As part of our current exhibition Color Photographs from the New Deal (1939-1943) which incorporates documentation of labor movements from the 1930's-40's and including material on the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance, Carriage Trade will host a screening of films addressing both contemporary and historical examples of labor issues in Chinatown. These films engage both the important history of the CHLA, (Betty Yu's Discovering My Grandfather through Mao, 2013) as well as current labor and immigration issues facing Chinese immigrants in NYC (Sihan Cui's Flushing, 2019, and an excerpt from Zishun Ning's For Whom the Alarm Sounds, 2022).
Emerging in the 1930's in response to a punitive NYC licensing fee that would have put many hand laundries out of business, the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance played a significant role in defending the rights of hand laundry workers in Chinatown for many decades. Organizing workers within an occupation whose ubiquity in part had to do with the difficulty of finding work in the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act, a discriminatory U.S. government policy that placed severe restrictions on Chinese immigration for a half century, the CHLA also had to contend with the existing power dynamics among institutions within Chinatown, from which they found limited support.The CHLA challenged the draconian licensing fee on their own and won, in the process creating an organization which produced a rich cultural and political history, with educational and philanthropic activities alongside their efforts to protect the hand laundries' interests.
Presenting films that document both the current plight of Chinese immigrants who continue to face exploitative labor practices in NYC as well as past and present examples of the significant power of organizing for change, this screening intends to expand on the importance of historical precedent in understanding contemporary experience which, in part motivated this re-presentation of the Color Photographs from the New Deal exhibition.
Flushing (2019), 7:16
This is a prose about Flushing.
The immigration issue is a major global issue in our world. In China, labor migration is providing vulnerable groups of immigrants. Many Chinese have the impression that overseas migration means wealth and a better life. However, the life of Chinese labor immigrants overseas is not as glamorous as people think. Language barriers, illegal residency status, distrust of foreign country and the lack of effective protection put them in a very dangerous situation. Labor exploitation and substandard low-cost hourly wages are not new issues. The dilemmas immigrants face may also be the threat of personal safety and forced involvement in the illegal industry. Immigrants have paid a great price. They left their loved ones and friends, left everything they are familiar with, and went to a country where they can’t even understand the language, in order to seek a better life. When they set foot on the new land with high expectations, all kinds of unexpected and unpredictable risks emerge, in the way of opportunity. Is the dream still as good as they imagined, or is it just a phantom, fragile bubble?
-Sihan Cui
Discovering My Grandfather through Mao (2013), 18:01
Betty Yu
“Discovering My Grandfather through Mao”, a short documentary film about my personal journey as I uncover my grandfather’s radical history as a labor organizer and co-founder of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of New York (CHLA), one of the oldest Chinese-American labor organizations in this country. My grandfather, Sui Woo, a hand laundry worker came together with other workers and recognized the need for an organization that could challenge the racist and anti-Chinese policies in the 1930's.
The documentary will follow my journey as I attempt to piece together the life of my grandfather through recreations of my memories of him, photos, interviews, antidotes, family stories and conversations CHLA members who knew him. Through interviews with Chinese CHLA members, labor organizers, scholars and experts, I uncover the important legacy of this virtually unknown organization. CHLA’s support of the anti-Japanese WWII effort in China elevated them to a national level as they raised thousands of dollars to buy medical supplies and two ambulances that were sent to China to support the war efforts. When China prevailed and the CHLA threw their support to the Communist Party, the FBI interrogation waged a systematic strategy to wipe out the CHLA. My grandfather continued to be an active member during this period of McCarthyism. The film will expose FBI files that demonstrate the systematic intimidation tactics they used to destroy the organization. As a result, membership declined sharply during this time and never regained those numbers from the earlier days. As power washing machines became more ubiquitous, hand laundries became obsolete. Today, Chinese Americans and immigrants can learn from this rich history of workers resisting institutional racism and recognizing the importance of community organizing as a powerful tool.
-Betty Yu
For Whom the Alarm Sounds (2022) (excerpt), 30:00
Amid the rise of anti-Asian violence, Chinese home attendants in New York City expose a home care agency that claims to “stop Asian hate,” yet forces them to work grueling 24-hour workdays that damage their health and families. Documenting the home attendants’ organizing to end the 24-hour workdays*, this film challenges the common understanding of racist violence, and puts in spotlight those who maintain systemic racism under progressive-sounding banners.
-Zishun Ning
* The Ain’t I a Woman?! campaign is a coalition leading the movement to end the 24-hr workday, a violent practice in New York City, which is destroying the health and lives of women of color home attendants.