I am a historian by training. But as a Chinese adoptee and lifelong Hoosier, I do not need to look through old newspaper clippings or census records to see Indiana’s culturally diverse nature. All I need to do is look in the mirror.
Learning about the lives of people who came before me is one way I like to help people today understand the role of Indianapolis in our nation’s complicated past.
A recent census shows that about 8,000 Chinese people reside in the Indianapolis metropolitan area. Despite this, their history has largely been ignored, rendering this group invisible in the Circle City’s cultural landscape.
So, let’s change that.
These four places tell the story of Chinese immigration in Indianapolis, and they are key settings to understand Chinese residents as cultural emissaries in our city.
From chop suey restaurants, where chefs paired bok choy with sweet corn, to the hot and humid wash basins where laundrymen scrubbed their fortunes, these stories are a testament to Chinese immigrants’ resilience in the face of exclusion.
Chin Gum Sing’s Laundry
Starting in 1879, the first Chinese businesses to open in Indianapolis were hand laundries. They didn’t take much capital to establish — just a tub, washboard, soap and iron.
Chinese laundries offered Hoosiers a cheap alternative to the laborious chore.
Laundryman Chin Gum Sing, also known as E. Lung, arrived in Indianapolis in 1879. His laundry business advertised rates of 8 cents per shirt and 1.5 cents per collar or cuff. He found success and garnered a sizable fortune, sending money to his family in China and hosting elaborate Chinese New Year Parties and banquets for the community.
In 1903, Lung was appointed the Grand Master of the Chinese Masons, a national position that had him traveling across the country to visit Chinese communities and promote Chinese welfare. His economic, political and social success is a testament to Chinese achievement despite exclusion.
Hand laundries, which mainly served white middle- to upper-class Hoosiers, served as vital settings for cultural exchange.
Moy Kee’s Chop Suey Restaurant
From 1901-1914, it’s estimated that seven to 15 chop suey restaurants sprouted up around Indianapolis.
Chop suey, a stir-fry dish of vegetables and meat, was a precursor to modern Chinese takeout. These establishments often Americanized traditional Chinese dishes to suit the American palette and became extremely popular in the mid-1900s.
The most influential chop suey shop owner was Moy Kee, the “mayor” of Indy’s Chinatown. In 1897, Moy and his wife Chin Fung moved to Indianapolis from Chicago. Going before the Marion County Courts, Moy successfully earned his American citizenship despite the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. He and Chin opened their chop suey restaurant in 1901.
Since he was fluent in English, Moy played a major role in shaping Hoosier opinions on Chinese immigration, serving as a translator and ambassador for the local Chinese community.
In 1904, he hosted Prince Pu Lun, heir-apparent of the Qing Dynasty, at his restaurant. Pu Lun and his entourage — including Indianapolis Mayor John Holtzman, future U.S. Senator William Fortunate and the Hoosier poet James Whitcomb Riley — dined on a three-course meal that included chop suey, American beer, ice cream, tea and Chinese wine.
The Qing government later elevated Moy to Mandarin of the Fifth Rank, a prestigious position in Chinese society.
However, some years later, the Qing Dynasty stripped Moy of his Fifth Rank citizenship without explanation. It happened only a few years before the downfall of the Qing government in the nationalist revolution — Moy was known as a supporter of reforms and Sun Yat-sen.
Moy also lost his American citizenship. He was originally granted his citizenship through the Marion County Courts on a technical basis, but the Federal Immigration Bureau reviewed his case and disagreed with the ruling.
While Moy lost both the Fifth Rank status and his citizenship later in life, Moy continued to assert his Chinese American identity until his death in 1914. Newspapers noted that Moy had continued to hang both a Chinese and American flag outside his restaurant, even after losing his citizenship.
Bamboo Inn
From 1918-1961, Chinese restaurants in Indianapolis continued to evolve after Moy’s chop suey shop. And one of the most prominent Chinese restaurants in the city was Bamboo Inn, which opened in 1918 above Hilbert Circle Theatre.
Bamboo Inn was lavishly decorated with decadent wood and marble finishes, private dining and an upscale menu that offered filet mignon alongside frog legs.
The restaurant’s advertisements framed it as a high-class cafe that served, “Chinese chop suey and other delicacies peculiar to the Orient.” It also stayed open until 1 a.m.
Unlike the no-frills chop suey restaurants getting popular elsewhere in the city, Bamboo Inn targeted upper-class urbanites seeking a late meal after a busy night in the city. It offered customers an escape to China, an otherwise remote place in Hoosier imaginations.
Moy Lin Laundry
On May 31, 1970, the last Chinese laundry in Indianapolis shuttered its doors, ending the first chapter of Indianapolis Chinese immigration.
E. Lung and other launderers from the 1800s would have recognized Way Moy’s workday. In its heyday, Moy Lin Laundry hand-ironed 500 shirts a week, working six days a week from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.
But in the era of washing machines, Hoosiers must have perceived the business as an odd anachronism — a business out of step with modern times.
On the final day of their business, which had operated for over three decades, Moy’s wife, Dorothy, reflected: “We never got rich and we knew we never would. But, we always enjoyed what we were doing because we were our own boss and took pride in doing our shirts well, even if it was hard work, so we have no regrets.”
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