Walking through Chinatown, an English tourist was fascinated with all the Chinese restaurants, shops, signs and banners. He turned a corner and saw a building with the sign, "Hans Schmidt's Chinese Laundry."
"Hans Schmidt?" he wondered. "How does that name fit in Chinatown?"
So he walked into the shop and saw a fairly standard looking Chinese laundry. He could see that the proprietors were clearly aware of the uniqueness of the name as there were baseball hats, T-Shirts and coffee mugs emblazoned with the logo, "Hans Schmidt's Chinese Laundry." There was also a fair selection of Chinatown souvenirs, indicating that the name alone had brought many tourists into the shop. The Englishman selected a coffee cup as a conversation piece to take back to his office in London. Behind the counter was a smiling old Chinese gentleman who thanked him for his purchase.
The tourist asked, "Can you tell me how this place got a name like 'Hans Schmidt's Chinese Laundry'?"
The old man answered, "Ahh... Everybody ask me that question. Is name of owner."
Looking around, the tourist asked, "Who and where is the owner now?"
"He is right here," replied the old man. "I am Hans Schmidt."
"Really? How did you ever get a name like Hans Schmidt, being a Chinese man?"
"Is simple," said the old man. "Many, many year ago when I came to this country from China, I was queueing up at the immigration center, where I was standing behind a German. The lady at the counter looked at the German and said, ‘What is your name?' He said, Hans Schmidt. When it was my turn, she looked at me and said, 'What is your name?' I said, 'Sem Ting.'"
