What to know
- A new Heritage Toronto plaque honours Sam Ching, one of the earliest recorded Chinese men in Toronto, who operated a hand laundry near Adelaide St. E. in 1878. The plaque was unveiled at the Birkbeck Building during Chinese Heritage Month, and the lane beside it is named after him.
- Barred from most jobs in the 1800s, many Chinese immigrants opened hand laundries, working 12–16 hour days. They faced discrimination at every level of government, including the federal head tax and the Chinese Exclusion Act, along with provincial and municipal restrictions.
- The plaque acknowledges both racism and resilience. Speakers at the ceremony said it’s about recognizing the barriers early Chinese Canadians faced, and the lasting impact their hard work and community-building has had on Toronto.
In recognition of Chinese Heritage Month, Heritage Toronto has unveiled a plaque honouring the city’s historic Chinese laundries.
On Tuesday, Heritage Toronto along with Councillor Chris Moise held an unveiling ceremony at the Birkbeck Building in downtown Toronto.
Heritage Toronto is honouring Sam Ching, one of the earliest Chinese men recorded in Toronto, and the hand laundry he operated near Adelaide St. E. in 1878, with the plaque.
The plaque acknowledges him being Toronto’s last Chinese laundromat owner and the racism Chinese communities faced while building lives in the city.
The lane beside the Birbeck Building is also named for him, as his 1878 business was located across the street.
Chinese Laundries have a great history tied to Canada’s racism towards the Chinese community. Jennifer Chow, who attended the plaque unveiling and is a descendant of a family that owned one of the last Chinese laundries in the city, shared that while she is not a biological relative of Sam Ching, her family was part of the same community of business owners who followed in his footsteps, shaping her values today.
“Sam Ching represents the first page of the story, and my great-grandparents were among those who helped write the last chapter,” Chow said at the event.
Why are Chinese laundries culturally important?
Excluded from most work except manual labour in the 1800s, many Chinese immigrants in Canada opened hand laundries because they were affordable and free of discriminatory hiring practices.
The first recorded Chinese man to do so was Ching, though local historian Arlene Chan notes uncertainty about his full Chinese name.
But what is known is the hard work Chinese newcomers needed to put in to survive in Canada.
“They could hire their family and friends… willing to work the long, long, long hours, 12-16 hours a day, six to seven days a week, working in laundry, physically demanding work, and everything was done by hand,” Chan said.
How was Canada discriminatory?
Chan adds that Canada was discriminatory towards Chinese Canadians at all government levels. On the Federal side, Canada had a head tax, which imposed an extra financial burden on newcomers until 1923, and a Chinese Exclusion Act, which prevented Chinese people from entering Canada until 1947. Provincially, Chinese laundries could not hire white female workers, and municipally, there was a laundry licensing fee of $50 (to which Arlene clarifies it translates to $1500 in today’s age).
What does this plaque mean for Chinese-Canadians?
With increasing immigration, the plaque publicly acknowledges past struggles and honours the early foundations of Chinese life and resilience in Toronto.
For Chow, this plaque honours Ching, who’s given her “perhaps one of the greatest gifts… The power of choice and the pursuit of any dream we envision for ourselves by surviving the exclusionary laws of their time.”
“Sam Qing opened a door during a time when the pack was unclear, and opportunities for people who look like him were very limited,” Chow said.
Plaques Manager at Heritage Toronto Chris Bateman explained, “It’s Chinese Heritage Month, as well as Black History Month. We run the city’s plaques programme, we have 900 plaques, and when you take them all together, they tell the story of the city.”
The plaque talks about Chinese history in Toronto, starting with laundry owners, leading into the history of discrimination in the Chinese community.
“I don’t think a lot of people really recognize the extent to which the Chinese community was discriminated against at all levels of government… It’s really an eye-opening story, and that’s as important to remember as any piece of history in Toronto, understanding the past wrongs and the steps that we’ve taken to undo those, or to, at least to address them,” Bateman said.
The plaque is significant to Canada’s culture as well. “The city’s motto is diversity of strength, and the Chinese community really has helped build this city and build this country… And I think this plaque and this laneway are just a testament, a reminder of what Toronto is and was and continues to be,” Councillor Chris Moise said.
He added, “A lot of our history here in Toronto and Canada hasn’t been told, right? And again, it’s minorities who built this country. Diversity is our strength, and the Chinese community plays a big part in that history.”
