Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2024/spring/Section13/Joe Shing, Chinaman

Overview

In 1938, Joe, Shing was the sole Chinese resident in the entire town of Spartanburg. In “Spartanburg’s Chinatown,” a writer by the name of Ruth Henderson visits the small town in order to complete a Federal Writers Project story. There, she finds Joe; a single, male, immigrant, laundromat owner. He owns and operates his shop in a way Henderson describes as “reticent” but “courteous”. She notes him to be an intelligent individual as he memorizes all the orders and customers without keeping a log or notes. Later, she finds that he cannot read English fluently and that he is embarrassed about the topic. Towards the end of the interview, Joe clarifies that Shing is his given name, whereas Joe is his family name.

Biography

Early Life

Joe was born in a city south of China near Guangzhou, formerly known as Canton. Forty-five years prior to the interview, he was raised in a household of boys to rural farming life, growing crops like cotton, corn, and potatoes. After hearing of America from missionaries in China, his family decided to save up to send his father across the Pacific.

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  Chinese farmers pose with tools and work clothes in 1900.

Immigration

Joe's father's immigration route was successful, and the family followed after. At eighteen, Joe was living in San Francisco and working as a grocery store clerk and considering marriage. Upon deliberation, he decided he wanted to earn more capital before doing so and moved across the country to live with a cousin in Chicago. Three years later, after penny-pinching enough to arrive in Athens, Georgia, he set up a laundromat. Bad luck struck when his father died. As a consequence, Joe obliged to send his savings and surplus income back home; ruining his chances of wealth or marriage.

Arrival in Spartanburg

It isn’t mentioned in the interview how Joe began to live in Spartanburg, but he mentions several times a man named Joe Whot, his cousin that was the previous proprietor of the shop and who encouraged him to attend a Baptist Church. He explained people in “old China,” worshiped both Protestant and Catholic churches as well as local religious idols. Joe went on to talk about Chinese innovation, customs, education, and the difficulties of learning the English language upon his arrival in America.

Private Life

Joe lived in his place of work, with his quarters being on the floor above. The washing and ironing were done in the basement below the main shop. To launder and iron the orders in a timely manner, Joe employed two Black women to assist him. During the time of the interview, Joe believed he was too old to marry but despite, had no regrets in his decision to stay in America. For Joe, the benefits of his position and lifestyle outweighed the hardships of the journey he endured.

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  Taken in 1972, this Chinese laundromat by the name of, "Orange Blossom Laundromat" sat in Allentown, PA.

Social Context

Bachelor societies

“Bachelor societies,” as they were popularly described, referred to the large number of unmarried Chinese men who lived and worked in the United States between their mass immigrations in the 1860s until the end of the second World War. In certain years of this period, male to female sex ratios were unbalanced at 26 to 1. During early immigration waves, many men arrived seeking temporary work in mines and railroads. Hoping to remain in the US temporarily, they rarely chose to bring their wives and families over, and often sent most of their earning home. In 1875, congress passed the Page Act with the goal of preventing Chinese women – provided their husbands weren’t merchants, students, or diplomats – from immigrating.  

With low numbers of Chinese women in the US, additional exclusionary laws and social factors prevented Chinese men from marrying women already residing in the US. Nevada was the first state to pass an interracial marriage ban in 1861. Soon, western, midwestern, and even southern states – who had low numbers of Chinese immigrants – followed. In 1907, the Expatriation Act stripped white women of citizenship if they married a foreign man. Despite Northeastern state not explicitly outlawing interracial marriages, social factors limited their occurrence. Many ministers and city officials wouldn’t administer marriages, and police would often view interracial relationships as indicators of manipulation by the Chinese partner. Some police suspected they must have involved sexual coercion, kidnappings, or opium addictions.

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  A white man and a woman of asian heritage are photographed on their wedding day.

Despite these obstacles, New York and Massachusetts did have many cases of Chinese and white matrimonies. From 1886-1910, only 10% of married Chinese men had Chinese partners, with the rest of couples being interracial. Although Chinatowns remained the main area of residence for these men, contact with white women was not uncommon through laundromat services and religious spaces. The Boston Globe reported that through Sunday school classes, “close relationship between young female instructors and their Chinese male students had resulted in a number of marriages over the years.” In New York City, interracial marriages were commonly between Irish women and Chinese men. These couples were the scorn of media and popular culture, as they combine races labelled, “foreign and downtrodden.”

White Perceptions of Chinese Immigrants

Perceptions of Chinese people were complicated and incoherent throughout different areas of the US. In some areas they were considered “colored” or “oriental”, and in some they were white. These categorizations dictated what neighborhoods they could live in, what schools they attended, and what water fountains they drank out of. Like Italian Americans, Asian Americans were often excluded from traditionally white spaces but weren’t as systemically oppressed as Black Americans.

Emerging out of the late 1800’s, the term ‘yellow peril’ described political fears of the Chinese government. But by the 1930s, it was being used to define general white fears of increasing Asian populations in the US. Asian peoples were seen as existential threats that could conceivably harm their economies and ways of life. Negative views on the meanings of ‘yellow’ skin pigmentations were amplified by Social Darwinist thought that was increasingly used as a justification for the ‘superiority’ of the white race.

By claiming Chinese nationality, Chinese immigrants were able to separate themselves from being “colored”, thus avoiding some legal ramifications of being in an “inferior” race. In doing so, they muddled popular perceptions of their citizenship, national belonging, and political identity. One supreme court case that dealt with race classifications was Lum vs. Rice. In 1927, a school board in Mississippi that labeled a Chinese student as “colored” was contested but found not guilty of violating the Fourteenth amendment. Because the student was non-white, but instead of the “Mongolian or yellow race,” they were considered “colored” and must attend schools with Black students instead of white.

Changes in the Baptist Church

In the 1930’s, Baptist churches were the centers of communal culture in the south. “Many middle-sized southern cities might not have boasted any country clubs, but the First Baptist Church often owned a swimming pool, gym, and recreation facilities.” During the depression, churches were a place of reprise for many and remained a cost-less resource for spiritual and mental guidance. Despite their philanthropic efforts in establishing soup kitchens and temporary shelters, many churches deteriorated. “Budgets were slashed, membership decreased, ministers were dismissed, and churches were closed.”

Within the church leadership, debates on political and economic theory divided the denomination. Southern conservative church leaders clashed with northern Baptists, many of whom began to embrace socialism. The depression had amplified every ideological struggle and tension within the church ran high.

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  White missionaries in Sichuan Province, China brought many religions. This image shows a Quaker denomination.

References

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Lo, Shauna and Laura Wai Ng. "Beyond Bachelorhood: Chinese American Interracial Marriage in Massachusetts during the Exclusion Era." Chinese America : History and Perspectives (2013): 29-37,85. http://libproxy.lib.unc.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/beyond-bachelorhood-chinese-american-interracial/docview/1534110611/se-2.

Ngai, Mae M. “The Architecture of Race in American Immigration Law: A Reexamination of the Immigration Act of 1924.” The Journal of American History 86, no. 1 (1999): 67–92. https://doi.org/10.2307/2567407.

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