Laundry Rock: Histories of Laundries of Boston Chinatown
Pao Arts Center and the Chinese Historical Society of New England were thrilled to have over 120 people join us on Saturday, March 13 for a fascinating discussion on Chinese laundries in Boston and beyond. We thank our 2020 Artist-in-Residence Wen-hao Tien, Shauna Lo, Eugenio Menegon, and Chinatown community members Richard Chin, Dr. Raymond Chin, and Walter Wong for coming together and sharing some of these little-known histories and family stories with us. This event included ASL interpretation by Danny Gong.
Shauna Lo, Assistant Director, Institute for Asian American Studies at UMass Boston, opened up the discussion by talking about the important role that Chinese laundries play within Asian American history in Boston starting in the 1870s: “There has been surprisingly little documentation on Chinese laundries in the United States, which is a shame given that laundries are so essential to the Chinese experience….particularly in the Northeast. They were a significant feature of American life in the 20th century.”
Wen-hao Tien shared some of the artwork from Wen-hao Tien: Home on Our Backs directly inspired by the stories of Chinese laundries Boston Chinatown community members shared with her over the past year. For example, in her piece, Laundry Rock, Tien brings together Chinese laundry histories alongside Chinese scholar rock traditions and associated philosophies. Afterward, we heard from Chinatown community members Richard Chin, Walter Wong, and Dr. Raymond Chin, who recalled their personal experiences growing up in and around Chinese laundries in the 1950s and 60s, including the many challenges they faced as individuals and families.
The culminating roundtable discussion, moderated by Eugenio Menegon, Professor of Chinese History and World History in the Dept. of History at Boston University, blended together scholarly research and family stories, illustrating the way that these histories remain alive within our Chinatown communities. As Director of Pao Arts Center Cynthia Woo acknowledged in her introduction, “this is only the beginning of the discussion.”
“When I was growing up, I didn’t speak English. It was like I lived within the walls of the laundry, it felt like Chinese culture. When I walked out the door, I walked into America and everything that implies.”
---Walter Wong, Chinatown Community Member
Miss the event? The recording for Laundry Rock will be available here in the coming weeks.
If you haven’t yet checked out Wen-hao Tien: Home on Our Backs, check it out here.
Wen-hao Tien’s exhibition, Home on Our Backs, is on view in our gallery and our website until June 26, 2021. We are currently open to groups of six or less by appointment.
We are also offering virtual tours and curriculum-integrated classroom visits for your students, led by our Pao Arts Center staff.
Schedule your visit or tour today!
This event is sponsored by Tufts Medical Center, The Boston Foundation, the South Cove Community Health Center, and Boston University's Pardee School of Global Studies Center for the Study of Asia.