#100DAYSIANS - A book about growing up Asian American
Self-Published Illustrated Book & Solo Gallery Show, 2016 - 2017
My first major personal project was a 100 Day Project illustrating what being Asian American meant to me. This project stemmed from a final assignment at a continuing education course at SVA in 2016 where we were asked to draw three illustrations of our dream project, and I chose to do some self-discovery work through drawing. I had been laid off two months before this final assignment and was using art as a refuge while recovering from corporate burnout and figuring out what I wanted to do next.
Around the same time, the second iteration of the 100 Day Project was starting on Instagram, so I continued this final assignment and posted everyday on social media with a new illustration and caption. Some would find this way of creating unreasonable, and I would agree to an extent, but the project’s intention was helping creatives get into the habit of building a practice. I did this project to work on my drawing skills, and as a perfectionist, this project forced me to let go of those since I had to post everyday, no matter how finished or unfinished I thought the piece was.
Some illustrations from the project: maneki-neko (lucky cat), lucky bamboo, koi, qingke (getting the bill), slippers, hoarding toiletries, hot water dispenser, rice cooker, model minority achievement, piano, Linsanity, American Chinese food, dumplings, Peking duck buns, shaved ice, BBQ pork buns, haw flakes, pei pa gao (herbal cough syrup).
The project took off in ways I never expected. Both new online friends and friends who I hadn’t talked to in years shared their own stories and lived experiences. A personal project quickly transformed into a collective storytelling project, and it made me realize how few stories there were at that point about growing up Asian American, particularly in mainstream Western media.
I explored stories about my childhood and favorite foods, and examined stereotypes, microaggressions, and Asian American history. I was at first a little embarrassed how little I knew about my own culture and how out of touch I was with my own racial identity, but everyone’s relationship to these things happen at different times in our lives and at different paces. This project enriched my sense of self, helped sharpen my storytelling skills, and gave me a deeper appreciation for my parents’ immigration story.
My two favorite illustrations from the project: Tiger Mom (left) and Leftover Woman (right).
I made this project into a book, launched a Kickstarter to crowdsource funding for it, and to my surprise, tripled my humble funding goal. I thought it would just be a handful of family and friends who would back my book, but I didn’t know half the backers, which again was another metric that validated the hunger for more stories like mine.
And as luck would have it, someone who backed my book on Kickstarter was friends with Joanne Kwong, who had just become the new President of the iconic Pearl River Mart in New York City. She reached out to chat and at the end of the conversation, she let me have an artist residency in their gallery space later that year. My project and Pearl River Mart’s mission to share more of Asian culture with the world were aligned, and it was the first opportunity given to me where I felt like I could actually call myself an artist.
I am so grateful for the support and opportunity Joanne and the entire Pearl River Mart team gave me. My residency there would set roots for many strong community ties and relationships with other artists, arts organizations, and grassroots organizations in New York’s Chinatown neighborhood.
Me at the opening of my solo show at Pearl River Mart in New York City on August 12, 2017.
