Chinatown Counter-Archives: Relational Reconstruction (2025–ongoing)
Jeffery Yoo Warren and I are working with the 1882 Foundation to develop community-engaged artworks and “relational reconstructions” of Hanford, CA’s China Alley. We engage with histories of Hanford’s China Alley to craft different kinds of reconstructions of this early, rural Chinese American community, including virtual reality works, papercraft, wooden replicas of artifacts, and more.
The week of June 1, we hosted two special woodworking gatherings—to recreate a unique stool which has been part of Chinese American life in Hanford since the 1880s. “The stools are all over the place in China Alley,” I recalled, “in the Temple, in the gift shop, at Arianne and Steve's tea store. It was a common object, in abundance, and the one object that people still used, that still served its original functional purpose." In Hanford and LA Chinatown, eighteen people crafted twelve replicas of this iconic design, using only hand tools. These were hot, dusty days, gathered in the shade under an awning. In Hanford, the workshop was at Toti’s Pupusería, with cool drinks and food all day. In LA, we ate dim sum as we recreated these pieces of living history in fresh, fragrant pine.*
* With inspiration from A Portable Paradise, by Roger Robinson
This project is funded by the Mellon Foundation, and hosted in collaboration with the 1882 Foundation, Chinese Historical Society of Southern California, and China Alley Preservation Society.
