Who's Who in Asian American Communities Gala Keynote Address

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Keynote Address

WHOS WHO IN ASIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITIES GALA

OMNI HOTEL, Atlanta, GA. April 29, 2006

ALL I REALLY NEEDED TO KNOW, I LEARNED IN A CHINESE LAUNDRY

John Jung

Distinguished honorees, ladies and gentlemen:

It is a high honor to have the privilege to speak to you on this wonderful occasion andcelebration.

I am impressed with what a vibrant and energetic sense of community there is among the

Atlanta Asian American community consisting of a wide diversity of ethnic groups.

In contrast, when I was living in Macon, we had a much smaller Asain communitymy

family was the entire CHINESE COMMUNITYand when we finally left Macon in the

mid-1950s, the Chinese community was gone! The local newspaper noted it was thefirst time in 100 years that there were no Chinese in townit was not clear from the

article written in 1954 whether the writer was relieved or saddened!

A few years ago, in reflecting on my familys life in Macon, our culturally isolation for

over 25 years, being the solitary Chinese, or Asianfor that matter, family in town in an

era with a highly segregated society, I was inspired to write a memoir, SOUTHERNFRIED RICE to record our familys life and our presence and in small way preserve

and share a bit of Chinese American history that few people outside of the South knew.

There isnt time enough tonight to go into any detail about our family story so I want to

say a few things about growing up in a Chinese laundry. Let me BEGIN with what mightseem to be a digression: Ill bet none of you knew that this past Thursday was:TAKE YOUR CHILD TO WORK WITH YOU Day

The premise here was that its good for kids to learn what their parents do at work, even

if they go just for one day.

Note: this doesnt always have such positive outcomes:

For example, when my son was a youngster, Id occasionally take him with me to

campus. He soon reached the (false) conclusion that work was fun because all Iseemingly did was: drink coffee, chat with students, and occasionally scribble on the

blackboard, and illegibly at that.

Growing up, I had the chance to watch my parents work because all of us children

worked with our parents in the laundrynot just ONE day a year, but EVERYDAY so

that I often hated having to work in the laundry, BUT I now must admit it did teach mesome valuable lessons.

What lessons did I learn from watching MY parents work?


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1. The Nature of Work

Work is hard Ben Franklin, as we all know said Early to Bed, Early to Risewell,he never talked to a Chinese laundryman for even though my parents went to bed early

and get up early six days a week, 52 wks a year. it did not exactly make them any

healthier, or wealthier, but perhaps wiser

2. The Peter Principle Applies to Laundries (If it can go wrong, it will)

When the hired help doesnt come in, the work must still be done.When machinery breaks down, the work must still be done

And as with President Harry S.Truman, the buck stops here . with my parents who had

to get the work done by themselves.

3.How to Deal with People

The Customer (thinks he) is always right, even when he is wrong Some customers

angrily claimed we lost clothes that they later admitted they had never brought inbuthad misplaced or left at home.

4. Golden Rule Treat customers the way you wanted to be treated this did not always

work, but it was a good starting point.

5. Learn how to read or size up customers, that way I could pick easy to servecustomers to wait on, and let my father deal with the obnoxious ones.

6. Use Your Intellect or BrainDealing with many illiterate customers, both white and black, quickly taught me the

value of being able to read and write and why education is so important.

7. Learn Problem Solving skills:

For example: Lost tickets were the bane of our existence by the way, just how the

expression, No tick-ee, no wash-ee, arose is a mystery to me. No Chinese laundrymansaid that because we always found the laundry for customers, even those that lost their

tickets. Of course, we had to open, and rewrap, many bundles to find the right clothes.

This taught me to develop strategies for finding a customers clothes efficiently.

8. Develop Organization and memory Skills because Time is money

In a laundry, you have to do more than just wash and iron clothes; after that you must

sort and reassemble finished items for each customer and to do this efficiently you needto be organized and have a good memory.

9. Money Does Not Grow On Trees, (although it sometimes fell out of clothes).

Our parents did not indulge us, or themselves, with material items, but they always

found the way to provide for essential needs especially if it had to do with our

schoolwork.


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10. Family Involvement

Family cooperation is essential for survival we all had to pitch in and work togetherin order to make a living.

These ten lessons have been invaluable in helping me succeed throughout life.

Now I want to conclude by contrasting Two conceptions of Laundry Life

The first, I will call the Customers Romantic Philosophy of The Laundry

(Laundryman, My Laundryman to the tune of Chinatown My Chinatown)

There was an OLD commercial in which:

A white customer asks the Chinese laundryman: How do you get the shirts so white?

The laundrymans proud but sly Answer: ANCIENT CHINESE SECRET!

In other words, We, CHINESE were IMBUED by the white ad writerwith magic-like

power to transform dirty, smelly clothes into clean fragrant clothes, This stereotypeshows that mainstream society saw Chinese as experts, but only in this one area

versus

A Realistic Philosophy of Laundry one that might represent the view of the Chinese

laundryman:

Children, you should aspire to something higher than doing laundry; control your own

future with knowledge and educationour laundry will provide the financial support for

you to get this valuable education.

In conclusionwe must recognize that successful though we may have become, we did

NOT do it alone. We stood on the shoulders of our parents and families, a strength of ourAsian cultures.

Tonight, in honoring these 67 outstanding members of the Whos Who in Asian

American communities, I think I can safely say that we are at the same time honoringtheir parents and families who supported them in pursing their dreams.

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Who's Who in Asian American Communities Gala Keynote Address