Nina Tsao founded Onsett International Corporation, an innovative integrated technology and business management consulting firm focusing on strategic operation and transforming enterprise information infrastructure for Fortune 500 corporations. She advised C-level executives of large financial services organizations and held the Chief GlobalNetwork Architect position for Citigroup Global IT (CGIN) organization for years.

She also believes in mentoring and investing in young companies. Over the last ten years, Nina has been an active angel investor in several startup companies on the East and West coasts.

Currently retired, Nina has become more involved in philanthropy and intergenerational mentoring programs. Nina generously supports ACDC’s Retirement Matched Savings program. ACDC recently interviewed Nina, and we are excited to share more about her passion for supporting financial literacy.

How did you get involved with ACDC?

Knowing that so many low-wage workers do not have access to employer-sponsored retirement accounts, I wanted to create opportunities for people to learn about retirement planning and start saving for their retirement before it’s too late. When I told my friends about a Roth IRA matching program idea, a close friend recommended that ACDC may have shared interest, so I reached out to Angie.

ACDC already has a matched savings program to help first-time homebuyers dig deeper into financial literacy essentials like creating a savings plan, how to spend within a reasonable budget, and building credit. It was a natural fit for me to help them expand on that to create a retirement-focused financial literacy program.

I recently attended one of the workshops and had a chance to meet with the program participants. The participants asked me great questions such as, “When do you know when you have enough to retire?” While each individual’s unique situation and varying economic factors call for different measures, I shared with them a formula that I learned from an AARP article. Generally, an ideal goal is to live off of 3 - 4% per year of your total savings.

Why is financial literacy among the causes you champion?

My father is an economist and successful business manager who taught me the importance of financial and investment acumen. Financial management and investment knowledge is the key to building wealth and preparing for financial independence for retirement. Savings and social security income alone is not enough. Long-term investment with educated risk management helps build a robust retirement nest egg.

For most people, these are very complex subjects that you must seek out and learn about independently, assuming you know where to find such resources. So, imagine navigating this while having limited English skills and not being familiar with the financial systems in the US. It’s great that ACDC can offer this type of education in Chinese to help bridge language barriers and cultural differences in how money is discussed and managed.

How did you get involved in philanthropy?

Helping others is a personal value instilled in me since childhood from several environments - from home, from the Maryknoll nuns at my school, and in Girl Scouts. I always believe that hard work, integrity, and equity are the keys to success. It feels incredibly rewarding to help provide opportunities for economic mobility for people who don’t otherwise have access or means to these resources. I am very fortunate to have benefitted from the knowledge my father passed along to me. I hope that the people in ACDC’s Retirement Matched Savings program can now pass the skills they acquire onto their children to break the cycle of poverty and build generational wealth.

Thank you to Nina for supporting ACDC’s Retirement Matched Savings program and for sharing your story! To learn more about this program, visit https://asiancdc.org/financial-health. 

This fall, Cathy will be going into her second year at Northeastern University where she studies journalism.

How did you learn about ACDC and why did you want to intern there?

I’m a part of the Huntington News, which is Northeastern’s independent student newspaper. Every week the editors pitch ideas for the writers to pick up. One of the pitches was about the anti-racism town hall ACDC co-sponsored. I was interested in it, but I didn’t end up picking it up because it was during midterm week when I had a lot of homework. The next day, in my journalism class, my professor assigned us a podcast to make and we had to choose an issue that’s newsworthy. I remembered the pitch from yesterday about ACDC’s anti-racism town hall meeting, so I wanted to do that for my podcast. I reached out to ACDC and Christine, my current supervisor, replied. We did the interview for my podcast and I told her that I’d never done a podcast or video editing before. 

After I was done, I sent it to her to check it out. I guess she really liked it. She told me if I was interested in a communications internship for the summer, I should reach out to her and that’s how I got the internship. I wanted to intern there because I’m a journalism major with a communications minor, so it’s in my field of study. I also really admire what ACDC does and their mission. My mom also works with Asian immigrants in Brooklyn’s Chinatown, so I’ve grown up with the same mindset and values that ACDC has. I feel really comfortable at ACDC.

What is a skill that you’ve gained or developed through this internship?

Interestingly enough, through my communications internship I have learned a lot about communication. This is the first job I’ve done remotely, so it was all new to me to communicate through a computer screen and go to meetings in my bedroom. I had to rely on talking to Christine and the other interns through Slack and email. I also had to learn to keep Christine updated on what I was working on, ask for help if I needed it, and ask to work on new projects if I wanted them.

What was a project you enjoyed working on and why?

A project that I enjoyed working on was writing up the blog post for Gianna Stewart who’s a Boston-based public artist. I liked that project a lot because I love art. I grew up drawing and painting and I’ve always wanted to be a professional artist so it’s really cool to see someone living my dream. I’m an artist in my free time, so I liked learning about how her piece came together. 

It was also really fun researching about the history of Chinatown in Boston. Gianna is so well spoken, and everything she talked about in her interview about her piece was so interesting, like why she wanted to make the swing set installation bright yellow. I think getting to know people and what they do is just something I genuinely enjoy doing.

What challenges did you face in your internship?

A while ago, I emailed the interns to be featured, but I didn’t hear back yet because I think they were busy with their projects or too shy to be featured. I guess a challenge that I have faced is accepting rejection because in the journalism field you’re going to have to accept being rejected a lot. Not everyone wants to be interviewed and you have to be fine with that. You can’t take anything personally.

What has been your favorite part of the internship?

I think my favorite part of the internship has to be being behind the scenes of ACDC’s Instagram and Facebook. It’s interesting to see the organizations that reach out to them. It’s also fun creating graphics, coming up with Instagram captions, and learning about audience engagement.

What do you hope to achieve through the work you do?

For myself, I would like to become a better storyteller and a better writer through it all. I’ve been given the opportunity to write profiles about people, which is one of my favorite things to write.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I live in Brooklyn. In my free time, I like to go to Coney Island, which is a very unpopular opinion for people who live in Brooklyn. It’s not known to be the cleanest or safest beach. I’m also just a train ride away from Manhattan, so I go there after work and on the weekends. Some of my favorite spots are Central Park and Washington Square Park. If I’m not working on this internship remotely in my bedroom, I’m with my friends in Coney or in the city.

Thanks for sharing, Cathy!

Every summer, ACDC hires high school and college student interns to join their team. Through hard work and perseverance, our interns have made it possible for ACDC to maintain its mission of empowering the Asian American community in the Greater Boston area during a disconnected time.

We wanted to introduce you to some of this summer’s interns to share their experience at ACDC. 

To start off our series is Yating Chen, a Communications Intern. Yating was born in China and moved to Boston when she was two years old. As a rising senior at Boston Latin School, Yating is involved in many extracurriculars including astronomy club, DECA, art club, and concert band. 

How did you connect with ACDC?

I first learned about ACDC last summer through the City of Boston’s SuccessLink program, and was placed at ACDC as a Development Intern last year. I really liked it, so I applied to intern with ACDC again this year.

What have you worked on in the past and what projects are you working on now?

When I started, I researched blogging best practices, how to reach out to people, how to come up with interview questions, how to interview people, and how to write a blog post. I just wrapped a project on a blog post about some of ACDC’s Summer Leadership Academy (SLA) youth. 

I spoke with two of the participants and asked questions about their interests and about their SLA projects. After interviewing them, I transcribed the text, created a blog post on ACDC’s website, and created a social media graphic using Canva.

Have you come across any challenges so far?

A lot of this year’s work is very new to me, such as interviewing people and creating a blog post. It’s not something that I’ve done before. There was a good amount of learning going into the work. 

I think one of the most challenging parts was coming up with interview questions. I had to research the SLA curriculum and what youth would be working on. I took into consideration who I was interviewing and what questions and responses readers would be interested in.

What is a skill you have learned during your internship?

Time management is a pretty huge one — getting everything done on time, working efficiently, and making sure that I prioritize certain tasks. I have a set schedule for everyday and I list out all my tasks. I also keep a calendar and make sure that I know exactly what I need to do and when it needs to be done, which has been helpful.

How has ACDC inspired you?

What first drew me to ACDC was its mission and work in the Asian community. I think my experience at ACDC inspired me to want to get involved with more non-profits in the Boston area and help others.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I really like to draw. I’ve tried many different mediums and always love trying new things. I also like to spend time with my family, especially getting outdoors.

What are your plans for college?

I don’t have specific colleges in mind yet, but I definitely want to stay in the Boston area. In terms of extra-curriculars, I definitely want to stay active and join different clubs. 

Thank you, Yating, for sharing your story!

About Abby and Calvin

What do you like to do in your free time?

Abby: I like to swim, go shopping, and hang out with my friends.

Calvin: I like to play video games and listen to music.

What is your favorite book, movie, or TV show?

Abby: My favorite movie is Another Cinderella Story with Selena Gomez.

Calvin: My favorite movie is CZ12.

What is your favorite traditional food from your culture?

Abby: I’m half Chinese, so from that side of my family I get to eat soup dumplings, which I love.

Calvin: My favorite traditional food from my culture is BBQ pork.

What are some of your favorite places in the city?

Abby: I like going to Quincy Market in Boston and eating at Ocean Prime nearby. That area is probably my favorite place to visit.

Calvin: My favorite places in the city would have to be B-Cafe and Yocha in Quincy.

SLA

How did you learn about SLA? What inspired you to apply to the program?

Abby: My mom learned about SLA through a family friend, and she encouraged me to sign up. I live in a town where kids are mostly white. Through SLA, I could learn more about my cultural background and history, and to meet more Asian people my age.

Calvin: I heard about SLA from my cousin, and my interest in racial justice inspired me to apply to the program.

What are you currently learning about or working on?

Abby: We recently learned about gentrification and community development, with guest speakers sharing their knowledge and insight on these topics. Jung Shen, an A-VOYCE youth alumni, showed us different parts of Chinatown, what Chinatown was like before it became gentrified, and the backstory on changes in the neighborhood. 

Before, I had no clue about what was going on in Chinatown because I just go there to hang out with family or friends, and I never knew the history of the neighborhood. I’m really grateful for learning all of this through SLA.

Calvin: I’m currently learning about how people are being oppressed in society.

What has been your favorite part of SLA so far?

Abby: The breakout rooms where we split up into smaller groups has been my favorite part. I love talking to the other kids about their experience and what they know about Boston.

Calvin: My favorite part of SLA is meeting new people from different places in Massachusetts that I would not have the opportunity to meet without SLA.

What have you learned or gained from collaborating with other SLA youth?

Abby: I learned that even though we don’t live near each other or come from the same families, we have similar experiences. We have similar stories to share. 

Calvin: I’ve learned a lot about why Asians are being targeted for attacks and how this situation should be counteracted.

Did you find that reflecting on your experiences and sharing them through various mediums was beneficial? Why or why not?

Abby: Reflecting on and sharing my experiences has been beneficial because I’m able to realize the depth in my story and expand on who I am as an Asian American.

Calvin: Yes, reflection definitely contributed to my opinions towards different issues.

How have books, movies, TV shows, social media or other forms of media shaped your identity?

Abby: I’m a teenager, so my life revolves around social media and it’s where I get most of my information about the world. Social media feels like a part of my identity because I use it a lot and everyone around me is so active in using it.

Calvin: Through these outlets, I learned what an oppressive society is and showed the big picture of it and long term impacts.

Part of this year’s SLA focus is building your capacity as a creative storyteller. What role do you think storytelling plays in activism?

Abby: I think storytelling informs us about diverse experiences and the human aspect of issues we’re fighting for. The stories we share and document can help us learn how to make positive changes for the community.

Calvin: Storytelling allows for informational and persuasive talk from personal experience.

Why should youth be involved in conversations about social issues? What makes the youth perspective important?

Abby: Youth are the future. Those who are adults now won’t be around as long as we will. Young people have a different perspective compared to older generations because what’s going on now will continue to impact us as we get older. We aren’t just watching from the margins - we have a stake in this fight, too.

Calvin: Young people should be involved in these conversations because they are the future generation that will shape how society will be. The youth perspective is unique because they have access to advanced technology, which makes sharing information easier.

Do you think some institutions have disadvantaged certain communities? If so, what can be done to address this?

Abby: I think some institutions definitely do give certain communities disadvantages. I think we should fight back, explain why, and just fight until the change happens because change doesn’t happen overnight.

Calvin: Yes, and sharing about this will increase awareness.

By Qing Qing Pan, originally published on Pao Arts Center’s website.

Hello, my name is Qing Qing, and I am one of Pao Art Center’s summer interns. For the past few months, I have had the honor to provide Mandarin interpretation for and document the 2021 Residence Lab (ResLab) cohort’s journey in their co-creating.  

These artists and residents have been busy! This year’s cohort is made up of three teams of Boston-based artists and Chinatown residents, who have been invited to combine their artistic creativity and neighborhood expertise to re-imagine Boston Chinatown. Each team has drawn inspiration from this year’s theme of collective care to create their site specific installations. Their projects will be on view at Mary Soo Hoo Park at the Rose Kennedy Greenway throughout the month of September, in partnership with the Greenway Conservancy. As teams finalize designs and start building the installations, this blog will serve to document their journey through the activation. Take a peek at what is to come for our ResLab kick-off on August 27th!

Residence Lab is a partnership between Pao Arts Center and Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC) to empower and train artists and residents to collectively preserve the Chinatown community through creative and artistic space activation.

Caption: In their first in-person workshop, artists and residents learned more about the geography and physical space of Mary Soo Hoo Park.

Image description: The red fence at Mary Soo Hoo Park on a sunny Saturday evening on June 5th, with a row of photos and maps of the park taped and hanging across it. Photo Credit: Qing Qing Pan.

Caption: To liven up the energy, ResLab artists and facilitators “dress up” for an impromptu dance party with virtual filters! 

Image description: Screencap of ResLab virtual workshop on July 9th. Featured are the 2021 Residence Lab cohort, wearing various goofy Zoom filters, such as a red beret, pixelated sunglasses, and furry bear face.

Screencap of Residence Lab’s 2nd virtual workshop on May 21st, spotlighting ResLab artist Yuko sharing her drawing for a prompt with the rest of the group. Her drawing features smiling people exercising and playing around, with labeled open space for residents, fences, exercise equipment, and benches.

Three ResLab participants sit at a table in Mary Soo Hoo Park, covered in papers, pens, and bags of snacks. They discuss their design proposals together. Photo Credit: Qing Qing Pan.

This post is part of a series dedicated to Residence Lab’s 2021 program. Click here to read more.

ACDC’s public art initiative, Hudson Street Stoop, engages Chinatown residents and local artists to create interactive, rotating public art installations every 18 months. In ACDC’s efforts to fight against gentrification, Hudson Street Stoop is a site-specific project in One Greenway Park that aims to honor the rich history of Boston’s Chinatown, amplify resident voices, and foster an inclusive space for everyone.

Hudson Street Stoop’s inaugural installation, Storytell & Sway by Gianna Stewart, opened in Chinatown in June 2021. Although Gianna’s proposal was selected in December of 2019, the project had to be put on hold for about a year because of COVID restrictions. When it came time to resume the installation process, a large team came together to help make Storytell & Sway possible: Riverdrive Designs, URSA Plasma, Surfzone Engineering, Central Mass Powder Coating, VMT Construction, Steve, Tim, and Monica, and Bill, Chris, and Edwin of Toledo Construction.

Growing up, Gianna has always embraced her artistic side and fondly recalls drawing with family members. Gianna especially looks up to her grandfather as a creative inspiration, who draws and makes art with wood burning, which involves creating a design on wood with an electrically heated tool. In addition to creating art, Gianna enjoys being outdoors. Intertwining her two passions, Gianna created the vibrant Storytell & Sway as a visually stunning artwork, as well as a place for individuals and families to connect and enjoy the outdoors.

About Gianna

How did you get into public art?

My first public art piece was called Toll With Me. It involved hanging thousands of bells on a chain link fence. After that experience, I was totally hooked because the installation allowed me to observe interactions of anyone walking by, their impressions of the art, and I found that everyone feels ownership when something is in the public. It was such a different experience than creating something for a wall in a gallery. It made me realize that this is what I want to do.

What do you enjoy about creating public art? What can be frustrating?

Public art is site-specific. A piece grows from the site that it’s for, which I find exciting. Anything that you do in public art tends to be something that hasn’t been done in that way before which is exciting too, but you have to find the right people to talk to to ask the right questions to make things happen. I think the pace of figuring all that out is a challenge.

What types of projects are you drawn to or enjoy doing most?

Any place that’s going to have people. I’ve had the chance to do stuff that’s a little more out of the way too where it feels like you’re responding more strictly to the site and less to the viewers who are going to be around it all the time. I think places that are more active are definitely of interest.

A video from the Hudson Street Stoop crowdfunding campaign to support free, community programming.

About Hudson Street Stoop

How did you come up with the idea of Storytell & Sway?

The process for the call for artists was really wonderful. It gave short-listed artists the opportunity to have a community input session and hear from residents what they wanted to see in their park [on Hudson Street]. The main takeaway from that event was people wanted a space where they could play - both kids and adults. There was a lot of talk about how it was mostly a space for dog owners and they wanted a way to intervene in that somehow - to still have it be for dog owners but also be family-oriented.

I mulled over these considerations, and while researching, I read Cynthia Yee’s stories on Hudson Street Chronicles that describe the Hudson Street that existed before the highway was built. It sounded like Hudson was the front porch of Chinatown. Something clicked. I loved swinging on my front porch swing as a kid and thought that’s what was needed to draw people to the grass.

Gianna collaborating with Chinatown residents, shown below.

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How did you choose the color yellow for Storytell & Sway?

When I first saw [the park], it was a time of year when it was really gray and I thought, it needs something bright, something that draws you in. And, there’s also the cool vantage point of anyone in apartments higher up looking down on the piece. The thought was to evoke a sunflower popping out of the grass.

Where did the idea to inscribe resident stories and quotes come from? 

The idea to put words into the benches developed as it became a place for storytelling. Cynthia Woo at Pao Arts connected me with Cynthia Yee who of course has amazing stories like the Hudson Street Chronicles. We chatted and had this idea that she would help facilitate storytelling sessions with folks who currently live on Hudson Street. So many neighbors that live on Hudson Street came out and were incredibly generous volunteering their time, sharing their stories, knowing that they would be used for the piece. Volunteers including Crystal Bi, Lily Xie, and A-VOYCE Youth helped document the stories. Tidbits from those stories were selected for the benches. I really wanted the benches to have this sense of enveloping the viewer in stories- like when we were all in that room together, hearing overlapping languages and timelines.

What were some challenges of this process?

We were ready to go last spring and everything just had to pause. We didn’t realize it would be an entire year that we would pause but it was. It kind of worked out because when we picked it back up, the world started to be opening a little bit more, with an emphasis on outdoor activities, and the benches were spaced for social distancing. “A pause is needed” was a tough conversation but a really important one to have.

On Chinatown

What was your previous impression of the neighborhood? How has it changed since making Storytell & Sway?

I’ve always loved visiting Chinatown and the energy of it. After this project, I realized that it is a community of activists, artists, and families. I have a totally different sense of Chinatown now that I hope everyone can have. The best part has been getting to know the Chinatown community.

What is your favorite aspect of Chinatown? Favorite place to visit?

I love the rhythm of Chinatown. There is constant activity, from an early morning exercise group in the park, to checkers tournaments, to a bustling restaurant scene. There are just cool little pockets everywhere you wander. ACDC’s Chinatown Backyard, on Hudson Street is a spot that I always like to visit when there’s arts programming happening.

Launched in May of 2021, Pandemic Profiles was a social media project that spotlighted the stories of Asian high school students in the Greater Boston area. This project featured youth who are also involved with non-profit organizations focused on supporting the Asian American community, including Greater Malden Asian American Community Coalition and Chinese Progressive Association.

Everyone shared their experiences with virtual learning, the college application process, and the impacts of COVID-related violence and racism in their communities.

ACDC wanted to profile the creators of Pandemic Profiles, Jason Wang and Sabrina Yang. Jason recently graduated from Boston Latin School and Sabrina is a junior at Malden High School. They have both been involved with ACDC’s youth program A-VOYCE for over three years. 

As Youth Interns this year, Jason and Sabrina created Pandemic Profiles because they understood that it has been difficult to communicate with old and new friends during COVID. With each post, “the social media project is aimed to create a safe atmosphere for people to share advice on getting through the pandemic together,” Jason said.

Background With ACDC

How did you get started with A-VOYCE?

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Jason: When I first joined A-VOYCE, it was a place to learn about Asian-American history. Eventually, I grew more attached to it. I met a lot of friendly people from different schools. We learned together and we had a lot of fun together. By the end of that summer we were a very close-knit group and that set the foundation of my impression of ACDC.

Sabrina: My sister introduced me to A-VOYCE, which piloted its Summer Leadership Academy (SLA) program in Malden a few years ago. My sister thought it sounded fun and interesting, so she asked me to join her. We did SLA together and I’ve been involved with A-VOYCE and ACDC ever since.

What was your experience like working with ACDC’s staff?

Jason: I really appreciated the support I got from my supervisors. They made the program fun. I loved being able to learn and have fun at the same time, which I think is important. They were supervisors, but it also felt like they were friends. 

Sabrina: The staff is really positive. Throughout my years of being in A-VOYCE and attending ACDC’s events, I feel like the staff is really comfortable to be around. They give off positive vibes and encourage you to participate and be in the space with them. I’m grateful to have someone to support me and be there for me.

Favorites

What are some of your favorite memories from A-VOYCE?

Jason: There was an event called “Stay-cation” where we had a lock-in at the office. I think that was a really impactful time because I enjoyed connecting with staff and past A-VOYCE members. Even though they were alumni, they still participated because they liked the program, which I thought was really nice.

Sabrina: One of my favorite moments from A-VOYCE was the Senior Send-off Celebration. It was fun because we had complete control over the event (except for the budget). My team and I chose the gifts, decorations, and all other event planning parts. The creative freedom was exciting.

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What are some projects you’ve worked on in the past that you really enjoyed?

Jason: In my first year, we interviewed a lot of residents in Chinatown to get their input on what they wanted to see improved or added in the neighborhood. We learned a lot about life skills like resume building, public speaking, and communication skills, which all helped me in school.

Sabrina: My favorite project so far was the pedestrian campaign in Malden where we advocated for changes to the roads because there one intersection that was particularly unsafe. Through that experience, I learned more leadership skills, which is why it was one of my favorites. I actually talked to Malden Mayor Gary Christenson and the city’s Walkability Committee. It was an eye-opening project and experience. 

Pandemic Profiles

What was your process for developing Pandemic Profiles?

Jason: We developed a list of who we wanted to interview based on neighborhoods and we did have people from ACDC just because it was convenient. We limited ourselves to three interviews because it would probably be difficult to have more than six interviews dispersed among Sabrina and I to try to gather all that information. Our original list of people we wanted to gather information from was over 10 people but we determined who would give us more information from an educated guess. For the rest of the people, we came up with a survey which was a shorter version of our interview to still get information from them.

Why did you want to make Pandemic Profiles and do you hope it will accomplish?

Sabrina: By sharing these experiences on social media using ACDC’s Instagram, we can engage our community, spotlight youth experiences, and reach out to those who are feeling isolated and going through similar situations. We also noticed there was increased violence and racism throughout the pandemic that targeted Asians. At the time, we felt that the issue had been neglected, so we also wanted this project to feature youth experiences with and reactions to racism and violence, and inform the world that you’re not not alone. We wanted to create a space where people can talk about these issues and feel free to engage with the community around this. 

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“Although art cannot solve the problems altogether, it raises awareness for the general public to pay attention and gain a better understanding of the issues, which can ultimately, hopefully lead to changes.”

This week is the last week to check out the Residence Lab exhibit on display at 10 Hudson Street in Boston’s Chinatown! The closing event will be held this Friday! See more details here.

Our final Residence Lab artist interview is with Ponnapa Prakkamakul, a painter and a landscape architect based in Massachusetts. Growing up in an extended family of artists and musicians in Thailand has a strong influence on her artistic creativity. In watching her mother diligently make drawing paper from mulberry paper pulp, silk cocoon, and tree bark, Ponnapa learned that the making of the essence of art emerges before the white paper and continues to evolve beyond artist’s hands. This idea inspired her to use the Earth as a canvas and pursued a study in landscape architecture. Ponnapa started using soil as her main drawing media while earning her master’s degree in landscape architecture with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design.

Family and Background

Where did you grow up?

I am originally from Bangkok, Thailand, where I lived for 23 years. I came to the US by myself in 2009 to attend school in Providence, Rhode Island before relocating to the Greater Boston area in 2011. My brother came in 2017 and decided to stay in California but the rest of my family still live in Thailand.

Are any of your family members artists or musicians?

My father was a self-taught pianist and part-time DJ for a classical music radio station in Bangkok before he met my mother. His family has a print-making studio and a fabric factory, so when we had family gatherings, all the kids would sneak in to play in the studio and factory. My mother is a self-taught artist. Before having children, she he did mostly oil painting, and then changed to acrylic and watercolor because of the smell. She became a full-time artist when I was in junior high school.

Was creativity something supported by your family?

Definitely. It was part of our lifestyle, but not something we were forced or compelled to do seriously. My father used to play a violin to wake me, my sister, and my brother up in the morning for school. It is not like what you think, as he did not know how to play...so it was more like making us get up to stop him from playing! 

Inspiration/Process

What or who inspired you to make art and how did you get started?

My mother has a lot of influence on my artistic path. We did a lot of art related activities together since I was really young. My mother told me that there was one time she scolded me and my sister when she saw us tried to break all the oil pastels into small pieces. Then, she noticed that we were trying to make a model of a bridge from these pastel blocks. After that she never told us what to do or what not to do. She just let us explore whatever we wanted. During junior high school until freshman year, I was her studio assistant helping her prepare for solo exhibitions or art fairs doing things such as making labels, hanging work, and making reproduction work. Seeing my mother painting and making her own paper from mulberry pulp at home inspired me to pursue my study in landscape architecture.

What is your preferred medium and why?

Site is an important part of my work. For painting, I use found materials from the place that I paint, such as soil, plant materials, groundwater, and rust. I use the performative acts of searching, studying, and collecting painting materials to create connections with new places. The textures and colors from these materials also express the feelings and atmosphere of the place for the viewers to experience. For landscape architecture, existing geographical conditions of the site are as important as local materials and cultures.

Which artists or artworks inspire you?

There are a lot!! During summer in 2011, was a studio assistant for Ellen Driscoll, who was then the head of sculpture department at the Rhode Island School of Design. I really admire her work and work ethic, and Ellen was a wonderful mentor. It was a great learning experience working with Ellen and three other studio assistants; Dianne Hebbert, Rose Heydt, and Megan McLaughlin. This experience made me interested in public art and still has a strong impact on my thinking until now. I also admire Yayoi Kusama for her strong belief in what she was doing and how she created opportunities for herself. I really like Gerhard Richter’s work, the blurriness that creates a subtle movement in the paintings, and inspired by Roberto Burle Marx’s work on how he uses painting to inform his landscape architecture design.

What is one piece of advice that you want to share with an aspiring artist?

I actually consider myself an aspiring artist too, so I am not sure if I can provide any advice. However, I can share my personal philosophy which is: keep doing it, be true to what you believe in, and believe in yourself. That is what Ralph Waldo Emerson told Henry David Thoreau when Thoreau said he would like to be a writer: “Trust yourself.”

Community

When and why did you decide to highlight the Chinatown community in your art? How do you think art can play an important role in community organizing or activism?

Growing up with a strong connection to Chinatown in Bangkok, I always find Chinatown in any city an interesting place to visit and learn about urban anthropology. My aunt has a fabric store in Bangkok’s Chinatown and my mother used to live there for a while. She always brought me to Chinatown instead of malls when we needed to buy things, so I know the place inside out. I was fascinated by the diverse programs this space can accommodate from being a cultural icon for tourism, a center for social and religious gatherings, to a wholesale business center to import and export specific products. To me, there is a lot to observe and learn from. Therefore, when I travel, one of the places on my to-go list will always be the Chinatown neighborhood. 
Chinatown in Boston has a unique condition that interests me. With its role as a tourist destination and the fact that the area overlaps with a regional public open space (the Rose Kennedy Greenway), this reinforces public perception of Chinatown as a city’s public open space. This condition together with local cultural difference creates a little tension between outsiders feeling unwelcome and longtime residents having concerns regarding their privacy and safety. Then there is gentrification that’s impacting the community.
I have been participating in the Rose Kennedy Greenway’s Play Ambassador program at Chin Park in Chinatown since 2017, and did some collaborative design for hopscotch games on the Greenway. I think there are rooms to introduce more public art in Chinatown area. The best thing about art is that it is very broad with a vague boundary which allows space for personal interpretation and imagination. This creates a grey area where you can touch upon the issues that are sometimes forbidden or uncomfortable to talk about. Although art cannot solve the problems altogether, it raises awareness for the general public to pay attention and gain a better understanding of the issues, which can ultimately, hopefully lead to changes.

How do you want your work to impact the community?

For this project, I wanted to empower local community and make them realize that their collective actions can create changes in their community. I would like the residents to feel that they can also take action and make their viewpoints and visions known through the realm of public/private space. Art can give individuals a feeling of agency, particularly when it is created by and for the residents, or at least with their specific concerns in mind. I hope to see a ripple effect emerging from young generations and see they do the same things (or even bigger) that I did for their community. It is like you planted a seed and wait patiently to see that one day it will be a forest. 

What was your favorite art project? Why?

I like all projects that I have done. However, this project for Residence Lab was very special to me as we had a lot of community engagement in the design and making process. I believe in the impact of the process as much as the final product and to be able to work on both in one project is ideal. I learned so much working with everyone; my teammates, participating artists and residents, ACDC and BCNC staff, the Chinatown community, my Sasaki Colleagues, and Sasaki Fabrication Studio. Although I am the leading artist, there are tremendous amount of input on both ideas and physical support from so many people who offered to help because they believe in community-based projects. One example is when I had a software technical issue with missing Braille fonts for some contractions in my laptop. Our translator, Amber Pearcy, was on her study abroad program so I did not want to trouble her during her traveling, but we also really needed to laser cut the Braille dots on the plywood within 2 days. I googled online for a translator and emailed Paul Hostovski whose name was the first result that came up. It was the weirdest email to me. However, Paul responded promptly with a clarification of all the missing contractions and really saved our tight working schedule. There are so many moments like this throughout the project that I felt so grateful for. I feel that it really takes the whole community (and its extended community) to have made this community project possible!

Why did you decide to be a part of ACDC’s residence lab?

Last summer I was inspired by the existing Chinese chess board paving pattern in front of the Chinatown gate and wanted to propose an oversize Chinese chess pieces for local people to play with tourists. However, the location is part of a fire lane so we cannot place anything there. Therefore, when ACDC contacted me about public art in Chinatown, I said yes right away. It started with this simple idea, then, when I realized how important this project is to the community and my working goal changed.

How has the generation you are in impacted your lived experience as an artist?

I feel extremely lucky to be born in this generation where female and artists of color are more recognized than in the past. This really offers me opportunities to use my insights as a female artist of color to express a voice and create work to accommodate existing underserved communities. 

What are your future aspirations as an artist? How would you like for your artwork to grow?

I would like to make my work more interdisciplinary, inclusive, and accessible. I started to explore the idea with this project on small details such as including all generations in the interviews (both children and seniors), adding Chinese and Braille translation, and add a “Queen” piece into Chinese chess  so that players can choose a female representation, instead of simply using two Kings. Another intention is to incorporate sound with my visual work. I actually put some objects found in Chinatown inside the benches so that they would make sound when they rock. Although the implementation is not quite successful yet, I will continue to explore this idea in future projects.

What is your favorite art medium and why?

Currently, my favorite painting medium is rust. It is so unpredictable how it reacts to the weather and environment. When I do a rust print using metals, even if I somehow know approximately that it might turn out a certain way, it often gives me a surprising pattern to work on. I found this process similar to landscape architecture that you have a given site with unique existing conditions to work in it is not a white paper. Like what Michelangelo said “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” Similarly, with paintings and landscape sites - especially community projects - the designer needs to coax out what the community actually needs or wants to say from within the urban fabric.

What is your inspiration behind your art? What drives your art?  Where do you imagine your art to take you in the future?

As I am also a practicing landscape architect, natural and cultural landscapes together with their relationships with people are always interesting and never fail to inspire me. I am always looking for inspiring landscapes to work on. Therefore, I imagine myself travelling to places with unique natural landscape that shapes the lifestyle of the community in the area. This will also help me reflect back and understand our lives in the city. I just finished my artist in residence at the C-Scape dune shack in Provincetown and will be at Atacama Desert this October. Please visit my kickstarter page to see my latest project! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ponnapa/beyond-the-planet-earth

Thank you, Ponnapa, for being part of Residence Lab and for sharing your story!

As I closed out my summer internship with ACDC as the Communications Intern, I am honored to share with you a conversation that I had with Mary Y. Lee. Mary is a an artist who exhibited six paintings at the Pao Arts Center that depicted the Chinatown community, including two portraits of former ACDC A-VOYCE youth. I sat for Mary’s work titled “Dare to Challenge”, which is a painting of me wearing my mother’s blazer.

I grew up in a family of Chinese immigrants. One of the strongest people that I know is my mother. She taught me what it means to be humble, driven, and resilient and the value of community and family. She is one of the reasons why I am an intern at ACDC, serving to help Chinatown residents and the Chinatown community. By wearing her blazer, I sought to channel her powerful energy. I had never been painted before, so when I saw my portrait exhibited at the Pao Arts Center, I felt seen. I felt that my family story, which has shaped me and gave me purpose, was validated and heard. Mary painted the phrase “tian xia wei gong,” or everyone is equal under the heavens in the background. This phrase, which is also written on the Chinatown gate, pays homage to the years of oppression and resistance that Asian Americans have endured. I wanted this phrase to be inscribed in my portrait because it reminds me that no matter what happens, no matter how many people tell me to go back to china, no matter how many people discriminate [against] my mom because of her strong accent, no matter how belittled AAPI folx are systematically made to feel, we have a place in America just as much as everyone else. We will never be silenced. I am immensely grateful that Mary was able to give me and other Asian American youth a platform to share our experiences. 

Thank you Mary again for having a conversation with me about your story and your experiences as a Chinatown community artist. Thank you for using your art as a tool to empower and narrate the stories of the inspiring people who compose this neighborhood.

Katytarika Bartel is a filmmaker, youth worker, and community artist. They co-founded ANGRY ASIAN GIRLS, a community organization that gives a platform to a group of individuals dedicated to changing the way the AAPI community is represented. They also teach media and design to youth at the Castle Square Tenants Organization’s youth program. Katy’s work specializes in identity politics, recognizing identity as a powerful vehicle for change. Along with Lily Xie, Crystal Bi, and Ponnapa Prakkamakul, Katytarika Bartel is a driving force in our Residence Lab program. We are so excited to feature her as part of our Residence Lab Artist series.

Thank you Katy for taking the time to come out to the ACDC office for an interview. It was so inspiring and meaningful hearing about your experiences as a LGBTQ mixed-race artist!

Selina Li: Where did your family immigrate from?

Katytarika Bartel: “My mom emigrated from Bangkok, Thailand when she was about 21 years old. She landed in California where she met my dad, who is a second-generation immigrant of German descent.”

SL: Was Boston the first place that they landed?

KB: “I was born in California and then moved to New York City. My family lived in Harlem for a while and then spent some time in Connecticut. I’m kind of all over the map. When people ask me where I’m from, which is often, I don’t really have an answer because I moved 10 times as a kid. Having one home is not really a familiar thing to me and that is a perspective that I bring with me. So far, I have lived in Boston the longest. I write a lot of poetry around the question, ‘Where are you from?’ because I think there’s a shared experience behind the question.”

SL: Because you’ve moved around a lot, what does the word “home” mean to you now?

KB: “I love exploring the concept of home. In our Residence Lab discussions, I do a lot of work with my team around the idea of home, what it means, and how home might not be a place. Home for me is where my mom is because I didn’t identify much with my Thai background growing up. I suppressed it because I was always ashamed of my identity, especially while attending a predominantly white high school in Connecticut. I thought, ‘I don’t want to be different at all.’ People were constantly telling me that I didn’t look Asian, so I thought I shouldn’t identify with that part of my background. I had a lot of feelings about being in-between identities.

Now, I have embraced the parts that I used to feel ashamed of, and I feel most at home with my mom. The food that she cooks for me and the way she holds and makes space feels like home. She’s always been my grounding place.”

SL: Were there any artists or musicians in your family?

KB: “My dad was an artist. His career was based in architecture and engineering, but in his free time, he was a painter. He painted a lot, but he never pursued that as a career path. He probably didn’t think that painting was practical as a profession. He passed away this year from cancer, and at his funeral we displayed his artwork. Some of his friends never knew that he was a painter because he never shared it. My mom is also very artistic but would never identify as an artist.

My family didn’t encourage me to be an artist. I don’t think they were super psyched when I told them I wanted to study film. I didn’t feel supported by them until my film was screened at the Boston Asian-American Film Festival.”

SL: Who inspired you to make art for the first time? How did you get started as an artist?

KB: “I didn’t know I wanted to be an artist until I went to college. I went to study creative writing and I never thought of myself as super artistic. I realized quickly that I very interested in art and activism and the link between the two, so I transferred to Emerson College. However, there’s so much privilege at Emerson, especially white privilege. There’s a pipeline of students whose parents already work in the film and theatre industry, so they have this advantage over others. The conversations that I had and the people I met were very interesting. It fueled my art.

I made my first documentary at Emerson. I was inspired by some of the Asian American folx that I met while studying at Emerson. It was cool to learn from all these queer AAPI femmes doing filmmaking. I picked up a camera and I’ve been exploring film ever since.”

SL: What medium are you most comfortable with?

KB: “My voice and my camera are the two mediums that I am the most comfortable with. The first type of art I did was slam poetry, which I did in high school as a hobby. I went to Brave New Voices, which is a national slam poetry competition. I have performed spoken word poetry in Boston at different venues. I use my voice in art for public organizing, activism, and slam poetry, while my camera is the tangible medium.”

SL: What kind of poems did you write about?

KB: “The first poem I ever wrote about was being mixed-race and navigating that. Looking back at it, I think there was so much I had to learn about myself. I was very confused and conflicted with my identity, so most of my poems were about being mixed-race and queer. Slam poetry is a way of giving myself space to speak. For example, East Meets West (EMW) Bookstore in Cambridge was one of the first places that I had felt like home in Boston and that I could be seen on a stage. They house the longest running Asian-American open mic event in New England. Four years ago, one of my best friends, Dahn-Bi, made me come with her. I thought, ‘Wow, there’s so many Asians here. Everyone’s making art. Where has this been in my life?’ It was incredible. Slam poetry and EMW have been huge inspirations for the work that I wanted to do. I featured friends from EMW in my documentary, Re(Orient).

SL: And is it the same for photography and videography? What or who do you take pictures and videos of?

KB: “I always take pictures and videos of others. Whereas in spoken word, it’s always about myself. It’s always my learned experience, because I don’t want to speak for anyone else. But, the cool thing about the camera is that you can tell other people’s stories for them in a way that is visual, relatable, and engaging. You can give them a platform that they might not already have.

In this short documentary shot in Havana, Trinidad and Viñales, Afro Cuba Libre attempts to explore how racism (or anti-black sentiment) is manifested socially, culturally and economically on the communist island of Cuba. According to the Cuban government, racism does not exist because there are no races. Everyone is Cuban. Thus talking about race in Cuba is a complex subject. Afro Cuba Libre aims to uncover just one layer of a multi-tiered conversation. Directed, produced, & edited by Shaynah Ferreira and Katytarika "Kate" Bartel

I’ve been doing video work for a while, and my videography has always featured Asian-American artists and activists except for one documentary I did in Cuba about race. My videography work almost always highlights local activists and my photography work is an offshoot of that. I’m a self-taught photographer. I’ve been documenting every Asian artist and activist that I can think of in ways that are affordable, accessible, and beneficial for the subject who I’m featuring.”

SL: Who inspires you to make art?

KB: “All of my friends inspire me. I thought about this question for a while too because I have insecurities about being self-taught in my mediums. I eventually earned a journalism degree at Emerson. I did not finish my film degree, so I don’t know the technical aspects of everything in film. I often have this imposter syndrome when I’m making film, even though my work has been featured in film festivals. I don’t know elite photographers and filmmakers. I don’t see myself represented in most of the people who have ‘made it.’

I draw inspiration from both artists and non-artists in my community. For example, Jeena Hah, the Programs Manager at ACDC, inspires me all the time. The young people who I work with inspire me. People who are passionate about what they do and who work for the community inspire me.”

SL: Why did you decide to highlight the community and Chinatown in your art?

Ricky Orng is a Lowell-based poet and designer working to bring community together. Ricky is an accomplished spoken word performer, bi-weekly host of Untitled Open Mic in Lowell, and a Gemini. This is episode is part of RE(ORIENT), an ANGRY ASIAN GIRLS original documentary series highlighting Asian Pacific Islander-American (APIA) artists and activists in Boston. Filmed, directed, and edited by Katy Bartel, the series aims to challenge singular-narrative representation of Asian Americans in art and media through its three subjects: poet and designer Ricky Orng, activist and artist Dahn Bi Lee-Hong, and singer-songwriter Haezy. ​ RE(ORIENT) was an Official Selection of the Boston Asian American Film Festival in 2018.

KB: “For Re(Orient), which is a documentary series I produced, I interviewed my best friend Dahn-Bi who co-founded Angry Asian Girls with me. I also interviewed Ricky, my partner, who was a volunteer at EMW Bookstore, and is a spoken word poet and designer and the singer-songwriter Haezy Choi. I thought it would only be shots of their art, but while interviewing them, I realized that I couldn’t encompass their work and who they are without featuring their communities. For Dahn-Bi, I couldn’t capture them without filming the Angry Asian Girls team working in Chinatown. Same thing with East Meets West bookstore--the community built that place. For Haezy, her audience was everything to her, and she talked a lot about finding community in Boston. These three episodes started as a short documentary series but turned into 20 to 30-minute episodes. I realized that community is also part of identity.

A lot of the Chinatown community is East Asian, yet despite being Southeast Asian, it still feels like home to me. My mom and I go grocery shopping in Chinatown, and I have many meaningful memories of Chinatowns around the U.S. Being around the language and the food here and working with youth in Chinatown who have similar experiences to my own means a lot to me. I want my art to capture that essence of home for others to see and for other to find.”

SL: What role does your art play in community organizing and activism?

KB: “There’s a lot of community organizing and activism in my work with Angry Asian Girls (AAG). We started off as a collective but grew into a community organization. We realized that a collective is very internally centered and focused on the artists, whereas an organization is focused on what’s around us.

Dahn-Bi and I met through the Asian American Women’s Political Initiative (AAWPI). We were interns there and both interested activism and disrupting politics, but in a different way than AAWPI’s approach. There were seven AAPI women in our cohort and at the time, we were all angry at how silenced we were while at the State House. There was a lack of opportunities and lack of representation, aside from ourselves.

To fundraise for AAWPI’s next cohort, Dahn-Bi and I drew from the cohort’s collective experience and frustrations at the State House. We decided to make and sell ‘Angry Asian Girls’ t-shirts. Sales took off and we made $3,000 that summer. We realized that selling the shirts were strictly a business interaction and we didn’t want to start a brand. We grew AAG to accomplish what we really wanted--to give back and create space through community events. It started with the two of us and now we are a larger community. We hold space for the many people from the queer and AAPI community, Asian American women and non-binary identifying folx.

Art can impact the community in a lot of different ways because you are creating a space that facilitates joy, which is powerful. I think when people hear of ‘Angry Asian Girls,’ they only think, ‘You’re angry. You’re radical. You’re organizing.’ We are these things, but our events subvert those perceptions. Our events are also positive and safe spaces that hold joy, make art, and create.”

SL: How would you want your work as a videographer, photographer, and poet to impact the community?

KB: “I want more people to recognize what poetry can be. I teach slam poetry in the spring at Castle Square and I love when young people see that poetry isn't just what they learn in school. When I show youth a video of a slam poetry performance by my friends, their eyes light up. Being a youth worker, I think if growing up, I had a mentor who also identified as artistic--if I had different supports--my path would have looked very different.

Slam poetry is like music and storytelling combined in a creative way that most people are unfamiliar with. I feel so strongly that poetry should be given more platforms. I also want to make videography and photography more accessible. Teaching low-income communities photography or videography and providing them with the proper resources can help them thrive in the digital age.”

SL: What is your favorite art project and why?

KB: “What I’m doing in Residence Lab is quickly growing into my favorite art project! We are working in the lot near the Chinatown Gate (10-12 Hudson Street), and I walk by that space all the time. I used to live in Chinatown because was previously the only place I could afford to live. I think it’s really exciting to transform a space that’s been referred to as the ‘piss lot’ into something beautiful, and more importantly, something meaningful that was created by and for the Chinatown community. I believe that the residents and community members care about this space so much more than any developer would.

We work in teams with Chinatown residents and our team talked a lot about how to make the space interactive. We decided to build on the themes of ‘play’ and ‘oasis.’ We are constructing nine large wooden boxes that can be rolled around. Each facet will feature photos of all the participating artists and residents who helped create the space, and stories about Chinatown that explain why this neighborhood is home for some of them on the boxes.

What I’m doing in Residence Lab is becoming one of my favorite art projects because I’m always thinking about how I can make photography more community oriented. Expanding the process and end-result beyond the photographer-subject dynamic can be hard.”

SL: What is the most rewarding and the most challenging part of the Residence Lab experience?

KB: “The most rewarding aspects are working with the residents and then eventually seeing the art in its full glory. I would hate if I was only asked to make the space ‘look pretty’. That approach that allows an artist to enter the community and impose what they think it needs without input from residents.

Many workshops within Residence Lab have guided and shaped the artists' relationships with the residents, and the program provided a space and outlet to work with residents in ways that I never have as an artist. For example, I proposed plaques, but Joyce, one of the residents said, ‘I have kids and I think it would be fun if they could interact with it.’ That was how we came up with the idea of movable blocks. Our idea included a plan where the blocks could also form a stage, which was inspired by another resident, Maggie, who noticed that Chinatown doesn't have a stage area. This was a cool need to learn about, so the most rewarding aspect was the process.

The most challenging part so far was cutting wood at a hardware store for our blocks, but it is also rewarding to work hard to bring something come to life. While we have a relatively small budget, it’s exciting because I’m not the only ‘artist’ doing the work. It's a collective effort.”

SL: What are your aspirations as an artist? How would you like your art to grow?

KB: “I never thought I’d get this far as an artist. I feel like I’m finally in a place where I can start making strides. I want to create long-term projects and make waves in those inaccessible, elitist circles where you don’t see a lot of people like me represented. I want people to know that anyone can rise if they are intentional about it.

I think that we can be giving more to the Chinatown community like what Residence Lab offers. Residence Lab teaches me about how residency, communities, and art should be done. The program offers childcare, stipends for artists and residents, food, and it’s structured in a supportive way. It was a pleasant surprise for me to be supported in this way with all these resources. It’s an important community-oriented approach to preserving Chinatown. Residence Lab challenges the gentrifying pressures encroaching on Chinatown’s borders and within Chinatown. Residence Lab also explores how to take preventative measures. I love this concept of activating space along the borders of Chinatown as a means of protecting the community through art.”

Thank you again Katy for the thoughts and feelings you put in the work you do to serve and empower the Chinatown community. We are so lucky to have you in our team.

To see the work that Katy and the other Residence Lab group has worked so hard on for the last few months, come to the Hudson Lot this Friday (August 23rd) at 5:30pm!

For the second part of the Residence Lab Artist series, I am pleased to feature Crystal Bi-Wegner. Along with Lily Xie, Crystal Bi-Wegner is the co-founder of Moon Eaters Collective and a community artist at Residence Lab. Moon Eaters Collective is a zine that uplifts the voices and experiences of AAPI femmes. Crystal is a multi-racial community LGBTQ artist and art teacher. She is an illustrator, painter, and a sound artist. As a community artist, Crystal hopes to uplift people’s voices that are not often represented in the media and help turn community needs and wants into actual changes through art.

Selina Li: Can you explain to me a little bit about your family background? What was your family like? What was growing up like?

Crystal Bi-Wegner: “Growing up, it was just me and my mom for the first part of my life. Later - as a teenager - we moved in with my mother’s partner who became my stepfather. My stepfather was from Hong Kong but immigrated to the Bronx in the 60’s. We would visit his parents in Chinatown in Confucius Plaza. Especially in New Hampshire, we were one of the only Asian families. It was hard to find a community and I didn’t really find a community until coming to Boston.”

SL: How did you come to create Moon Eaters with Lily?

CBW: “I think it was that sense of wanting to find community, especially with intersectional identities. Being queer and being multi-racial, I wanted to find an outlet through a community, even if the community wasn’t always physical. The motivation for creating a zine-to create something on your own or to self-publish-is something that the mainstream is not giving a voice to. So, the zine seemed like a good format for stories that I don’t see a lot on media. I don’t really see a lot of stories about identity and it can feel very lonely.”

SL: Being multi-racial, a person of color, and raised by a single immigrant Asian mother, do you see your identity being reflected in the work you do at Moon Eaters?

CBW: “Absolutely. I feel that working on Moon Eaters is the first time that I was really taking charge of my identity. In addition to being able to visit Taiwan, creating art about my identity brought me closer to myself. More specifically, I was trying to figure out how to keep my culture in my everyday life, how my identity affects the way I present myself, and how I understand myself in spaces. I think Moon Eaters allowed me to not only take charge of my identity but also to find other people who wanted to have that conversation too.”

SL: How has your generation impacted your lived-experience as an artist?

CBW: “I love this generation because we are thinking really deeply. Information is so readily available at our fingertips and it’s interesting getting a sense of the world with so much information. Compared to 20 years ago, folks are a lot more open to diversity and diversity of experiences. In fact, I think folks are craving to hear those things. There still needs to be more representation of queer experiences, but I’ve seen a lot of community form around that and the experiences of being queer is becoming more out in the open. I think that has been really empowering and great to see. I think being part of a community that makes art out of those stories has been important to me.”

SL: Can you describe the type of art you do? What kind of artist are you? How do you create?

CBW: “I think a lot of my artwork has to do with identity. I work with a lot of different mediums. I am an illustrator. I grind my own ink and make self-portraits. I am also a sound artist. I record sounds from outside, which is known as a field recording. I put these sounds into a digital audio work station and pull them into a beat. As a sound artist, I did a performance piece series where I cooked, Iooped the sounds of cooking into a beat, and served the food after. I’m also a visual arts educator for Boston Public Schools. I teach sound art, sound design for film, and storytelling for radio.”

SL: People may assume that art consists of drawing and painting rather than recording sounds. How do you think sound art specifically could make a difference in the community?

CBW: “I think any art you are creating that expresses yourself, tells stories, and changes people’s perceptions is art. Sound is another medium. I feel like I work with sound the same way that I would pick up colors in painting. I put sounds together and mix them together and it feels very similar to painting for me. If you add stories and narratives on top of it, they become another layer of how you can express things or change people’s perceptions. I think all of that is art. I also really love sound art because people may think they aren’t an artist because they can’t draw, but by engaging in sound art or radio story, people understand that they are creative and that they do have something to say. Anybody can record something, but not everyone feels comfortable drawing.”

SL: What inspires you to make sound art? What motivates you?

CBW: “I think I am really sound sensitive. I took classes at MassArt, and one of the classes I took was a sculpture class where you also needed to draw. One day, I didn’t do my homework so I said to my professor, “I don’t have sketches, because I can’t sketch it. It’s a sound sculpture.” And he thought the idea was cool. Initially, I didn’t know if I could do it, but I rented field recording equipment from Mass Art.

In high school, I didn’t want to wear glasses at the time even though I needed them so I would squint at the board. But, the first time I put glasses on, I was so amazed. I thought to myself, “This is what things are supposed to look like.” When I recorded the world around me for the first time with a field recorder and heard every detail, it was like putting on glasses for the first time.”

SL: Do you have specific artworks or artists who inspire you?

CBW: “Definitely. There’s a sound artist called Samson Young. He does performance and sound work. I think he does story-telling through his sound works. He had this one piece where he watched footage from a silent Iraq war movie and added sound effects post-production. He did this for 12 hours in a museum. Samson’s application of sound was extremely interesting and altered people’s perceptions about the war.”

SL: What was your favorite art project?

CBW: “I’m working on a mural right now at English High School. All the students must think about one quote, ‘I am my ancestor’s wildest dreams,’ and illustrate based on that quote. I put their art together on photoshop and projected it on a wall. The students have been working on this project for three and a half weeks and it has turned out so well. They all came up with very different things. The theme, which is Black Girl Magic, is a positive message that we can send to the larger community. It was one of my favorite projects and I hope to continue doing murals.”

SL: Murals are all about community members and artists coming together to form one great artwork that can change and inspire a lot of people. In Residence Lab where Chinese members and artists also come together, why do you think it is important to have this connection between community members and artists?

CBW: “Creating the situation where folks understand that their stories are important is really special. Programs that center residents and artists or students and artists can create the situation where we can highlight these different voices and let people know, ‘your story and your voice matters. You are an artist, because you have a story to tell.’”

SL: When and why did you decide to highlight the community in your art?

CBW: “I think I've always been a community artist. I love art for myself, but in my job where I work as a counselor, one of the schools I worked for didn’t have an art program, so I started one. I always wanted to do social justice and art hand in hand. I loved art as a high schooler. I also studied international affairs in college, and I was always interested in youth development. Being a community artist was a merging of my main interests.”

SL: How do you think art can play a role in community organizing?

CBW: “I think the role of an artist is to change the way people think about a certain situation. In community organizing, artists can shape the story and communicate the message that a neighborhood or a community wants. The role of the artist is to make sure the story they express through art entices people so they can stop and engage with it.”

SL: Do you have future aspiration as an artist? Do you have personal goals you would like to set for yourself as an artist and how you would like your art to grow?

CBW: “I think my main goal is be a community artist and continue to do work like this. I want to work with a lot of different media. I am going into a master's program at Mass Art called the Dynamic Media Institute and it’s a marriage between storytelling, technology, and art. I’m interested in learning new skills like augmented reality, virtual reality, additional sound skills, and installation art can help better advance my knowledge as a community artist.”

SL: You talk about being able to uplift voices of those who aren’t usually present in the media and being able to address underrepresentation. Why do you think it’s important to address underrepresentation and build accessibility through your work as an artist?

CBW: “Creating a diversity of experiences in America and weighing each story equally within our culture is important. Equitable representation is political. Not hearing the stories of other people’s experiences normalizes the dehumanization of others, limits people from economic opportunity and prevents people from having a political voice. Even though representation may seem insignificant to some people, it has weighted effects.”

“I do really believe that we start off drawing to process or tell our stories. I think I would remind people to find a creative outlet.”

Thank you, Crystal Bi-Wegner for taking the time to share your upbringing and experiences as a queer, mixed-race community artist. Thank you for the amazing work that you have been doing for the community!

Don’t forget to stop by 8 Hudson Street in Chinatown on August 23rd between 5:30pm and 7:30pm to see the meaningful art work that Residence Lab artists and residents have worked on for the past few months.

After checking out the Residence Lab kick-off, stop by the Chinatown Gate for a free screening of Tyrus at 8pm for our annual Films at the Gate Festival!

Lily Xie is an LGBQT+ illustrator and cartoonist who grew up in Chicago with immigrant Chinese parents. She began making art in order to release and visualize her inner thoughts and feelings. Through Residence Lab, Lily hopes to weave vulnerability and external-processing in her community work and empower Chinatown residents.

Selina Li: What is your family background like? What was it like growing up? 

Lily Xie: “I am a second-generation immigrant. Both of my parents are immigrants from China who came to the US in the 80s after the Cultural Revolution. They settled in Chicago where I grew up and I’ve been in Boston for the past 10 years.”  

SL: What is your preferred medium?  

LX: “I work in illustration, book making, and print-making. Working with combinations of these three mediums feels very intuitive to me.” 

“Crystal and I started the zine, “Moon Eaters Collective” in 2018. We wanted to bring together other people who were queer Asian artists like us and build a community. We wanted to do that by collecting people’s work and sharing that.” 

SL: How did your family react when you told them that you were making art? Were they supportive? 

CX: “I don’t really talk about my work with my parents. My mom knows that I do art and that I draw, but we don’t talk about the specifics. From their perspective, what I do seems like a very impractical thing, especially as immigrants where they had to work so hard to make a living—to get by. To do something where there is no guaranteed or stable income is very risky to them.”  

SL: How has your generation impacted your lived experiences as an artist? 

CX: “Things like being risk-averse, working really hard, being able to make a lot of sacrifices are values that I inherited from my family, who believes that these skills are what kept them alive--what was necessary for their survival. My parents were my first teachers, but as I’ve gotten older, more “teachers” have offered me different possibilities of living.  

I think a lot about making my own choices and negotiating between upholding their values as a daughter and what is harmful or not helpful for me. As an artist who wants to remain curious, I think values like being risk-averse or fearful of change is damaging and inhibiting. It feels bad to dismiss these values entirely, but it also feels bad to hold on to them too tightly as well.”  

SL: What inspired you to make art? Who inspired you? 

CX: “I started making art by drawing and wanting to share with people. At the time, I had just gotten over a breakup, and felt very lonely. I had all this energy and things that I wanted to express, and I needed a way to get it out. Drawing to me is very meditative. It is a way to process and do self-healing. I started making illustrations and zines about that topic. My favorite part about doing this is that I liked being able to share my work, go to markets and talk to people, get their feedback and have conversations. I felt like this was a good way of expanding just beyond me.” 

SL: You mentioned being able to externalize how you feel inside. What does that mean in the context of our society where people are often conditioned to feel certain emotions and not always able to truly express themselves? How does your work align with that? 

CX: “I think my work directly opposes that feeling. We live in a space, especially if you are not male or if you are someone from a cultural or racial background, where you are taught to minimize yourself and to brush aside your reactions to things. 

I hope others can feel like, “I saw this piece where someone was being very honest about themselves and giving validation and light to their process of feeling and that makes me believe that I have permission as well.” 

I hope to tap into that feedback loop. As people feel more like they have permission to be true to themselves, the more they can go out and let other people know that this is ok and in turn, engage in mutually healing work.” 

SL: What is one piece of advice that you have for an inspiring artist or someone who is fearful of doing art? 

CX: “Be curious. I’ve been thinking about that a lot because I have been reading work by Adrienne Maree Brown. One of the things that she talks about is staying curious in your life, not just in art but also in relationships and love. We tend to be fearful of making mistakes and of not doing the right thing, but I think we can instead turn our attention to what makes us curious and what actions might be pleasurable or might invoke curiosity. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. You can just be curious about what happens when you are playful and do something some type of way.  I am also trying to teach myself these things.” 

SL: Why did you decide to be a part of Residence Lab? 

CX: “Both Crystal and I were interested in being community artists whose work engages with and seeks to benefit the whole community. I think it was perfect to have this framework and structure provided by Pao and ACDC. Meeting residents has been wonderful and having a chance to practice community artwork was exactly what we were looking for.” 

SL: How do you think that art can play a role in community organizing, activism, or changes in the community? 

CX: “Art is being used to build coalitions and advance strategic goals or policy goals where you need people to buy in. It also operates in the realm of the heart. To get people to be in the movement with you, you must access their heart space and doing art is a good way to access that. It has also been useful for me as a tool of meditation and healing. I think art is healing work for a variety of reasons, among race, class, and gender. It can be a useful tool for bringing people together, because it is a low barrier of entry--you just need to find paper and grab a pencil. 

Sometimes art can give legitimacy to an idea or a narrative that people would brush away if it was just through writing.” 

SL: How would you want your work to impact the community?  

CX: “I hope that the residents we work with in this program can feel empowered. I hope they feel that they have access to art-making in their tool box to improve their lives or even just for fun.  

I hope that we [Moon Eaters Collective] can be successful at supporting ACDC. I know a big part of their vision is to be able to have ANCHOR areas where people understand that Chinatown is an important neighborhood and place to preserve. I hope that by activating spaces, we can build public interest and bring more curiosity. I also want for the residents to feel happy to live here.” 

SL: What is the most rewarding part of Residence Lab? 

CX: “So much of my work with Residence Lab so far has been rewarding. I've learned so much, not only from Jeena and Anju and other facilitators, but also from the residents—discussing their interests, concerns, and dreams.” 

SL: What are your future aspirations as an artist? How would you like your art to grow? 

CX: “I hope to become an artist that is more sensitive to the needs of people around me and to become more skilled at turning what people need and hope for into a form of art intervention. I also would love to continue doing work with the Chinatown community! My day job is doing stuff with data, so I would love to bridge those worlds together and bring technology into the art practice and vice versa.” 

SL: Why is it important to address underrepresentation and to build accessibility through your work? 

CX: “There are some unique experiences and challenges to being both queer and Asian American that we wanted to understand more of and have more of a framework for Moon Eaters. Crystal and I were really interested in seeing work from people who share these identities. Even more broadly, we didn’t really know what this means for us. We have a long-term hope to mobilize the community we are building to work towards justice and policy agendas as well. We hope that we can activate artists with organizers in the future.” 

I would like to thank Lily for her wise words about channeling vulnerability and emotions in a creative way, for the time she took to talk to me about her experiences as an AAPI LGBTQ+ community artist, and for being a part of Residence Lab. Artists like Lily who use their skills to center Chinatown residents’ experiences and voices are extremely valuable members to Asian Community Development Corporation. Look out for Moon Eater’s Co-Founder Crystal Bi-Wegner’s interview piece in a few days!

Don’t forget to come join us August 23rd at the Hudson lot for Residence Lab Kick-off where we will be featuring the art that Chinatown residents and community artists, like Lily Xie collaborated on during their time in Residence Lab! The event will start 5:30pm and end at 7:30pm.

Art, like community voices, can be powerful. When art is inspired by community voices and experiences, it can become a tool for change.  

How can we continue to preserve Chinatown through art? How can emerging artists and residents work together to shape the future of a rapidly gentrifying Chinatown? These are some of the questions that we explore at Residence Lab, one of ACDC’s placemaking initiatives that leverages the community’s assets, skills, and experiences to cultivate spaces that foster happiness, engagement, and mobilization, in collaboration with BCNC’s Pao Arts Center. 

This year’s Residence Lab artists are Katytarika Bartel from Angry Asian Girls, Ponnapa Prakkamakul, a landscape architect, and Crystal Bi and Lily Xie from Moon Eaters Collective. They are working alongside our residents in a seven-week workshop series to co-create the future of Chinatown through art. Our artists use various mediums such as site furniture, zines, and portrait photography to highlight the narratives of marginalized communities in their work. 

With Chinatown boundaries shrinking under the pressures of gentrification and displacement, we developed the ANCHOR initiative as a strategy to “anchor down” and preserve Chinatown homes, businesses, and cultures through creative collaboration, art activism, and resident mobilization. The acronym serves as guiding principles for this work: 

Activating spaces 

Neighborhood needs 

Community 

Housing 

Open spaces 

Resident-centered 

In 2016, Billy and Zi, both ACDC youth program alumni, wanted to develop a platform for residents to transform underutilized spaces. With this in mind, they created ThinkChinatown, one of ACDC’s first ANCHOR projects. Yvonne, a Chinatown resident submitted a proposal, which culminated in a collaboration with local artist Shaina Lu, to create the mural, “Tied by a Thousand Threads” currently on display along 15 - 25 Harrison Avenue. This two-part art project, which consisted of the mural and a video documenting the project, not only connected the intergenerational experiences of Yvonne’s immigrant family, but also the shared experiences of the Chinatown community spanning from the early 1900s to today.  

Through ThinkChinatown, ACDC saw the empowerment and mobilization that comes from listening to and prioritizing the voices of the Chinatown community. We recognize the potential that art has in unifying people and advocating for change, which is why we launched Residence Lab.  

We are so excited to learn from the skills and experiences that our artists and residents bring to the table. Stay tuned for a Residence Lab profile series where we highlight each Residence Lab artist and some of our residents! 

Thank you again BCNC’s Pao Arts Center for partnering with us. Special thanks to ArtPlace America, Barr Foundation, and Sasaki’s Fabrication Studio for your generous sponsorship and support in helping make Residence Lab possible.

Many of us have either seen or heard of Disney’s classic animated film, Bambi. The story of the brave, orphaned deer and his faithful rabbit sidekick, has captured the heart of countless Americans since its 1947 release. However, few know the inspiring story of the person who was a major influence on Bambi’s visual aesthetic, Tyrus Wong, a Chinese-born American artist. In a time period when the Chinese were heavily discriminated against and not seen as American, Wong broke societal standards with each stroke of his brush. Weaving Chinese art and Chinese presence into American culture, Tyrus Wong is a symbol of perseverance and resistance for the Asian community. 

Tyrus Wong was born in the Guangdong province of China and immigrated to America with his father in the late 1910s. As a result of the Chinese Exclusion Act, Wong was separated from his father at nine years old and lived alone for a month at an immigration station on Angel Island, a center designed to trick and prevent immigrants from entering the US. Tyrus was a self-proclaimed trouble maker at school, playing hooky and doodling instead of paying attention in class. At the time, Asian immigrants often worked at laundromats and restaurants; however, Wong received financial support from his single father to pursue an education at an art school. Living under extreme poverty, Wong practiced painting using newspaper and water. 

 Even at a young age, Tyrus Wong’s work stood out from the rest. He became an extremely versatile artist over the span of his career, mastering watercolor, pastel drawing, calligraphy, and even kite-making. One of Wong’s greatest talents was applying minimalism to convey a story. As Tyrus narrates in the opening of Tyrus, a documentary about his life, “If you do a painting with five strokes instead of ten, you can make your painting sing.”  

In one of his early pieces, Wong reimagines the softness of a snow monkey’s fur with a smudging technique, juxtaposing the soft texture with rough strokes that form a tree branch. Where soft meets hard, the snow monkey hangs precariously from the branch with one arm. Wong may have related to this monkey who is painted with a gentle smile despite dangling so high up in the air. From getting incarcerated at Angel island to not being properly credited for his artistic contributions at Disney and Warner Bros until he was in his 90s, each experience with racism and prejudice did not stop Wong from creating beautiful art that captivates and inspires.  

Tyrus Wong passed away in 2016 at 106 years old, though his strong legacy remains. ACDC is proud to be screening the documentary, Tyrus, at this year’s opening night of Films at The Gate. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Pamela Tom, Tyrus honors the life of an Asian American trail-blazer in the 20th century. The movie presents Wong’s life holistically, addressing AAPI life during immigration exclusion, housing discrimination, and the Japanese internment camp.   

Join us on August 23rd at our annual Films at the Gate event to witness the manifestation of startlingly beautiful and deeply intricate artwork and the life of the humble Chinese immigrant who created them. The screening is scheduled for 8pm and is free to the community.

Meet Pamela Tom at a special pre-screening reception that includes a light dinner and cash bar! All proceeds benefit ACDC’s youth leadership program, A-VOYCE.

Erica Lam recently served as ACDC’s Massachusetts Promise Fellow, supporting the See-Town Tours and an after-school program for Dorchester youth. Erica also happens to have grown up in ACDC’s development at Oak Terrace in Chinatown! Here, she shares her family’s experience of finding stable and affordable housing and how through her work at ACDC, she has become an advocate for the community.

How long have you lived in Chinatown?

When I was born, my parents didn’t have enough money to afford a place of their own, even with both of my parents working--my mom working two jobs. For the first few years of my childhood, I didn’t get to live in the same house as my parents and my older brother. They initially lived in the basement of my grandparents house in Quincy, while I lived in Dorchester with my cousins, aunt, and uncle--the eight of us under one roof. 

While we were lucky to have relatives nearby to help out and take care of my brother and me, this also meant that he and I grew up in separate homes and neighborhoods and with different families. I lived with my aunt and uncle in full house with cousins my age, and where quality time with family was the foundation of my early childhood. My brother on the other hand, grew up with my grandparents and was the only child in his house. Because I only saw him on weekends, for a long time, I had no idea of what his home life was like.

When ACDC’s Oak Terrace development opened in 1995, my mom won the lottery for an affordable housing unit. We moved into Oak Terrace in Chinatown when I was 3 or 4 years old, and I continued to live there for 23 years.

How did having affordable housing help your family?

Winning the housing lottery for Oak Terrace changed our lives because that was when my family started living together under one roof. The transition of moving to a new neighborhood and home life was initially difficult for me as a child because I didn’t have my cousins to play with anymore--it was more quiet at home. My parents were now focused on paying the rent and saving money. 

For my parents, having a place of their own created an empowering sentiment of being able to provide for their own family. They weren’t as dependent on extended family, which lifted a major emotional burden for them. Having our own place was also motivation for them to work harder to continue building stability for us.

What was the best part of growing up in Chinatown?

The best part of growing up in Chinatown was how the stores, restaurants and schools were easy to get to, and that alleviated pressure from my parents. My parents worked all the time, but because there were so many cheap restaurants in Chinatown, we were able to feed ourselves. I was also really close to all of my schools, so I felt safe traveling the short distances to and from school. I was one of the lucky few who got to sleep in a little more and wake up just in time for class. 

What does Chinatown mean to you now?

Now, Chinatown to me is a home where I can never move back to. I feel like I was lucky enough to grow up in this community, but aside from the fortunate few who can get an affordable rental or condo, it’s impossible for me to afford it now. It has changed so much. There are more franchised boba shops and restaurants, and many of the local mom and pop shops that I went to as a kid are gone--outpriced by the skyrocketing property value. Chinatown felt like a neighborhood when I was younger. I hold onto memories like the ice cream truck coming around in the summer and kids rushing towards it, but nowadays, it’s nothing like that. It seems more and more like a business district where people pass through to get to their next meeting.

What is your hope for Chinatown’s future?

My biggest hope for Chinatown is that the elders and children don’t have to fight as hard to stay because they’re not being pushed out by developers and landowners. I really hope that this neighborhood will go back to being a place where people feel safe to start local businesses without the fear of being outpriced. I hope that new residents, especially those who have moved into the luxury condos and rentals in Chinatown, recognize the value and strength of this community.

How does it feel to be working with the community that you grew up in, working towards those hopes?

For me, having the opportunity to work in Chinatown with ACDC was a wave of emotions. Chinatown nonprofits played a formative role in my upbringing, starting with Red Oak, BCNC and eventually becoming a youth at Boston Asian YES--all within the same block. Giving back to my community wasn’t something new--it was something I always wanted to do, but never knew where to get started. 

When I first came to ACDC, I was super excited because I was able to really dive deep into the history and current challenges of my community. Once I learned about investors buying out buildings and about the families who were evicted, I felt shock and anger. I thought, “How could they do this? Don’t they know the impact they’re having on Chinatown? Why do we need another hotel or luxury apartments that the community folks can’t afford?” I started noticing the empty lots in the neighborhood, learned of their hefty price tags and was amazed that such a small piece of land can be worth so much. This new insight was followed by more anger and questions like, “How is it that not more people have noticed this and how outrageous this situation has become?”

Working on the See-Town program and giving Chinatown tours for folks who were mostly new to the community gave me an outlet to plug in stories of Chinatown. With this opportunity, I felt empowered to become an advocate in the fight against big developers whose projects often displace longtime residents and contribute little to no benefit to the local community. I began to think more critically and ask more questions. I shared with my friends and colleagues what I learned and encouraged them to support local businesses. I even started conversations with my little sister about these issues and invited her to a tour so that she could learn more about the community that she’s still growing up in. I hope that she can arm herself with what she has learned and start fighting for her home as well. 

I recently moved into a house with friends in Dorchester’s Savin Hill neighborhood, but some of my family still lives in Chinatown. I grew up with the foundation that family is important and to me, and Chinatown is a part of my family. I know more about my community than I did 6 months ago. I’m resolved to continue staying current on community issues and continue using my voice and story to help others see that their stories are just as important and relevant to the changes happening in our community.

Cindy Tsang, a first-generation college student, will be attending Barnard College in the fall as an urban planning major. I was so thrilled to find out that she was a recent recipient of a NAAAP scholarship, which celebrates and recognizes Asian youth who demonstrate a strong commitment to serving the community. 

I met Cindy Tsang last summer during A-VOYCE summer leadership academy. She and I had both gone through the A-VOYCE program and came back as youth coordinators, facilitating workshops for Asian high school youth about civic engagement, Chinatown history, and activism. Although we had only spent a few months together, we quickly grew close. Cindy is a bright, passionate, and intelligent young woman who I think of as my sister.  

Paul Lee, who also happens to be ACDC’s Board President and a co-founder, created the The Richard and Chou Lee scholarship with his family. Paul Lee, Of Counsel and former Partner at Goodwin Procter LLP in Boston and has served the Asian community for decades, serving on numerous boards and advocating for community needs.  In 2009, Lee was named a NAAAP 100 Leader for his community service and leadership in the Asian American community. Lee, the son of Chinese immigrants, Richard and Chou Lee, presented the NAAAP Boston Future Leaders Scholarship to Cindy Tsang on June 15, 2019. 

I had the opportunity to interview both Cindy Tsang and Paul Lee about the role of community engagement in the Asian American experience.  

Selina Li: Tell me about the community work you have done so far.

Cindy Tsang: “In the summer before my sophomore year, I joined Quincy Asian Resources Inc. (QARI) and I worked on their August Moon Festival as a decorations volunteer, a team member during the festival, and a marketing volunteer. After that, I took on a leadership role as a QARI youth representative for two years where I continued organizing the festivals, but more focused on managing logistics for the events.  

I was introduced to ACDC in the summer of 2017, when I joined their Summer Leadership Academy (SLA). I learned a lot about gentrification and urban planning. SLA inspired my independent capstone project where I researched how gentrification in Chinatown impacted the demand for affordable housing in Quincy. 

Last summer, I interned with ACDC to help run the SLA program and I also was elected by my peers to serve as a youth board member at QARI where I mentored other Asian American youth in leadership, helped with civic engagement efforts, and raised awareness about mental health in the AAPI community.”  

SL: Wow, you did a lot in high school! Do you think that your community work in high school influenced your future  aspirations?  

CT: “Working with the community definitely shaped who I am now. Going into high school, I thought I wanted to be a doctor or a nurse, but I realized that I don’t like blood, haha. Being in community-oriented spaces and spaces that empowered youth helped me realize that I really like helping other people and serving the Asian American community. It was empowering to receive mentorship through the programs I joined, to have people believe in me and my potential as a person, as a leader, as a community member. ACDC also introduced me to urban planning and the process of working with the community!” 

SL: What did it feel like to be awarded this scholarship?  

CL: “Just thinking about my growth as Asian American and my struggle with my identity, I used to not be proud of my identity--of being Asian American. But now, I feel a sense of community acceptance and inclusion, and I feel happy that I  am seen  as  a leader.” 

SL: What would you like to say to the Lee family?  

CL: “To the Lee family and to the NAAAP scholarship committee, thank you so much for this opportunity, especially with being first generation and an Asian American woman. It’s really heart-warming and encouraging to know that people believe in me and my potential to be a leader in the Asian American community, and I’m really grateful for all the support and for all the time that everyone spent listening to my story.”  

Selina Li: Who is the scholarship named after? 

Paul Lee: “The scholarship was named after my father and my mother, Richard and Chou Lee.” 

SL: Why was there a scholarship fund established to honor them? 

PL: “We created the fund because education was really important to my parents. They recognized that as first-generation immigrants, education was the key to advancing, not only for them but especially for their children. They worked hard towards this goal. My father worked in a Chinese restaurant six days a week, and my mother worked at a sewing factory to put us through school so that we could get an education. That was always the top priority in our family, that the kids get an education. They really helped us do well in our careers. It was really the key for our family to achieve the American Dream. So, that’s why we wanted to honor their memory, we wanted to establish a scholarship fund to help other immigrant families advance their education.” 

SL: Who would you want this scholarship to benefit specifically? 

PL: “Our vision is to support students from an immigrant family--someone who is the first in their family to go to college. It’s also important that the individual is active in Chinatown or another Asian community doing community work. We also wanted to prioritize this opportunity for those who need the financial support, so that the scholarship makes difference in alleviating some of the financial burden.” 

SL: How would you want this scholarship to impact youth? Specifically, first generation Asian American youth. 

PL: “Well, it’s really helping them pay for college because college is so expensive now. If this can give them extra money so they can take full advantage of everything that college life has to offer, then they can really experience the college environment and really grow--that’s how we can help folks.” 

SL: How do you hope recipients of the scholarship use the scholarship in their own lives? 

PL: “I hope that they continue to be active in the community, to continue to look at the needs of the community, and advocate for whatever services are needed. [I hope] that they will be leaders and that they will try to mobilize and rally people. What we really like about the fact that the last few scholarships have been awarded to A-VOYCE youth, is we know that ACDC's program emphasizes leadership and civic engagement. We couldn’t be happier.” 

SL: Why do you think that it’s important, especially in this current political environment and with the issues impacting Asian Americans, that it’s important for youth to have this leadership skill and to be engaged with the community? 

“When you go to college and you make friends, you tend to do what they are doing. What I would like is for folks to remember that whatever they do--whether they devote their careers to public service or a non-profit service or community service, or if they go into the business or corporate community--that they remember their obligation to the community.  

So, while I was a corporate lawyer, I also did a lot of community work when I had time. That was a little bit unusual because most people in the corporate world, they don’t do as much community work, but that was something important to me. What I hope is that the students who get this scholarship have a successful college experience and come out of it with a renewed sense of their commitment to the community.” 

SL: Do you have anything you would like to say to the youth who are receiving this scholarship, or any advice that you would like to give them? 

PL: “The current and previous recipients have already shown such a strong commitment and dedication to the community. My advice is to just keep doing it--maintain that commitment and don’t get diverted from it. There are a lot of things that you can do and you can definitely explore in college, but also remember who you are and the kind of person that you want to be and hopefully you are the kind of person who wants to help others.” 

Thank you to Paul and Cindy for this opportunity to learn more about both of you and your respective dedication to supporting the community. Congratulations Cindy on your accomplishments! We look forward to continuing to educate and empower youth through our A-VOYCE program, so that they can be leaders in their own community.

My mother is someone who I look up to, knowing all the adversities she has had to overcome. Like many other children of immigrants, I am still trying to figure out how to be a good daughter and make her proud without sacrificing my own agency and personal freedom. 

When I recently dyed my hair, my mother reprimanded me and asked me why I would do such a thing to my straight black hair, which she had always admired. “Because it’s my hair and my body," I retorted back in English. What I said felt like a slap in the face to an immigrant single mother who raised two kids by herself in a foreign country.

To her, “it’s my hair and my body,” negated the sacrifices that she had made to come to America. To her, “it’s my hair and my body,” sounded like “I can make my decisions now.” To her, “it’s my hair and my body,” meant “I don’t need you anymore.”

However, I don’t know how to convey to her that dyeing my hair was not an act of rebellion, but a simple desire for a change. As a 19-year-old college student with no stable source of income, I can’t give my mom a house, a fancy car, and all the things that she deserves. At times, it seems like all I have given her are tears, white hairs, and countless nights tossing and turning.

One thing I can do is to honor her sacrifices and highlight her story; to present her existence to whoever chooses to hear it, and to bear her beautiful soul to the world

This is the story of my mom’s humble beginnings and the story of our Chinatown streets.

Sometimes you will find the streets of Chinatown littered with old newspapers, empty soda cans, and cigarette butts. You may pick up the distinct smells typical of many densely populated city neighborhoods: urine, cheap oily fast food, and car exhaust. However, the poorly maintained appearance, pungent smells, and unevenly paved sidewalks are not the only reasons why Chinatown streets are sometimes difficult to walk on.

Chinatown streets carry the history of its people--the hopes, fears, and dreams held by thousands of immigrants, like my mother.

Hudson street, for example, had once been home to a thriving community for hundreds of Chinese, Syrian, and Lebanese immigrant families. However, major construction that started in the 1950s eroded most of Chinatown and transformed Hudson. As a result, most of these families were displaced.

Fast forward to the 90s, the Big Dig still casts its dark shadow over Chinatown. Hudson is crime-ridden and most of the land has been barren for decades.

My mother immigrated to America in 1992. Her first home was a small apartment on Hudson Street in Chinatown with a roach infestation problem. The narrow stairways leading up to her apartment usually stained with urine. There was no air conditioning and only two burners on the tiny stove top. During the winter, she endured a stiflingly hot apartment; the old, overworked radiator painted the ceilings black from its debris.

Due to high crime rates in the area, my mother was often scared to walk home alone at night in the dark. “I was shaking,” my mother recalled. Burglars broke into her apartment twice; she would come home to a wide-open door, her money stolen, and carelessly thrown clothes strewn across the floor.

Not only were living accommodations unpleasant and dangerous, like many Chinese immigrants, my mother also had to rebuild her life from scratch.

“又聋又哑,” my mother tells me, her eyes brimming with tears.

She used this Chinese phrase, meaning “deaf and mute,” to describe her experience immigrating to America. Because of the language barrier and culture shock, my mother felt that her mouth and ears were forced shut. She could hear people talking to her in English, but she was unable to understand what they were saying or respond back. When she tried speaking English, she would cover her mouth with her hands, embarrassed by the sound of the unfamiliar words awkwardly mingling with her thick Chinese accent. And her deafness and muteness translated beyond communication difficulties.

My mother thought of herself as a baby, understanding little of her new world and her place within it. She had to learn life over again. Because her hometown in China had few cars, she learned to look both ways before crossing the street in Boston. She familiarized herself with Boston’s public transportation system. She experienced the bitter cold and snow for the first time. These experiences were debilitating, confusing, and scary.

So why did she do it? Why was she willing to leave her loved ones, bid farewell to a recognizable environment, and cut off her mouth and ears? “The best thing I felt was freedom,” my mother said. Despite the crumbling and barely livable home, she found small slivers of opportunity, hope, and freedom, which gave her reasons to stay. My mother clung on to the resources that Chinatown offered, crediting non-profit programs as the building-blocks for her American dream. She took ESL classes, obtained her citizenship, and applied for jobs with the help of BCNC. Connected by a powerful thread of shared migrant experiences, my mother forged friendships with fellow immigrants and teachers that still exist today. Slowly but steadily, she formed a new life.

As I interview my mother, she no longer covers her hand over her mouth or tries to hide the pain of her past. Rapidly speaking to me in a thick Chinese accent, my mother is breathless, filling the air with memories and feelings she has contained within herself for 27 years. She runs inside her bedroom to uncover more photos of when she used to live on Hudson street. Days after my interview with her, she still brings up moments of her time on Hudson that she had just remembered.

We live in South Boston now, in a cockroach-free condo with air conditioning, four burners on a stove top, and clean crisp white walls. Her apartment on Hudson street is a distant memory. The fear, ignorance, and loneliness that she had felt no longer defines her.

关惠闲 is a daughter, a sister, a mother, an immigrant, a US citizen and, a survivor. I am proud to share my mother’s immigrant experience--to narrate a difficult and depressing time that she initially felt too ashamed to publicize.

Her story along with many other Chinese immigrant stories are symbols of strength, persistence, and resilience. These stories are about immigration, the American dream, and Chinatown streets. They remind us of who we are and where we came from.

Despite its unassuming appearance, Chinatown streets bear the weight of a thousand powerful immigrant stories, providing immigrants shelter, familiarity, opportunity, and a sense of home in a new world.

That is why I am honored to walk the narrow, dirty, and smelly streets of Chinatown--the streets of our first home.

Her story is one of the reasons why I have chosen to work with non-profits organizations that serve Chinatown, like ACDC. Over the last three decades, ACDC has grown to provide new immigrants like my mother with affordable housing, financial literacy, self-advocacy skills and community building—essential skills that can transform lives and enact powerful changes in the community.

Selina is a second-generation immigrant, writer, producer and activist. You can learn more about Selina here. Thank you to Selina for creating this intimate and inspiring piece about your mother’s immigrant experience and how Chinatown became her first home in America.

Special thank you to Selina’s mother for sharing her story—stories that ACDC aspires to honor and contribute to the history of Chinatown. To be surrounded by linguistically and culturally competent hospitals, social service offices, schools and neighbors, helps newcomers overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges—challenges like finding an affordable home and becoming financially stable—that is why our vision is to foster equitable communities that we can all call home.

…At thirteen, the City leveled down my quiet childhood home and transformed it into a high speed roadway. We’d moved to a place of neon lights and fast action. We moved to the Combat Zone, after the Boston Redevelopment Authorities had called my Taishanese America, “urban blight.” That had led to their next story, “urban renewal,” about rescuing us, though we didn’t need rescuing. 

When you let someone make up a false story about your life, you give them the power to destroy it. They razed Hudson Street and built a ramp for the Southeast Expressway. We, longtime Taishanese and Syrian immigrant families, scattered to live elsewhere. It was the end of childhood for me and my friends. A stroke of a pen and a swing of a wrecking ball and I’d grown up.

I lived in an alley never touched by sunshine. It stank of urine and decaying trash.  I listened to great bands, going strong, well past midnight. The beats of drums and guitars and the chatter of honky tonk strip joints drifted in the window and lulled me to sleep every night. Prostitutes, pimps, Johns, and cops strolled around my neighborhood.

My Dad, his brothers, cousins, friends, and my paper brothers had toiled on their days off from the restaurants, transforming a factory loft into a living space. MaMa stayed in Chinatown, living a full life, close to her Taishanese grocer at the See Sun Company, and her soul sisters, Aunty Cheong Sim, and MaMa’s best friend, Ah-Goo, Gock-Lim’s Ma. Cooking and chatting with friends, the main social activity for immigrant women, sustained them, and therefore, me. 

…The swinging beat of Jerome’s Bar and the Naked I became my teen lullaby. On the front of the Naked I hung a blinking neon sign, two flashing, disembodied, lower legs crisscrossing again and again. Right smack in the middle, a naked eye, between the crossing legs, blinked blue, with long black lashes. The nun at school asked, “What is a pun?” I told her, on Friday nights, I walked past the Naked Eye on my way to the porno house [that showed Chinese films after the adult entertainment]. 

I saw things other girls didn’t.

My Dad called me every night from the restaurant and asked me about my day, what I had eaten for dinner, and if I’d finished my homework. On Saturday mornings, he cooked French toast for me. He talked and listened to me in English. My Dad loved me. I was his American born daughter, his youngest child, the only one of four daughters that he raised. So, why had he moved his beloved teen to a place of sin? “Your mother does not want to leave Chinatown,” he said…

…Friday evenings, with fathers toiling on in the restaurants, mothers shut down sewing machines, and stopped their work for the local garment factories; on lucky evenings, they took us to the Chinese movies at the State Theatre on Washington Street, in the center of the Red Light District, on the edge of Chinatown. My friends and I preferred modern romances and kung fu flicks with sticks and swords, and brave, agile heroes and heroines. Our mothers liked the costume dramas, Cantonese operas, with actors in heavy make up, elaborate costumes, and shrieking singing, that we children couldn’t understand. The glamorous people on screen spoke in something close to our country dialect. The musical tones and smooth sounds of Cantonese fed our hungry, immigrant souls, even my American-born one…

…My friends and I ran up and down the aisles of the theatre. Our mothers called us back to our seats, the nudist flicks still running. We sat down and covered our eyes with the Chinese movie program, moving the paper hei kiu [pictured below] up and down, playing peek-a-boo with the naked people. I wondered what those solitary white men, sitting in the dark, thought of MaMa, yelling across the theatre as if she were working in the rice paddies.

The American Nudist Colony movie ended at 10:30 pm and just like that, the Chinese movie began. Chinese instruments, Chinese lyrics, Chinese actors and actresses with shiny black hair, dark eyes, flawless skin. Love and betrayal, lovers separated and reunited, courage and honor defended, revenged and redeemed, and always, justice prevailing. We held our breaths when the heroine believed lies, and sighed collectively, when kindness finally conquered evil. 

The Cantonese language of the movies seldom sounded like the Taishanese commands our rural mothers shouted at us, telling us to eat, sleep, behave, and do homework. No words of romantic ardor, no “Slay the enemies for revenge!” had ever flowed from MaMa’s’ mouth. The actresses looked nothing like our busy mothers, and the handsome actors, unlike my English-speaking Dad. Still, the distinctive world of Chinese movies enchanted us…

…Through the curtain, late at night, I heard MaMa telling my Dad, the entire movie plot. I dreamt about the story, and on Monday, it still ran through my mind during class.  Ah Goo had given MaMa a recording she made of a classic Chinese opera. On separate floors, they sang along with the music and sewed late into the night. Listening to MaMa sing and sew, I lay in my bed, gazing at the rectangle hole, framed with stained wood moldings, cut high in the wall, opening onto the kitchen where MaMa sewed. In the distance I also heard the loud music from the Naked I and Jerome's Bar. I slept.

MaMa and her friends called each other, “So and So’s Mother!” I never learned Ah Goo’s name, nor the other Aunties’ names, only that they were “So and So’s Mother.” I called them Elder Aunt, “Ah Moo” or Younger Aunt, “Ah Sim” or “My Father’s Sister, ”Ah Goo,” if their surname was like mine, Yee, though they were not my aunts nor my father’s sisters, in the English sense. This respectful formality created an easy intimacy, Chinatown a big family linked by aunties, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, and paper brothers.

Aside from the white people on film, I saw housewives on television with puffed hair and neatly pressed house dresses; teachers at the American school in orthopedic black high heel shoes; nuns in long black habits with black head veils, strings of beads with crosses around their necks, and ropes with three knots dangling from their waists; ladies in kitty cat smocks selling blueberry muffins at Jordan Marsh; streetwalkers in scanty tops; Johns in trench coats; pimps in cowboy hats, waving dazzling rings; Theatre District patrons in pressed suits and mink stoles. None of my Chinatown friends and neighbors dressed special, and nobody walked around nude! The parade of white folks’ styles along our neighborhood streets and the naked people on screens confirmed our separateness. And no Chinatown folks, young or old, worked in, or patronized the Combat Zone, though we lived right in it…

…Chinatown changed, and so did we. Aunty Cheong Sim’s son became a physician and medical director of the first Asian American bilingual bicultural health center in Boston. Ah Goo’s son graduated from MIT and became a radiologist. The two young couples who lived above Aunty Cheong Sim opened popular Chinese bakeries and restaurants, and moved out to rich Chinese enclaves in the suburbs. I became a teacher, teacher trainer, and writer. I sent my family’s story to the governments of the Peoples Republic of China and America. I negotiated with them, with letters, translated in Chinese and English. China allowed my two sisters and their families to leave. America gave them permission to enter. My father sold over the house for $35,000. In 1980, the neighborhood was designated a United States Historic District and our homes were listed on the National Register of Historic Places, requiring special permission for further renovations. Today’s developers price my house at over $2 million, and rent it to young professionals. The police have swept the streets of prostitutes. Poor girls of all races, including girls from China, lured with false promises, are trafficked into massage parlors and suburban motel rooms instead. No loud music flows onto the streets to disturb the cafe and theatre crowd. The porno houses are replaced by high rise apartments…

…I walked to Eldo Cake House on Harrison Avenue, where Mr. Yee’s See Sun grocery once stood. The new owners sublet part of the cafe to an herbal store. High rents meant sharing commercial space. A new Boba tea chain has opened next door, with long lines out the door. 

Eldo has gone through two new ownerships, but the ladies at the counter stay the same. Immigrant newcomers, they speak three Chinese dialects and adequate English. Customers lined up, seven days a week, for traditional Hong Kong style milk tea, coffee, whipped cream, fruit filled sponge cakes, steamed and baked buns of all sorts, cake rolls, custard tarts. I walk up the three steps and enter the cafe…

…Min came by with her mop, and a paper. “What does this say, Missy? My eldest daughter gave it to me. She said, ’Look at this, MarMee!’ ‘What’s this?’ I said.”

I took the paper from her. “NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY,” it read. “It says your daughter is in the smartest group in America. This is wonderful!” Min, smiling, kept on mopping. “I don't mind their business. I don’t know English. I can’t help them with school. I feed them. I tell them: ‘if you’re lazy, you sleep in the street someday.’ My daughter is volunteering for a film festival by the Chinatown Gate today. She’s always running around. I don’t bother her.”

Beneath the bluster and damnation talk, love and pride, Chinatown style…

…Sitting at the table by the window, where Mr. Yee’s jars of salty plums and hawthorn fruit wafers once stood, I sipped the nai cha, slurped the last spoonful of ji ma wu, and ate the rest of the sweet purple yam, waiting for the zhoong and char siu bao, boiling and steaming downstairs.

Sun seen yit lat lat

Delicious.

Cynthia Yee grew up in Boston’s Chinatown on Hudson Street before being displaced by the construction of the Central Artery in 1962. Cynthia Yee holds an M.Ed. in Early Childhood Education from Boston University and a B.A. in Sociology from Emmanuel College. She taught in Boston’s Chinatown and in Brookline, MA. She was recently nominated for a "2019 Emerging Artist Award in Literature” by the Director of the largest writing conference in North America, “ The Muse and the Marketplace”.

Author’s note:

The State Theatre or the Trans Lux Theatre, at 617 Washington Street, on the site of the Park Theatre, a playhouse in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, became an adult house from 1960 on. Nudist colony footage formed the beginnings of the porno trade. Located in the Combat Zone on the corner of Washington and Boylston Street in the Chinatown/Theatre District, the building was demolished in 1990. The State Theatre, rented Friday and Monday nights by Chinatown merchants to show Chinese movies from Hong Kong, provided entertainment, at an affordable price for immigrant Chinese families, beginning in the 1950s. An upscale furniture store, Roche Bobois stands there now. 

The Beach-Knapp District encompasses a collection of six 19th century buildings in the Chinatown neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It includes two Greek Revival residential structures, 5 and 7 Knapp Street both built in the 1830s. The writer and her family lived at 5 and 7 Knapp Street during her teen years after the demolition of Hudson Street. She and her parents moved out in 1970. The district was designated a United States Historic District and listed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 9, 1980.

The See Sun Company, originally located at 36 Harrison Ave, now the site of Eldo Cake House, was a popular two generation, family owned Taishanese grocery store.

Hoi San dialect (Taishanese), a southern Chinese rural dialect, is similar to Cantonese, but with eleven tones, instead of the nine tones in Cantonese, or the four tones in Mandarin Chinese. Together with a strong singsong rhythm, Hoi San dialect also has unique sounds made by putting the tip of the tongue on the roof of the mouth and blowing, creating the “thloo” sound. It’s a sound not easily mastered by speakers of other Chinese dialects. One has to learn it by age 2 or 3 to get it right. It is an earthy, peasant dialect, often spoken loudly, laced with humor, and great emotional expression. It is Cynthia Yee’s first language and therefore, dear to her heart. 

Taishanese immigrant mothers, raising their American born children, in post Chinese Exclusion Act Boston, often used the filter of “separateness.” This idea was reinforced in many ways, and it helped them to live and thrive in an adverse environment. That said, insularity combined with patriarchy, also created, at times, an unhealthy environment for young girls, young boys, women, and men.

I am an alum of A-VOYCE (ACDC’s youth leadership program) and I also helped lead the A-VOYCE summer youth program as a youth coordinator. I have an immense passion for community organizing and a strong tie to Boston’s Chinatown.

Chinatown has been the origin point as well as an anchor for my immigrant Chinese family. My mother’s first home when she immigrated to America was a small apartment on Hudson street. I received my primary education, found community, and flourished as a person in this neighborhood. It is from the Chinatown non-profit organizations like ACDC that I have learned the power and strength that reside in marginalized communities. And, from my experience as an A-VOYCE youth, I have seen how organizations like ACDC can cultivate empowering and sustainable environments for the benefit of all community members.

I am looking forward to strengthening the impact of ACDC and serving the Asian-American community. I will help with executing ACDC’s media strategy, assist in building ACDC’s digital presence, and work on strengthening relationships with the media.

 I’m excited to rejoin the ACDC team and continue supporting the community!

Our matched savings program helps participants increase their savings while teaching them important financial literacy skills and habits. Our homebuyer matched savings program has 10 participants who each save money into a designated account every month. At the end of the 18 month program, ACDC matches their savings up to $1,800. Along the way, participants meet with our financial education counselors to learn how to effectively budget and save, build their credit and gradually reach their financial goals.

This is the story of Fan who completed the program and purchased her first home.

“I came to the US in 2013 with my husband and daughter who was just starting high school. I work two part-time jobs as a massage therapist and my husband is a chef. We used to live in a basement apartment which was cramped and humid. 

One day, the fire department came to perform an inspection and we found out that our apartment was not legal for renting out. My landlord tried different things to improve the apartment, but I knew that we needed to find our own place. 

Following the advice of some friends, I attended a first-time homebuyer workshop with ACDC and started to think about the possibility of owning our own home. I learned about the different mortgage opportunities for low-income families. I still had many questions, but after speaking with Lee, I knew that I needed to have a solid plan in place before I would be able to buy a home.  

I was excited to join ACDC’s matched savings program last year. Through the program, I met one on one with Lee. Lee helped me put together a financial plan that helped me to put together a regular budget. I learned how to read my W2 form and the importance of tracking my income taxes.  

During the workshops, we learned the importance of paying my credit card balances every month and to check my credit score regularly. I also met with other people who were in a similar situation as me and were saving money for a home. I was inspired when another participant was able to buy her first home and I was hopeful that I could do the same. 

Finally, I found a 2 bedroom townhouse that was perfect for my family. Lee worked with me through the entire process. After looking through the details of the initial bank loan, Lee told me that the loan was a very high interest rate and we realized that the mortgage amount would not be enough for the townhouse, so I was disappointed to give up on this house. 

However, Lee was able to find a different bank to me that provided down payment assistance and that was able to provide a higher a loan amount. The down payment assistance, combined with the matched savings from ACDC, was perfect for me. 

In August, I finally moved out of the basement apartment and into our new home. My new house is very comfortable, and my mortgage payment is actually lower than the rent in my basement apartment. I am very grateful for ACDC’s help, providing me with financial education as well as valuable information about buying a house. I believe that the financial skills that I learned will continue to help me for a very long time.”