San Mateo honors Ching Lee Laundry

“I’m so happy it finally came to fruition,” Yee said.

The marker is across the street from its former location on First Avenue in downtown San Mateo. The plaque is 36 inches by 24 inches and made of porcelain enamel printed on 16-gauge steel and includes photos of the historic business and background information about Ching Lee’s history and the Chinese immigrant experience in the area.

At its opening in 1876, San Mateo had a population of 932 people. The business served as a laundry and news exchange area for the community and faced its first major challenge after being rebuilt following a large fire in 1928. The business, whose name translates to “victory” in Cantonese, is considered a testament to the Chinese immigrants who faced alienation, poverty, segregation, discrimination and bigotry to become Americans. Ching Lee got its current name after the fire when the community helped pay for its rebuild and got to choose a name. Yee said the previous generations dealt with racial discrimination at a time when it was hard for people of color to have a business, noting people threw bricks into its windows during her grandfather’s time. Chinese exclusion laws caused a decline in the population and led to a second Chinese district developing around 1900 on First Avenue and Claremont Street, along with some Japanese businesses.

People who visited Ching Lee brought gifts or recommendations for new restaurants, with people socializing and bringing friends throughout the generations. Yee said the business thrived because of the community, noting some described it as Facebook before Facebook.

“The biggest highlight was all the people who came through the front door. They weren’t just customers. They were family,” Yee said.

Ling Woo Liu, a writer based in San Francisco who helped bring the marker to fruition, said the laundry represented an important part of San Mateo, Chinese American and Asian American history that deserved commemoration.

“I feel the plaque is a wonderful way to memorialize this long-term business that has brought so much to San Mateo,” she said.

The city of San Mateo owns the marker and had Public Works crews finish putting it down on July 28. It was placed on the other side of the street from the original site because of safety concerns with placement directly in front of the former laundry building and the uncertainty over the building’s future.

The plan is for the Ching Lee marker to be the first of many in the city as part of an “urban trail” connecting the city’s parks and informing passersby about the area’s history. Fred Hansson is a San Mateo City Parks and Recreation Foundation member, an organization that has worked to get the plaque up. He and others have been working on the idea since 2017 and hope the marker is just one of many. The markers would be in walking areas from Coyote Point to Laurelwood Park, allowing people to get historical interpretations of interesting points in the city. Potential sites include Bay Meadows, Hayward Park Square, Japanese greenhouses and Laurelwood Park. The group is still working to find funding, with the pandemic reducing fundraising opportunities.

“I took a visit on Sunday,” Hansson said of the first marker. “I’m really pleased with how it’s all set up.”