CHLA denounced as a "Communist" organisation and its membership sharply declined.

* A Chinese launderer in ''Film/BrokenTrail'' becomes the interpreter between the two cowboy heroes and the five Chinese girls they have rescued from indentured prostitution.

* ''VideoGame/EighteenSixtySixAMountAndBladeWestern'' includes Frankie Luong, a Chinese former laundryman, as a possible party member. In keeping with the common stereotypical portrayal of Chinese laundrymen in Western films, he can't end a sentence without an exclamation point.

* The Royal Navy still uses Chinese laundrymen on their vessels.

* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTailMysteryOfTheNightMonster'': A Chinese laundry gets attacked by the titular "monster".

* ''[[WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail An American Tail: Mystery of the Night Monster]]'': A Chinese laundry gets attacked by the titular "monster".

* ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail An American Tail: Mystery of the Night Monster]]'': A Chinese laundry gets attacked by the titular "monster".

Subtrope of EthnicMenialLabor.

[[folder: Film ]]

[[folder: Western Animation ]]
* The entrance to ISIS in ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' is in an Indian laundry that features the same sort of employees and jokes as a Chinese laundry.
* Very borderline: In ''WesternAnimation/ChipNDaleRescueRangers'', Fat Cat goes to a laundromat to see a pair of Siamese cats about a fighting fish.
* Dr. Wang runs his ''WesternAnimation/{{Minoriteam}}'' from a laundromat.
* According to his backstory from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', [[MadBomber Vinny]] actually became obsessed with explosives after witnessing the Chinese laundromat next door to his family's flower shop exploding due to a faulty gas line.
--> '''Vinny:''' Blew me right through the front window. It was like a sign from God. I ''found'' myself in that boom.
* Mr. Washy Washy from ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''.
* One episode of [[WesternAnimation/GeorgeOfTheJungle ''Super Chicken'']] featured one as the villain, who was running a literal money laundering business.
* A Chinese laundry gets attacked by a robotic "monster" in the fourth ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail'' movie.
* In the WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck short "China Jones", Porky Pig's reoccurring character turns out to be the owner of a Chinese laundry, who wants Daffy to settle a "small matter of large bill", and the cartoon ends with Daffy having to WorkOffTheDebt.
* There's a Chinese launderer in ''WesternAnimation/WheelSquad'' but he doesn't show the typical stereotypes that come with the trope. He once taught martial arts on the side.
* Franchise/ScoobyDoo borrows a steam press from a Chinese laundry to create a steam screen against Zin Tuo's minions in "Mystery Mask Mix-Up."
* Mr. Wong in the second "Wonderman" short from ''Series/TVFunhouse''. He's killed by the titular superhero, who takes over the dry cleaner so that his alias can have sex with a woman he rescued.

* Sid Caesar and Edie Adams accidentally broke through a hardware store wall into a Chinese laundry in ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld''.

* A StealthPun in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': Lau, a member of [[TheTriadsAndTheTongs the Chinese mob]], works for Gotham criminals as a money launderer. Interestingly, coin laundromats have been recognized as an effective means to launder money due to them being cash based businesses.
* Subverted in the 1943 ''Film/{{The Batman|Serial}}'' serial. Due to it being set in World War II, the main villain was a Japanese spy. Thus, one of the clues found is a handkerchief with a ''Japanese'' laundry mark. Robin quips that he's never heard of a Japanese laundry mark.
* Yen Sun, the girl Doc falls in love with in ''Film/YoungGuns'' is the daughter of a Chinese launderer.
* ''Film/TheSevenYearItch'': Richard Sherman's dress shirt was torn once when he sent it to a Chinese laundry service.
* At one point in ''Film/ThoroughlyModernMillie'', [[spoiler:Mrs. Meers]] disguises herself as a Chinese laundress.
* ''Film/TheWarriorsWay'': Yang takes over the laundry when he arrives in Lode, mainly because that's what everyone assumes he'll be good at. He actually has to learn how to do it from Lynne, the white woman who had befriended the ''previous'' Chinese launderer.
* In the Creator/HaroldLloyd film ''Film/{{Speedy}}'', during a big brawl between a bunch of thugs hired to rough up Lloyd's character and the locals who come to his defense, an elderly Chinese man comes out of his laundry store and casually [[RumpRoast burns the ass]] of every thug in his vicinity with his clothing iron.

* ''Film/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce'': Evelyn and Waymond run a laundromat together. The film's plot begins as the pair are about to visit the IRS due to a problem with paying taxes on the business. [[spoiler:[[BookEnds The film ends with Evelyn back in the laundromat a week later]], though things are ultimately going better for her this time around.]]

* Francie Nolan takes her father's shirts to a Chinese laundryman in ''Literature/ATreeGrowsInBrooklyn''.

* One ''The Dana Girls'' novel involved a Chinese launderer.
* The business directory in ''The Compleat [[Literature/{{Discworld}} Ankh-Morpork]] City Guide'' includes the [[FantasyCounterpartCulture Agatean]] Soft Soap and Laundry Company.
* In non-fiction travel memoir ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInSeventyTwoDays'', Nellie Bly praises "what Orientals can do in the washing line," and notes that six hours is enough for one to get a load of laundry back.

* According to his backstory from Disney's ''WesternAnimation/AtlantisTheLostEmpire'', [[MadBomber Vinny]] actually became obsessed with explosives after witnessing the Chinese laundromat next door to his family's flower shop catch fire and explode due to an faulty gas leak.

** A reference to a racist political slogan of yesteryear, which was used in barring Asian immigration to the US and Canada: "Two Wongs don't make White".

* A StealthPun in ''Film/TheDarkKnight'': Lau, member of the Chinese mob, works for Gotham criminals as a money launderer. Interestingly, coin laundromats have been recognized as an effective means to launder money due to them being cash based businesses.

* In the Creator/HaroldLloyd film ''Film/{{Speedy}}'', during a big brawl between a bunch of thugs hired to rough up Lloyd's character and the locals who come to his defense, an elderly Chinese man comes out of his laundry store and casually burns the ass of every thug in his vicinity with his clothing iron.

* There was an episode of ''Series/TheLoneRanger'' where a Chinese launderer not only had to deal with prejudice from the locals, but some bandits kidnapped his wife.

* Farnum from ''{{Series/Deadwood}}'' tries to disguise delivery of a corpse in a wheelbarrow full of laundry to chinese pig-farmer Wu.

* In ''Series/{{Elementary}}'', Holmes sends Watson to pick up his clothes from a Chinese dry cleaner. [[spoiler:He wants to see how long it will take her to figure out that it's actually a front for a drug operation]].

Subsequent technological and social developments like the [[TropeBreaker advent of the at-home washing machine]] have seen the [[DiscreditedTrope decline in the trope]], though it does continue on with Chinese characters (and Asian characters more broadly) owning and operating their own laundromats and dry cleaners. Characters who live in metropolitan areas will still be shown heading to their city's FriendlyLocalChinatown to drop-off and pick up their laundry or dry cleaning.

Thus this trope was born: Chinese characters in American media (when they show up at all) would often work in laundering services. This trope also exists in the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, and is often associated with the London district of Limehouse, which was home to many Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (there is little sign of this today, with London's Chinatown having moved elsewhere).

[[TextileWorkIsFeminine Laundry was also seen as "women's work"]] and thus Chinese men were viewed as less threatening to white American masculinity if they took up this line of work. However, the association of Chinese men and laundry contributed to the emasculation of East Asian men. Even though the vast majority of Chinese-Americans today do not work in laundries -- a stereotype of East Asians being more "feminine" than other races remains. Black people have to deal with the opposite problem where white people viewed them as being more "masculine" than other races.

By the 1930s, [[BigApplesauce New York City]] had around 3550 Chinese-run laundries, proudly displaying "Hand Laundry" signs to show their commitment to [[GoodOldWays traditional methods]]. Unfortunately, in an effort to drive the [[YellowPeril "dangerous foreigners"]] out of the city, laws were passed in 1933 to among other things restrict ownership of laundries to American citizens. (The laws of the time prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens, though many laundries remained in Chinese American hands as another precedent, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Wong_Kim_Ark United States v. Wong Kim Ark,]] established that people of Chinese descent born in the US are natural-born citizens of the US.) After negotiations by the traditional Chinese social organizations failed, the openly leftist Chinese Hand Laundry Association was formed to fight this discrimination. They did a very good job of it, and of supporting [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar the Guomindang's defense]] [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors of China]] against UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan with invaluable medical personnel and aid to reduce the appallingly high number of troop-deaths from wounds and disease. Unfortunately, despite ongoing support for the Guomindang, once [[RedChina the Communists]] [[UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport destroyed the Guomindang]] in the Chinese Civil War in 1950 the RedScare somewhat inexplicably saw the CHLA denounced as a "Communist" organisation and its membership sharply declined.

This trope also exists in the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, and is often associated with the London district of Limehouse, which was home to many Chinese immigrants in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (there is little sign of this today, with London's Chinatown having moved elsewhere).

Subsequent technological and social developments have pretty much killed off the Chinese launderer as a current stereotype. If they appear in any form nowadays, they're likely to be laundromat owners or dry cleaners (overlapping with AsianStoreOwner), and they're often Korean rather than Chinese.

In most fiction, the Chinese launderer is a FunnyForeigner, spouting [[AsianSpeekeeEngrish pidgin English]] (occasionally including the {{stock phrase|s}} "no tickee, no shirtee") and clashing with customers over the amount of starch in shirts. They sometimes have bit parts in mysteries set in the appropriate time period, due to the use of laundry marks to identify where a piece of clothing has been.

* ''Film/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce'': Evelyn and Waymon run a laundromat together. The film's plot begins as the pair are about to visit the IRS due to a problem with paying taxes on the business. [[spoiler:[[BookEnds The film ends with Evelyn back in the laundromat reliving the same day]], though things are ultimately going better for her this time around.]]

** Deliciously spoofed on an episode of ''Series/MadTV'', with Creator/JackieChan as the laundry owner. When the customer learns the "ancient Chinese secret", Jackie leaps over the counter, beats the stuffing out of him, and says "You tell anyone, you're a dead man!"

* ''Videogame/EighteenSixtySixAMountAndBladeWestern'' includes Frankie Luong, a Chinese former laundryman, as a possible party member. In keeping with the common stereotypical portrayal of Chinese laundrymen in Western films, he can't end a sentence without an exclamation point.

* In the WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck short "China Jones", Porky Pig's reoccurring character turns out to be the owner of a Chinese laudry, who wants Daffy to settle a "small matter of large bill", and the cartoon ends with Daffy having to WorkOffTheDebt.

Perhaps the most famous real-life Chinese launderer is Yick Wo, of the U.S. Supreme Court case [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yick_Wo_v._Hopkins Yick Wo vs. Hopkins]], which held that a law that on its face was racially neutral, but was applied in a racially discriminatory fashion which violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which the court maintained applied to resident aliens as well as full citizens. It's an important precedent.

By the 1930s, [[BigApplesauce New York City]] had around 3550 Chinese-run laundries, proudly displaying "Hand Laundry" signs to show their commitment to [[GoodOldWays traditional methods]]. Unfortunately, in an effort to drive the [[YellowPeril "dangerous foreigners"]] out of the city, laws were passed in 1933 to among other things restrict ownership of laundries to American citizens. (The laws of the time prevented Chinese immigrants from becoming naturalized citizens, though many laundries remained in Chinese American hands as another precedent, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Wong_Kim_Ark United States v. Wong Kim Ark]], established that people of Chinese descent born in the US are natural-born citizens of the US.) After negotiations by the traditional Chinese social organizations failed, the openly leftist Chinese Hand Laundry Association was formed to fight this discrimination. They did a very good job of it, and of supporting [[UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar the Guomindang's defense]] [[UsefulNotes/NoMoreEmperors of China]] against UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan with invaluable medical personnel and aid to reduce the appallingly high number of troop-deaths from wounds and disease. Unfortunately, despite ongoing support for the Guomindang, once [[RedChina the Communists]] [[UsefulNotes/ChineseWithChopperSupport destroyed the Guomindang]] in the Chinese Civil War in 1950 the RedScare somewhat inexplicably saw the CHLA denounced as a "Communist" organisation and its membership sharply declined.

* In a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjNRXfRXnoc famous Calgon water softener commercial]], a Caucasian customer would ask laundry owner Mr. Lee how he got shirts so ''white,'' to which he would respond "Ancient Chinese secret." Then his wife would address the camera in a ''beautifully'' American accent:

* Parodied by ''Website/TheOnion'' with [[http://www.theonion.com/articles/chinese-laundry-owner-blasted-for-reinforcing-nega,1563/ "Chinese Laundry Owner Blasted For Reinforcing Negative Ethnic Stereotypes"]], about a second-generation laundry owner with somewhat fractured English who is [[StopBeingStereotypical constantly hounded and persecuted by his community]], despite his attempts to make peace.

* This referenced in an inversion in ''Hairspray'': the heroine's mother has a laundry business which is called something like ''Occidental Laundry'' (to set it apart from all of the "Oriental" ones.)

In most fiction, the Chinese launderer is a FunnyForeigner, spouting [[AsianSpeekeeEngrish pidgin English]] and clashing with customers over the amount of starch in shirts. They sometimes have bit parts in mysteries set in the appropriate time period, due to the use of laundry marks to identify where a piece of clothing has been.

* One of the infamous Asian stereotype t-shirts made by Abercrombie and Fitch has two stereotypical Chinese cartoon men with the slogan "Two Wongs can Make it White"
** A reference to a racist political slogan of the yesteryear, which was used in barring Asian immigration to the US and Canada: "Two Wongs don't make White".

* One of the infamous Asian stereotype t-shirts made by Abercrombie and Fitch has two stereotypical Chinese cartoon men with the slogan "Two Wongs will Make it White"

* One of the infamous Asian stereotype t-shirts made by Ambecrombie and Fitch has two stereotypical Chinese cartoons with the slogan "Two Wongs will Make it White"

Laundry was also seen as "women's work" and thus Chinese men were viewed as less threatening to white American masculinity if they took up this line of work. However, the association of Chinese men and laundry contributed to the emasculation of East Asian men. Even though the vast majority of Chinese-Americans today do not work in laundries -- a stereotype of East Asians being more "feminine" than other races remains. Black people have to deal with the opposite problem where white people viewed them as being more "masculine" than other races.

Perhaps the most famous real life Chinese launderer is Yick Wo, of the U.S. Supreme Court case [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yick_Wo_v._Hopkins Yick Wo vs. Hopkins]], which held that a law that on its face was racially neutral, but was applied in a racially discriminatory fashion violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which the court maintained applied to resident aliens as well as full citizens. It's an important precedent.

Laundry was also seen as "women's work" and thus Chinese men were viewed as less threatening to white American masculinity if they took up this line of work. However, the association of Chinese men and laundry contributed to the emasculation of East Asian men. Even though the vast majority of Chinese-Americans today do not work in laundries -- a stereotype of East Asian being more "feminine" than other races remains.