Growing up in a laundry was not something that I felt like bragging about or disclosing to acquaintances. However, after doing research for writing "Southern Fried Rice," I discovered much to be proud about the significant role that these 'unsung heroes' running Chinese laundries had on the future success of their children and later generations. Of course, the Chinese laundry has almost completely vanished into history so that newer generations of whatever ethnicity have no knowledge about how important they were for Chinese in North America. I decided to pay tribute to these pioneers by writing their history. I was fortunate to recruit 8 or 9 other Chinese who also grew up in laundries to write about their own experiences and memories of what it was like to have a family laundry business. Each person wrote independently of the others and none of them were even acquainted with each other. I was amazed at how similar their experiences were, even though they came from widely different parts of the U. S. and Canada. Since the book came out, I have met many other "children of Chinese laundries" who have shared their similar experiences.