The story of Chinese in Chicago was reported by Dave Newbart (Sun Times, July 9). Below is a summary of his report: In 1870, the official number of Chinese immigrants living in Chicago was one. But as discrimination increased against Chinese laborers in California, they headed east. Thousands arrived in Chicago in the ensuing decades. They started hundreds of laundries, opened fine restaurants and other businesses, and eventually set up what is the bustling Chinatown of today centered at Cermak and Wentworth. Today there are 75,000 residents of Chinese and Taiwanese descent in the city and suburbs, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
To commemorate the history of Chinese Americans in Chicago and the Midwest, a group of Chinese historians, activists and business owners formed the Chinatown Museum Foundation in February. The group hopes to open a museum that will pay tribute to the Chinese-American experience here and recognize their contributions to the ethnic fabric of Chicago. A small private museum, called the Ling Long Museum, was open from the 1930s to the 1960s on Wentworth near Cermak. A 1959 photo claims Ling Long was the only Chinese-themed museum in the United States then, but now there are museums in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York.
The first recorded Chinese immigrant to arrive in Chicago was T.C. Moy in 1870. is relatives and others from the Toi Shan district of Canton (now Guanzhou) in Southern China followed, bringing the population to 1,200 by 1900. The first "Chinatown'' was centered near Clark and Van Buren. In 1912 it moved to its present location near Wentworth and Cermak.