The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-03-29
CHINESE GIRLS OF
new YORK TAKE UP
WORK OF WAITRESS

NEW YORK-Americanize daugh-
ters Of Pell street Cinnamon have
tossed away the age-old bindings that
benumbed their feet and now are
gathering calluses in uptown restaur-
ants, where as mattresses they smil-
ingly and quietly serve hungry multi
tudes. Their modernized brothers
dare the wrath of distinguished ances-
tors by playing fan tan to the tune of
q canned music. Modernity has broken
down the customs of New Iork's
Chinatown, says the Evening Sun.
"Seclusion for women has been the
rule of China for centuries" says Lee
To, Baptist missionary at the Morn
ing Star mission, 10 Doyers street.
MANY a Chinese woman of the old
time has been known to hire a car
rage to pay visit to friend just
across the street, and under no condi
tion would she leave her home to do
her marketing or venture a ride in a
street car for holiday excursion"
All Hoo Paved the Way.
Not long ago the first little Chinese
girl from the quarter went uptown to
serve as waitress in the Chinese room
Of one of the biggest hotels. China
town held its breath in horror at this
defiance of the conventions of centur-
les. But the little girl. All Hoo, was
more than pretty in the chrysanthem-
m-embroidered costume she wore.
and when her earnings during the first
week, including tips. ran up to $25,
there was small sized revolution in
Pell street.
Lee Chin, who kept a laundry on
I'd ~f
day his little daughter went with All
d. Hoo. Today many of the girls of high
school age are working uptown. Some
of them are employed in hotels, others
are ushering in theatres and motion
picture houses.
One of the best proofs of the new
Chinatown is the formation Of a boys
brass band in connection with the
Morning Star mission, which, with
America jazz and martial airs, is rap
idly crOwding out the booming music
of the bull fiddle and the melancholy
notes of the Chinese flute, both favor
ties of old China. Today 25 instru-
ments are represented in the band and
the idea is rapidly growing in popular
ity.
The Chinese have shown themselves
to have a fine sense of rhythm, Lee
To says, and the band is much in de-
mand. In one of the Liberty loan pa
rades the boys in uniform marched up
Fifth avenue amid the plaudits of a
large part of the quarter and more
recently the band was one of the chief
attractions of Chinatown's welcome
home parade to the $50 service men
who returned from overseas.
Community Center Needed.
Because big city temptation threat
ems the coming generation of Chinese
Young men and women a modern
Chinese community center, with din
ing hall, clubrooms, library. gym
nasium and all that sort of thing will
be erected in New York to interpret
America to the Chinaman and serve
as a common meeting ground for east
and west. The building win be built
by the new world movement Of North
ern Baptists.
Lee To, who, together with repre-.
sentatives of the Methodist denomina-
ton, has been preaching and working
for years to break down the barriers
, of oriental tradition, says that unless
vigorous social and welfare work are
carried on Chinatown's young people
are apt to find the new America free.
dom dangerous privilege.
Thirty years ago, he recalls, the
Chinaman might be distinguished by
his wide-sleeved coat and Tapping
straw slippers. Today young men in
American business suits elevate leath
or shOd feet to table tops and tell each
other they are made-over people. The
Chinese boy who has attended the
nub1ic schools can not understand the
Ito his fatbar 1ad