Lantern Stories: San Francisco 2022
600s block of Grant Avenue in Chinatown
San Francisco, CA
October 2022 – permanent
The first West Coast iteration of Lantern Stories, this public art installation comprises 29 lanterns that illuminate San Francisco Chinatown’s history, culture, and community. The images on the lanterns relate the long and fraught history and legacy of Chinese immigration in the United States. Many of the lanterns highlight the arts, calligraphy, music and performance, as well as the community’s strong commitment to education, entrepreneurship, and social justice. There are twelve SF-specific lanterns, including Angel Island Detention Center, Entrepreneurship, Earthquake of 1906, Cameron House, and SF Notables featuring Bruce Lee, Amy Tan, journalist Helen Zia, pioneer restaurateur Cecilia Chang, and many others.
This project is made possible by the generous support of Robert J. Louie Memorial Fund.
PRESS
“New Lanterns in San Francisco's Chinatown Celebrate Icons, History and Culture,” NBC Bay Area, October 11, 2022
”End-of-year art shows play up Bay Area artists, technology and new horizons,” San Francisco Chronicle: Datebook, November 16, 2022
“Let There Be Light: Art from Subway to Sky” by Catherine Barry, SF/Arts Sunday insert in New York Times (Bay Area), December 4, 2022
ABOUT LANTERN STORIES
Lantern Stories is an ongoing, iterative, and national public art installation of site-specific lanterns by artist Yu-Wen Wu. Highlighting history, culture, the arts, education, entrepreneurship, and social justice, Wu’s lanterns relate the past, present, and future stories of Chinatown communities across the country. 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 justice issues faced by AAPI communities on multiple levels. The project involved a process of community engagements, intensive historical research, drawings, the design of lantern forms, and the creation of images on the lanterns specific to each Chinatown site.