LANTERN STORIES BOSTON (2020)
Auntie Kay & Uncle Frank Chin Park
Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy
2020
Lantern Stories celebrates Boston Chinatown’s vibrant community. Commissioned by the Greenway Conservancy, artist Yu-Wen Wu created thirty one lanterns to illuminate Boston Chinatown’s history, culture and resiliency. The images on the lanterns relate the long and fraught history of Chinese immigration in the United States, and celebrate Boston Chinatown’s culture and community. Highlighting the arts, calligraphy, music and performance, as well as the community’s strong commitment to education, entrepreneurship, and social justice, these lanterns hold the experience and stories of the community, past and present.
Lantern Stories was created with the hope that each lantern initiates the desire to learn more about the history of Asian immigration to the United States and the social and justice issues faced on multiple levels. The project involved a process of community engagements, intensive historical research, drawings, the design of the three dimensional lantern forms and artistic template specific to the site.
In the Exploring Lantern Stories online blog, the detailed images and stories of each lantern is catalogued according to categories of History, Activism, Entrepreneurship, People (Life) and the Arts.
For more information, please visit the Greenway Conservancy website.
9:11’ HD video
A brief documentary about the process of creating the installation Lantern Stories at Chin Park on the Greenway Conservancy in fall 2020.
PRESS
“The Lights Glow For Artist Yu-Wen Wu’s 'Lantern Stories,” Jacquinn Sinclair, The Artery, November 11, 2020.
”Beyond Neighborhoods and Generations: ‘Lantern Stories’ Continues illuminating Chinatown’s Past, Present, and Future,” Christina Mui, Sampan, November 6, 2020
”Artist Lights up Chinatown with “a Wonderful Canopy’ of Lanterns, Diti Kohli, Boston Globe, September 22, 2020
“‘Lantern Stories’ brings Chinatown History to light,” Celina Colby, Bay State Banner, September 23, 2020
”Lantern Stories’ Public Art Will Soon Illuminate Chinatown’s Chin Park,” Shira Laucharoen, Sampan, August 21, 2020