Laundry in Asia and Cleanliness as the First Step in Achieving Good Sanitation - Essay Example

According to Yun, the new technology has improved the lifestyle of Chinese people and at the same time, it has corrupted Chinese traditions.

I grew up in a small village, in Xiaolou town, Guangzhou province, in China, known as Xijing. During that time, fabrics were placed in the running water along the water streams to diminish the unpleasant smells and dirt. I remember watching my mother washing clothes in Wei River, She used to begin by rubbing, twisting the dirty fabric, or slapping them against flat rocks. People also used pieces of wood in beating out the dirt. Afterward, the fabric was rinsed, squeezed to drain water away, and later spread on flat rocks to dry. We had to wait for the clothes to dry for about an hour then carry them home. Nowadays laundry has changed so much since the majority of families in suburban areas use washing machines, which are hand-operated in cleaning the fabrics. The machine moves round and round with the aid of the paddles, which cycles continuously. This repeated action swirls the clothing until it removes the dirt completely.

In those days, washing of clothes to drying was cumbersome since it was a whole day process. These days washing clothes with electronic machines takes a short period. The clothes are cleaned in the washing machine, and dried by the clothes dryer. During the old days, the sun's energy was the only source that people relied on to dry their wet clothes. The drying of the clothes was unpredictable since not all days were sunny days, especially during the rainy seasons. However, this has much changed since laundry drying nowadays is mechanized, with the aid of clothes dryers. Dryers have spun perforated tubs where they blow heated air rather than water, which in turn dries clothes.

A world without laundry is unpredictable since cleanliness is the first step in achieving good sanitation and maintaining health hygiene. Through laundry, people are able to prevent diseases like cholera and skin diseases caused by germs in dirty clothes. Read More