Christine Wong Yap

The process of sharing something you’ve learned with others can also help you see the value of it maybe you’ll savor it a little more the next time you do it, or find more meaning in it. I’ve also heard from participants that being part of the workshop, and simply having the time to engage in creative self-expression, is itself a form of self-care, when so much of life is stressful, outcome-driven, or productivity-oriented.

GM: Alive & Present: Cultural Belonging in S.F. Chinatown & Manila Town is a comic-zine project about migration and belonging. This project features both English and Chinese translations – how does this influence how you want the audience to interact with the work?

CWY: The bilingual nature is less about how the audience will interact than who the audience would be. The comic book is the result of a participatory research project about how arts and culture impact people’s senses of belonging in Chinatown and Manilatown. San Francisco Chinatown is a really special neighborhood, where immigrants and their descendants find a sense of identity-affirming comfort in the language and culture Compared to the rest of San Francisco, those residents have a higher median age and lower levels of income and education. Knowing this, we created a Chinese language so more locals can read it. I made it a comic book so it’s more friendly to language learners. While institutions sometimes look to artists for creative place-making, I think this project is more about creative placeknowing – recognizing the cultural assets that are already in place, reflecting that back to the community, and proclaiming them worthy of preservation and patronage. This is in the larger context of gentrification, which has squeezed so many working and middle-class families out of San Francisco, as well as the context of the peak-pandemic, in which Chinatown’s small businesses were hit with a double-whammy of lockdowns and anti-Asian xenophobia We gave out hundreds of copies to local residents through clinics, community organizations, and our storefront installation, and I hope it supported a sense of solidarity, pride, and connection in a moment of fear, anxiety, and disconnection.

GM: What are you currently working on in your practice?

CWY: I’m currently working on the German and Japanese translations of the Kindling zines. After the three shows, which opened in rapid succession between January and March, I have been working on restoring a healthier and more sustainable work-life balance, building community, reading, making things in the studio – including letterpress prints – and generally following my curiosity and personal growth.

Christine