Post by NZBC on Nov 24, 2007 19:10:06 GMT 12
: An American Family From Oakland Chinatown Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Studies Association <Not Available>. 2006-10-05 from www.allacademic.com/meta/p114283_index.html
Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: For the Visualizing Oakland: Art, History, and New Immigration panel at the American Studies Association Conference from October 12 – 15, 2006, I propose to exhibit photographs of my Oakland Chinatown Series drawings and artist books inspired by my family’s immigration story. I will also show original poems that I have written about Oakland Chinatown.
From the 1940s to the early 1960s my parents, Gee Seow Hong and Suey Ting Gee, immigrants from the Taisan area of Southern China, operated the Great China Restaurant at 723 Webster Street in Oakland, California’s Chinatown. Our lives centered on the restaurant, the extended family of workers, and customers. Our family of seven China-born and American-born children named Li Hong Gee, Li Keng Gee, Lai Wah Gee, Nellie Wong, Leslie Wong, Florence Wong, and William Wong assisted my parents daily. We worked on weekdays and on weekends in between attending American school, Chinese school, and working elsewhere beyond our restaurant.
In the early 1980s when I was an emerging artist, eager to make Chinese Americans visible in the American art landscape, I started a series of restaurant drawings entitled the Oakland Chinatown Series. I depicted my working-class parents, siblings, and me laboring from six o’clock in the morning until we closed at 9 o’clock in the evening. I made these drawings from original photographs that my husband and I took years ago. I showed my family members and restaurant workers inside and outside of our establishment – standing on Webster Street, wiping tables, washing dishes, and cutting vegetables. Since the creation of the Oakland Chinatown Series (35 drawings in all) from the early 1980s I have shown these drawings at various museums and art galleries.
Today, in 2006, my siblings and I no longer live in Oakland Chinatown. What several of us have done since moving away is to make art and write about our childhood in the Oakland Chinatown enclave that nurtured us, leading to our individual creativity. As a visual storyteller I currently make art about family, culture, and community. My sister, Li Keng, who will be 80 in April of 2006 will have her memoir published in the spring. My sister, Nellie, is a well-known poet and my brother, Bill, is a former journalist and freelance writer. Both Nellie and Bill are authors of books. My sister, Lai, is an active senior citizen, still working at Macy’s in Sunnyvale, CA, and an award-winning volunteer at the Sunnyvale Senior Center. My family’s history, which began in Oakland Chinatown following my parents’ migration from China (my father in 1912 and my mother and three older sisters in 1933) is one of immigration, resettlement, and reclamation. Our history has been transformed into the art of our lives.
Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: For the Visualizing Oakland: Art, History, and New Immigration panel at the American Studies Association Conference from October 12 – 15, 2006, I propose to exhibit photographs of my Oakland Chinatown Series drawings and artist books inspired by my family’s immigration story. I will also show original poems that I have written about Oakland Chinatown.
From the 1940s to the early 1960s my parents, Gee Seow Hong and Suey Ting Gee, immigrants from the Taisan area of Southern China, operated the Great China Restaurant at 723 Webster Street in Oakland, California’s Chinatown. Our lives centered on the restaurant, the extended family of workers, and customers. Our family of seven China-born and American-born children named Li Hong Gee, Li Keng Gee, Lai Wah Gee, Nellie Wong, Leslie Wong, Florence Wong, and William Wong assisted my parents daily. We worked on weekdays and on weekends in between attending American school, Chinese school, and working elsewhere beyond our restaurant.
In the early 1980s when I was an emerging artist, eager to make Chinese Americans visible in the American art landscape, I started a series of restaurant drawings entitled the Oakland Chinatown Series. I depicted my working-class parents, siblings, and me laboring from six o’clock in the morning until we closed at 9 o’clock in the evening. I made these drawings from original photographs that my husband and I took years ago. I showed my family members and restaurant workers inside and outside of our establishment – standing on Webster Street, wiping tables, washing dishes, and cutting vegetables. Since the creation of the Oakland Chinatown Series (35 drawings in all) from the early 1980s I have shown these drawings at various museums and art galleries.
Today, in 2006, my siblings and I no longer live in Oakland Chinatown. What several of us have done since moving away is to make art and write about our childhood in the Oakland Chinatown enclave that nurtured us, leading to our individual creativity. As a visual storyteller I currently make art about family, culture, and community. My sister, Li Keng, who will be 80 in April of 2006 will have her memoir published in the spring. My sister, Nellie, is a well-known poet and my brother, Bill, is a former journalist and freelance writer. Both Nellie and Bill are authors of books. My sister, Lai, is an active senior citizen, still working at Macy’s in Sunnyvale, CA, and an award-winning volunteer at the Sunnyvale Senior Center. My family’s history, which began in Oakland Chinatown following my parents’ migration from China (my father in 1912 and my mother and three older sisters in 1933) is one of immigration, resettlement, and reclamation. Our history has been transformed into the art of our lives.