Our Love Letter to Chinatown (給唐人街的情書) mural is a collective love letter to a community that persists and continues to cultivate love and care as resistance

It all began with an idea to create a mural for the Wing on Wo & Co. storefront gate, celebrating our community and neighborhood. Mei and I contemplated what it would mean to create a work of art that would only be seen when the shop is closed and the gate is down–early in the mornings and late at night when restaurants are closing and the community is turning in for the night.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mei and I decided to use our LMCC Creative Engagement Grant funding towards co-creating a mural within The W.O.W. Project’s Love Letters to Chinatown initiative. We incorporated imagery and excerpts from participants’ letters to remind our community and ourselves of our collective strength that already exists. We chose to celebrate Chinatown’s early risers and late roamers who make up Chinatown’s foundations: elders, families, shop workers, family businesses, restaurant staff, and errand runners.