User:Simtropolitan/Sandbox/CIH

While the population of these communities never reached greater than a matter of dozens, Holyoke, Massachusetts was home to a Chinese residents whose presence greatly influenced the labor discourse as well as ties between East and West in the development of silk manufacturing techniques. Comprised two distinct social classes, Holyoke's early Chinese residents included a number of exchange students who attended Holyoke High School and who were described in contemporary accounts as "here temporarily in quest of an education, and... conceded to be the flower of Chinese culture". Many other citizens resided in Holyoke, most of whom operated restaurants and laundries in the city. In one 1895 business directory, more than a dozen laundries were listed with Romanized Chinese names.