A new state historical marker in Milwaukee honors the city’s Chinese Laundry Era. Starting in the late 1800s, Chinese immigrants owned dozens of laundries to provide for their families.
The marker sits outside the YWCA on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. That’s where one of the last laundries operated until 1976.
A short film, by Beijing native and UW-Milwaukee lecturer Yinan Wang covers the marker’s unveiling and previews a second marker expected to be installed at the Forest Home Cemetery next spring. The new marker will honor Chinese tomb sweeping, a tradition that includes cleaning gravesites and bringing offerings like food and money to ancestors' graves.
Wang's film has a working title: "From Section 48 to King Drive." He plans to submit the film to local film festivals for potential screenings early next year.
Wang talked with WUWM about the film and his experience living in Milwaukee for the past decade.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Eddie Morales: As you were capturing these stories of the different generations of Chinese immigrants in Milwaukee, what has that been like for you?
Yinan Wang: All my films, all my works after I came to the U.S., are pretty much about myself and also are pretty much about immigrants. The film is about the markers, the markers for the laundry and also the markers for the cemetery. But I think the people who are behind those markers, they were immigrants.
I am an immigrant myself, so I feel like there is some sort of a connection. I feel like that connection is very strong even though we live apart maybe 100 years, but I still feel them. So that's why I really wanted to make this film.
Some moments from the film, like going back to where the Fred Moy Laundry was located with his granddaughter, Anna Wong — can you talk about what that was like revisiting her childhood moments?
So we moved to that area like two years ago. Personally, I'm very interested in the history. But I didn't know about that area a lot before I met Anna. She lived there [with] her family and her parents and her grandparents. So, because I walk down this street a lot, like every day, I was trying to imagine what this neighborhood used to be like.
I think she mentioned in the film there used to be a very famous department store called Gimbels, just located there. I was just trying to immerse myself in that space and to imagine, okay, so I'm in this Gimbels from like the 1960s.
I wasn't born here, but I do feel like this is my city. I do feel like I have so many connections with this place. That's kind of what I got or what I take away.
When you make that comparison about your own experience and past generation experiences here in Milwaukee, how would you describe those comparisons?
I think everything is getting better compared to what’s happening 100 years ago. But I think from the recent years, I feel like there is a very strong tendency, kind of like repeating what's already happened from 100 years ago. I feel like there is a kind of pushback for the immigrants.
Does this project have any particular significance to you because of your own personal experience, of course, but also because of this heightened focus on immigration policies right now in the U.S.?
I wasn't thinking about the immigration policies while I was making this film. But I think another personal wish — I want to dedicate this film to my child. She was born here and she is a U.S. citizen. She's going to probably live her life here.
I want this film to be something like a book or something like a reference for her when she grows up. I feel like this film will make her feel not alone. As long as this film makes her feel like she belongs here. So she's part of the city and she's part of Wisconsin.
