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Cubic
Air Ordinance, 1870: "required each adult to have at least 500 cubic
feet of living space." (Mccunn, pg. 77.) Since most building inhabited
by Chinese were overcrowded; many Chinese were arrested for violating
the law. At the end, the jails became so crowed that the ordinance was
repealed.
Queue
Ordinance, 1873: "required the sheriff to cut the hair of every prisoner
sentenced to jail, within one inch of the prisoner's scalp." (Hoobler,
63.) In China, under Manchu law, all Chinese men were required to have
queues, so without them immigrants would not be able to return home (the
penalty was death), and it was very humiliating for Chinese to have their
queues cut off.
Laundry
Ordinance, 1879: "ruled that any one who carried laundry without using
wagons drawn by horses would have to pay a high license fee." (Mccunn,
77.) Obviously, this law was aimed at the Chinese laundries, which used
men carrying poles to deliver the laundry.
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