Enduring hardship
Subtitle: the Chinese laundry in Canada
By: Ban Seng Hoe.
Contributors: Canadian Museum of Civilization.
Series: Mercury series,; Cultural studies paper ;; 76; Cultural studies paper (Canadian Museum of Civilization) ;; 76.
Publisher: Canadian Museum of Civilization
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Gatineau, Québec
Language: eng
Number of pages: 86
Subjects: Laundry workers -- Canada -- History.; Chinese Canadians -- History.
Other titles: Chinese laundry in Canada
Description: "Faced with systematic discrimination in Canada, early Chinese immigrants had little choice but to create their own economic niche. From the turn of the twentieth century through the Second World War, a majority of Canada's Chinese immigrants were laundry workers in towns and cities from coast to coast. Although the hand laundry was not a traditional trade in China, laundry work required little capital, and could be performed despite a lack of familiarity with Western languages and financial systems. The hours were long, the work was physically demanding, and most Chinese laundry workers lived a marginal existence." "With the advent of modern laundry equipment and synthetic fibres in the 1950s, and the ageing of the laundrymen themselves, the Chinese hand laundry came to an end. To generations of Chinese-Canadians, however, it remains a symbol of hard work, sacrifice and enduring hardship."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes abstract in French.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [85]-86).