\Elwin Xie, one of the individuals who grew up in a Chinese laundry and contributed a narrative about his experiences in my book, "Chinese Laundries," is very actively involved in the Chinese community of Vancouver, Canada, where he grew up. One of his many activities has been to work with the Friends of Foo's Ho Ho Restaurant, a long-time popular old-style Chinese soul-food eateries that long-term Chinese Canadians of Vancouver treasure. Like many other businesses in the historic Chinatown of Vancouver, it has experienced hard times as this section of town has faced a decline in popularity for many reasons, including the increased presence of homeless people and drug addicts as well as the shift in preferences among many customers toward newer Chinese cuisines in restaurants located in other parts of town such as Richmond.
The Friends of Foo's Ho Ho rallied behind the restaurant and has held various events to promote it and help it survive economically. The event that I participated in with Elwin and noted Chinese Canadian author, Judy Fong Bates, was called "Chinese Laundry Kids," because we 3 all shared that life experience.
The benefit dinner attracted about 100 guests, and featured delicious and hard to find dishes that were popular Toishanese items at Foo's Ho Ho for decades. Elwin, Judy, and I each spoke about our experiences and/or current books for about 10-15 mins. each. Everyone had a great meal and wonderful time sharing memories about the lives of earlier Chinese immigrants that operated laundries.
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