A pòh poh dons a jacket in a flowery print that screams springtime. A gùng gung wears a fedora and a butterfly tie. The smiling faces of residents of San Francisco's Chinatown and Chinatowns across the United States and in Canada grace the pages of "Chinatown Pretty: Fashion and Wisdom from Chinatown's Most Stylish Seniors," a book by Portrait Photographer Andria Lo and Writer Valerie Luu.
The book showcases the fashion and heart of older Chinatown residents. Some of the models are residents of apartment homes owned by Chinatown Community Development Center, a NeighborWorks network organization.
Cathie Lam, who's worked at Chinatown CDC for nearly 40 years, came across a story Luu and Lo did on Chinatown seniors for a lifestyle magazine several years ago. That led to an exhibition and website for Chinatown CDC, featuring fashion and talking with local fashion businesses that had been disrupted by the opening of a trainline.
At the exhibit, Luu and Lo met more residents, rekindling their project. Lam, who speaks English, Cantonese and "passable" Mandarin, translated for the duo as they approached tenants about posing for the camera and talking about their lives. "I always want to spread the word and make people aware of the beautiful things we might overlook, a slice of life we don't notice or ignore," Lam says.
Lo and Luu had noticed everything. "We loved watching the seniors in the neighborhood go by," Lo says. "They looked so busy: grocery shopping or lugging rice up a hill or playing cards in the park." They loved the clothes, quilted jackets or crocheted dresses the seniors had made themselves. And there was always color. Lo and Luu called the look "Chinatown Pretty."
"There'd be a little pop," Luu says. "Our eyes would open and our hearts would go aflutter."
They continued documenting, in San Francisco, Oakland, New York and more. "Each one is so special," Luu says. She talks about Mrs. Yang, who used to be a perfectionist, she told them. Now she has Alzheimer's, and shares that she is more carefree. "If I remember, I remember," she said. "If I don't, I don't."
Proceeds from Chinatown CDC's sale of the book will go to the organization's youth programming. "This book, it really brings out the greatness of human beings," Lam says. "We need to be happy together. We need to appreciate our existence and each other." She is especially pleased to promote the book when the climate for Asians in America is fraught and the need to stand against hate looms large.
"We're hearing from people that it's offering a bright spot; a beacon at a time when people are grieving about the news cycle," Lo says. "Before this year, I hadn't seen it through the lens that we're offering 'Asian joy.'" But that's what they've been doing. "We've been promoting Chinatown, sending it love and sending seniors love through this project."
"Chinatown Pretty" is being celebrated in San Francisco this May, a month that is both Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and Older Americans Month. "What I like is that it's light-hearted but brings out something deeper," Lam says. Residents, she adds, are enjoying the ride.
"What's special is that we get to think about our grandparents and our family histories with everyone we meet," says Luu, whose maternal grandmother and step-grandmother are in the book. When she approached her grandmother about being photographed, "My grandma said, ‘I'm old' and just laughed. I said, 'That's the point. You're old and you're beautiful.'"
