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.

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Lighting the Way: Exploring ‘Lantern Stories’


Conversation between Artist Yu-Wen Wu and Greenway Conservancy Director and Curator of Public Art, Lucas Cowan.

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.