Join me for the launch of my art and photography book, Family Amnesia: Chinese American Resilience on Thursday, July 24th from 6:30-8pm at the Magnum Foundation (59 E 4th St, #7W in Manhattan, NYC), co-hosted by Magnum Foundation and Daylight Books.
The evening will feature a conversation between me and artist Rochelle Kwan as we discuss our work of uncovering family roots and the importance of intergenerational memory work. The evening will end with a Q&A and book signing. Light refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP Here.
I have been working on this book project, Family Amnesia for four years. It has been a labor of love that has brought me deep joy, self-reflection and gratitude. It’s been an incredible journey getting to this point. Over the past four years, I’ve experienced life changing events - the birth of my son, the passing of my dad and now I’m 8 months pregnant. I’m thankful to my family, friends and Daylight Books (publisher) for their support throughout this journey.
Family Amnesia is a visual tribute and love letter honoring my Chinese American family roots in the U.S. The art book explores my family's multi-generational resilience and resistance through mixed media collages, my grandfather’s photographs, my own captured images and archival material.
The book project honors the past and current lives of Asian Americans and immigrants in the U.S. by examining the incalculable and traumatic impact that historical events like the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act continue to have on the Asian American experience. This is a painful part of our American history. I am reclaiming that narrative through my own personal family’s story. The book features my grandfather’s role as a founding member of the Chinese Hand Laundry Alliance of NY, my mother’s plight as a garment worker who became a labor organizer, and my sister’s legacy as a community activist. I know my family story is not unique. It is part of the larger collective Asian-American immigration experience.
This book stands against the cultural, social and political erasure of not only four generations of my own family in the U.S. but pays homage to the hundreds of thousands of C hinese American families who share similar experiences. Bringing our stories to the foreground is an act of resistance. My book is also an act of love.
I started working on this book back in 2020 during an upsurge in attacks on Asian Americans, the spread of racial justice uprisings, and the rise of Movement for Black Lives. Now, in 2025 we find ourselves fighting for our basic human and civil rights under the right wing fascist Trump administration. There has never been a more critical moment for artists to connect to audiences through our work, to try to deepen our impact, and to help shift the nation’s consciousness by changing hearts and minds.
I hope that readers will be able to relate to the experiences, sentiment and spirit of the book. Fighting for self-determination and dignity are universal values. While the book highlights struggles and hardships it also celebrates the joy of living and the joy in resistance.
