Bud Glick

New York Chinatown Photos

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  • A group of men on Bayard St. during a Lunar New Year celebration in New York Chinatown in 1984. In the foreground a man is beating on a large gong.
  • Catherine St., New York City, 1981.
  • In front of 41 Kenmare St, New York City, 1982.The children in the photograph, now in their 40s, all grew up in 41 Kenmare and still keep in touch.
  • Catherine St., New York City, 1982.
  • Chinatown, New York City, 1983.
  • Club Lunch, 2 East Broadway, NYC, 1983
  • Kam Ho Lee, an elderly Chinese man, sits on the stoop of his apartment building, reading the newspaper, with his gandson, Vincent Lee, sleeping in his lap.
  • Mrs. Chiu in her apartment, New York Chinatown, 1981Mrs. Chiu, who I met at the Chinatown Senior Citizens’ Center (CSCC), had been separated from her husband for most of their marriage because of US immigration laws. Not too long after she immigrated, he died. She was living alone in an apartment on Pearl St. I took a couple photos of her at the Center and gave them to her, asked if I could photograph her at her home and she said yes. At her home she had an altar to her deceased husband which I also photographed. She had incorporated my previous photos of her into her husband’s altar. She was a strong, positive person.
  • The altar in Mrs. Chiu's apartment, New York Chinatown, 1981.
  • Mrs. Chiu, Mott St., 1983
  • Bachelor Apartment, Mr. Ng, 68 Bayard St., New York City, 1982.Bachelor Apartments, where groups of men lived together, were one result of anti-Chinese immigration laws such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. I met Mr. Ng on a field trip, organized by the Chinatown Senior Citizens’ Center. He did not speak English but somehow, we arranged for me to photograph him where he lived. Four men lived in this apartment with very little privacy. In each corner of the room there was a bed, and around each bed were a person’s belongings.The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the first law to bar an entire race from entering America, also prevented those already in the U.S. from bringing their families over and made it illegal for Chinese men to marry outside their race. Thus, New York Chinatown (like all Chinatowns in the United States) was a predominately male society until after passage of the 1965 Immigration Act which did away with national origin quotas.
  • A man stands in the kitchen of the Bachelor Apartment where he lives with 3 other men in New York Chinatown in 1982.
  • Bachelor Apartment, 68 Bayard St., New York City, 1982.
  • Bachelor Apartment, 68 Bayard St., New York City, 1982.The men share a meal together at the table in the middle of the room. One of the beds is in the background.
  • Bachelor Apartment, 68 Bayard St., New York City, 1982.
  • Bachelor Apartment, 68 Bayard St., New York City, 1982.Four men lived in this apartment with very little privacy. In each corner of the room there was a bed, and around each bed were a person’s belongings.
  • Bachelor Apartment, Mr. Ng, 68 Bayard St., New York City, 1982.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Chow, Baldwin, Long Island, 1981.When I shared this photo in 2018 with my collegue, the oral historian Yuet-fung Ho, she reminded me of their story. Yuet and I went to the Chow's home to interview and photograph them. 37 years had passed. Memories had faded, but Yuet remembered them vividly:Mr. Chow was a very lively, articulate man. He was an old hand laundry worker, and he really hated his work. He was bitter about his experience in this country because he left his wife (in China) and didn't see her for 30-something years. Eventually he was able to apply for his wife to come meet him. When they finally met, they didn't recognize each other. It was a bitter life, but he did come to terms with it. He was always very good to his wife. For them, everyday together was such a precious thing.As Yuet retold their story she finished by saying the worst thing that happened to Mr. Chow was that he outlived his wife. He was devoted to her and did not want to live any more without her.From that moment, I couldn't get their story out of my thoughts. I kept thinking about the Chows, their long separation and Mr. Chow's lifetime of work that he hated. Their personal story is emblematic of the history of the Chinese Exclusion Act and its consequences in the lives of countless Chinese Americans.For me, the photograph expresses Mr. and Mrs. Chow's triumph over the injustice of Exclusion. Mrs. Chow is steadfast and present, anchored to the table, looking directly at the camera. Her body language says, {quote}I am here.{quote} The weight and gentleness of Mr. Chow's hand, his embrace, and his fixed gaze upon her hold her to him. They are inseparable. They become one.
  • Kue Jong Barbershop, 18A Doyers St., New York City, 1981.
  • New York Chinatown, 1981
  • New York Chinatown, 1982
  • PS 1, New York City, 1981
  • PS 1, Catherine St., New York City, 1981
  • PS 1 playground, Catherine St., New York City, 1982
  • PS 1 playground, Catherine St., New York City, 1982
  • Mott St., New York City, 1983
  • San Gennaro Festival, Mulberry St., New York City, 1983.These young men had a booth at the San Gennaro Festival. Within a day of this photo going up on the Hyperallergic website in early 2017, I was contacted by the young man on the right, now in his early 50s.
  • Mott St, NYC, 1983
  • Wing Gong wet wash, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 1981.A wet wash was a factory size laundry, often with a multicultural workforce. It had its roots in the exclusion of Chinese Americans from many occupations.
  • Wing Gong wet wash, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 1981.
  • Wing Gong wet wash, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 1981.A wet wash was a factory size laundry, often with a multicultural workforce. It had its roots in the exclusion of Chinese Americans from many occupations.
  • Wing Gong wet wash, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 1981.
  • Wing Gong wet wash, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, 1981.A wet wash was a factory size laundry, often with a multicultural workforce. It had its roots in the exclusion of Chinese Americans from many occupations.
  • Geolan Sportswear, 202 Centre St., New York City, 1982.Geolan Sportswear was a garment factory, owned by Wong Hon Fung Lan (“Lan”) and her husband. I was invited to take pictures at the factory by Mo Xi Kuen (“Mo”) who I met at the 68 Bayard Street apartment, where Mo would often play mahjong after work. Geolan closed in the early 1990s after almost 25 years in business. “My husband passed away in 1987. I worked for four more years, but it was very difficult and my children were already older, so I sold the factory and that was it,” Lan says.Lan immigrated from Hainan Island in southern China as a fourteen year-old. She originally trained as a typist but found she could only make $70 a week, whereas sewing paid up to $200 a week. Over 80% of the roughly 60 workers at Geolan were from Hainan, a place with its own distinct dialect, pointing to the strong social networks and regional loyalties at play in hiring within Chinatown’s garment factories. Lan pointed out that when she started looking for sewing work, a colleague told her, “If you’re asked where you’re from, don’t tell them you’re from Hainan Island, say you’re Toisanese so that you won’t get yelled at by the Toisanese ladies.” Geolan took large orders of sewing work for fashion brands like Sahara before much of that work left Chinatown and was sent overseas. Lan described the working arrangement: “The fabric was already cut and we would receive everything in bulk – fabric, buttons, and zippers – including a sample from the company. We only had to buy thread. We would complete one piece for them to approve, and once it was OK’d we would start the job.” She described her business philosophy: “There’s no secret. If your workers treat you well and do a good job, then you should treat your workers well and fair. If you aren’t good to your own people well, then who will work for you?” One of Lan’s former employees interjects: “The most important thing is: pay your workers on time! With our boss, we never had to worry about that.” This uncommon bond between a garment factory boss and her employees extends even to today, 25 years after Geolan closed. Lan organizes a regular dim sum get together with her former employees. At its peak in the 1980s, sociologist Margaret Chin estimates that there were 500 garment factories employing 20,000 workers. Chin theorizes that after passage of the 1965 Immigration Act many more women came to the U.S. seeking jobs, which helped the garment industry in Chinatown grow.
  • Mo Xi Kuen, Geolan Sportswear, 202 Centre St., New York City, 1982.I met Mo at the 68 Bayard Street apartment, where he would often play mahjong after work. He invited me to photograph him at work.
  • Mo Xi Kuen, Geolan Sportswear, 202 Centre St., New York City, 1983
  • Garment factory elevator operator, 202 Centre St., New York City, 1983.
  • Big Tall Chin, Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.Mrs. Chin’s husband, Quock Chin, had been murdered in a robbery at the laundry at 1980 Creston Ave. on Dec. 29, 1981 a couple of weeks before I took these photos in January 1982.Lemin Chin, Big T’s daughter, remembers life in the laundry:“The day started at seven o’clock in the morning and my father wouldn’t come home until after ten o’clock (at night). All day long, seven days a week. Everything was done by hand. We went there to help out as kids. The prices were maybe 10, 20 or 30 cents for a shirt. It was not a lot of money.My parents raised four kids, and three adults on the laundry. We weren’t rich. Unfortunately, we used to see these jobs as not very prestigious. That’s why it’s rare to see a family portrait in a laundry. You wouldn’t send them back to home (to China) to show people what your life was like.”Hand laundries like this one were a bread and butter industry for the New York Chinese community. In the 1930s there were over 3,500 Chinese-owned laundries in New York City. Many Chinese men opened laundries because they were forced out of other industries, and because laundry work could be done without much training and little English proficiency. Hand laundry work was known as the “8 Pound Livelihood” because the irons used to press each garment by hand weighed about 8 lbs. Owners often lived in their laundry so kitchens and beds were a typical feature of these work spaces.
  • Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.
  • Big Tall Chin, Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.Mrs. Chin’s husband, Quock Chin, had been murdered in a robbery at the laundry at 1980 Creston Ave. on Dec. 29, 1981 a couple of weeks before I took these photos in January 1982. We interviewed Mrs. Chin’s daughter, Lemin Chin, in August 2018. From the interview: {quote}My mother came with my father to the United States. She was very depressed about it. She came from a relatively wealthy family in China, but after WWII Mao Zedong took it all away. When she came to America she was in shock. There was no apartment, no house. The bed was under the ironing board in the laundry, which you can see in the photograph. There was a piece of fabric and mats. That’s where she slept and we napped there as kids. When I was born my parents got an apartment for the first time. She did not want to be seen just as the wife of the laundry owner. It was her laundry too. She is really a tough lady.{quote} -Lemin Chin
  • Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.
  • Big Tall Chin, Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.
  • Back room, Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.Owners often lived in their laundry so kitchens and beds were a typical feature of these work spaces.
  • Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.
  • Big Tall Chin, SSam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.Mrs. Chin’s husband, Quock Chin, had been murdered in a robbery at the laundry at 1980 Creston Ave. on Dec. 29, 1981 a couple of weeks before I took these photos in January 1982.
  • Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982.
  • Big Tall Chin with her daughters, Oymin Chin and Lemin Chin, Sam Wah Laundry, 1980 Creston Ave., Bronx, New York, 1982
  • Hand laundry, Queens, New York, 1981. Children do their homework in the family hand laundry.
  • New York Chinatown, 1982
  • Frankie Wong with his son Steven in front of his grocery store, Catherine St., NYC, 1981
  • Freeman Wong in front of his family's grocery store, Catherine St., NYC, 1981
  • Henry St., New York City, 1982.The corner of Catherine St. and Henry St. (looking toward the east—Manhattan Bridge) right outside the store- depicts workers sorting and moving seafood on the sidewalk. Frankie’s son, Freeman, informed me that the man smoking the cigarette and carrying a bag of scallops was his great uncle, Yee Lam Chan, now deceased. Yee Lam’s son, Tseuk (Joe) Chan, is looking into the box, right center.
  • Zee Ying Chan Wong with her daughter Lina Wong, in front of their grocery store, Catherine St., NYC, 1981.
  • Mah Jong, Catherine St., New York City, 1981.Back room of Frankie Wong’s store (Frankie with his back to the camera): Fook Hing Long butcher shop, 27 Catherine St. 1981.
  • Catherine & Henry St., New York City, 1981. A woman with an umbrella walks in a snow storm. She is seen form inside, framed by the entrance to Frankie Wong's seafood stre at Catherine and Henry St., New York Chinatown, 1982
  • Yee Lam Chan, Catherine & Henry St., New York City, 1981.
  • Frankie Wong in front of his grocery store on Catherine St., New York City, 1981.
  • Frankie Wong (2nd from left) with friends in front of his grocery store on Catherine St., New York City, 1981.
  • Mulberry St., New York City, 1982.
  • Mott St., New York City, 1982.
  • Baxter St.?, New York City, 1983
  • Chinatown Senior Citizens’ Center, Bayard St., New York City, 1982.
  • Gee Family Association cemetary visit, Queens, NY, 1983
  • Mulberry St., New York City, 1982.
  • In front of 18 Bowery at Pell St., New York City, 1982.Marilyn Louie’s newsstand.
  • Columbus Park, New York City, 1982.
  • Columbus Park, New York City, 1983.
  • Columbus Park, New York City, 1982.
  • Columbus Park, New York City, 1982.
  • PS 1 playground, Catherine St., New York City, 1982.
  • F Train, New York City, 1982.
  • Division St., New York City, 1982.
  • Division St., New York City, 1982.
  • Columbus Park, New York City, 1982.
  • Kam Ho Lee with his granddaughter, 9 Eldridge St., New York City, 1983.Kam Ho Lee babysits for his grandchildren and other children in the building while their parents are at work.
  • Kam Ho Lee's grandchildren play on the stairway, 9 Eldridge St., 1983.
  • Kam Ho Lee's father, 9 Eldridge St.,1983
  • Kam Ho Lee's apartment, 9 Eldridge St.,1983
  • Rebecca with her children in their kitchen, New York City, 1982.
  • Rebecca with her children in their kitchen, New York City, 1982.
  • Rebecca with her children in their kitchen, New York City, 1982.
  • Family in apartment, New York City. 1982.
  • Family in apartment, New York City. 1982.
  • New York Chinatown, 1981
  • New York Chinatown, 1981
  • New York Chinatown, 1983
  • Lunar New Year, Mott St., New York City, 1983
  • Lunar New Year, East Broadway, New York City, 1983
  • Lunar New Year, Mott St., New York City, 1984.
  • Lunar New Year, Mott St., New York City, 1984.
  • Lunar New Year, Mott St., New York City, 1984.
  • Funeral, Division St. and Catherine St., New York City, 1982.
  • Italian-American workers with funeral banners, Mulberry St., New York City, 1982. The part of Mulberry Street next to Columbus Park used to be home to funeral homes run by Italian Americans when Little Italy stretched south of Canal Street. After Chinese moved into the area and took over the funeral businesses, some of the Italian workers stayed on. This photograph shows a funeral with Chinese banners being held up by non-Chinese funeral home workers.
  • Columbus Park, Mulberry St., New York City, 1982.The women in this photograph were watching the funeral proceedings depicted in the previous photograph, directly across the street.
  • Wah Nan Co., 46 Mulberry St., New York City, 1982.This is in the back of the store, which was a community gathering place for these men. It had functioned as a mail drop for some men and the owner wrote letters for people who were illiterate.
  • Wah Nan Co., 46 Mulberry St., New York City, 1982.
  • Produce distributor, Bayard St., New York City, 1982.
  • Tony, Catherine St., New York City, 1981.
  • Mr. Soo, East Broadway, New York City, 1982.
  • Chinatown Senior Citizens’ Center, Bayard St., New York City, 1982.
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