# The Chinese — How the Other Half Lives character guide

> The Chinese in How the Other Half Lives by Jacob Riis.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** their, themselves

**First appearance:** 0013-ix-chinatown

## Snapshot

Chinatown's Chinese immigrants keep scrupulously clean laundries and opium dens where white girls, mortgaged to the pipe, are held in a web Riis can find no way to break.

## Who they are

Riis walks the dens with a police captain and finds the girls indifferent, neat, and past saving, calling the officer by name as he sends them up. The Chinaman he paints is cat-clean and cat-cruel, ruling first with a gloved hand and later with a broom-handle in a Mott Street cellar. Chinatown's laundry outposts make it the early arc's most insidious threat to the city's daughters.

## Relationships

### [The Boy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/characters/the_boy)

_rivalry_

The Boy and The Chinese are often in conflict, reflecting ethnic or economic tensions in the slums.

### [Mr. A. T. White](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/characters/mr_a_t_white)

_rivalry_

Mr. A. T. White and The Chinese are in opposition, reflecting tensions between reformers and immigrant communities.

### [The Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/characters/the_stranger)

_rivalry_

The Chinese and The Stranger are in conflict, suggesting xenophobia or competition for resources.

### [The Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/characters/the_stranger)

_rivalry_

The Chinese and The Stranger are in conflict, suggesting xenophobia or competition for resources.

### [The Boy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/characters/the_boy)

_rivalry_

The Boy and The Chinese are often in conflict, reflecting ethnic or economic tensions in the slums.

## In the story

### [How the Other Half Lives](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/chapters/how-the-other-half-lives)

Chinese residents are portrayed in the context of Chinatown, highlighting their separate but equally impoverished community.

### [I: Genesis of the Tenement](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/chapters/i-genesis-of-the-tenement)

Not directly mentioned in this chapter excerpt.

### [The Mixed Crowd](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/chapters/iii-the-mixed-crowd)

Chinese coolies are noted for their exclusive possession of the laundry business and their stationary social position.

### [The Italian in New York](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/chapters/v-the-italian-in-new-york)

Compared to the Italian as a born gambler.

### [IX: Chinatown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/chapters/ix-chinatown)

The Chinese community is depicted as exclusive, reserved, and governed by their own code, with a focus on their opium dens and exploitation of women.

### [XIX: The Harvest of Tares](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/chapters/xix-the-harvest-of-tares)

Not directly featured in this chapter; no relevant excerpt.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/characters/the_chinese
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/how_the_other_half_lives_se/characters