Illustration by John Lee

[7/18, 6:30-8:30PM, Chinatown!Studio] Get a sneak peek of our newly-renovated storefront space, Chinatown!Studio at 1 Pike St with the opening of our thought-provoking urban planning exhibition Making or Faking Chinatown? Representing People, Place and Culture.

On view July 18–October 2024, Making or Faking Chinatown explores the unresolved debate of cultural representation in Chinatown’s built environment through extensive research, photographs from Chinatowns across North America, and illustrations by artist John Lee. The exhibition is co-curated by T!C Director Yin Kong and architectural historian Kerri Culhane, and designed with fwd | A+U, Farzana Gandhi Design Studio, and Pentagram as part of Van Alen Institute’s program Design Sprints.

This timely exhibition comes as the NYC Economic Development Corporation has launched the Chinatown Connections project, which includes the creation of a “Chinatown Welcome Gateway”. In response, the exhibition provides context about the history of how the “Chinatown gateway” came to symbolize Chinatowns globally; the previous attempts in New York; and, given Chinatown’s diversity, the lack of consensus of what an appropriate cultural marker could or should look like.