This Asian American Life
Commissioned by the Asian Art Museum for the Lawrence and Gorretti Lui Hyde Street Art Wall, Kayan Cheung-Miaw’s This Asian American Life asks: How might a child experience San Francisco’s Chinatown? In a series of panels, the mural slows the hectic pace of city life to highlight the special moments a child might focus on.
“My own time spent walking the streets of Chinatown takes me into a space where the sights, sounds, and people — their lives and especially their struggles — feel deeply familiar,” says Cheung-Miaw. “A child, by contrast, has the ability to get absorbed in and find wonder in almost anything.”
The mural depicts this working-class neighborhood — full of bustling restaurants, restaurant workers, crowded rooms, and public life — reflected through a child’s sensory experience of daily instances and encounters: the wings of a bee, the scent of a bowl of noodles, a cook taking a break, a bus driver waving hello, and the music from a gāo hú.
“This Asian American Life invites us to see Chinatown not only as an iconic neighborhood, but as a living archive of Asian American experiences, rich with everyday moments of resilience, labor, and care,” says Naz Cuguoglu, assistant curator of contemporary art. “By shifting our perspective to that of a child, Cheung-Miaw reminds us that even in the midst of struggle, wonder and beauty are everywhere, if we know how to look and listen.”
This Asian American Life is the latest work in Cheung-Miaw’s ongoing public art series highlighting the stories of Chinatown’s mothers, workers, and tenants, including a 2022 multilingual bus kiosk poster series based on residents’ oral histories. “The complexity of immigrant and Asian American life, particularly in San Francisco’s Chinatown, has been central to my projects and exhibitions in the past several years,” says the artist. “The real building blocks of my work are the stories of the women and men who have woven the fabric of our communities across oceans and ages.”
About the Artist
Kayan Cheung-Miaw (she/they) is a mother, artist, organizer, and educator, known locally both for their work as an organizer and for public art projects executed in their signature comic style. As an organizer, their leadership in a workers’ campaign for San Francisco’s Yank Sing restaurant resulted in a historic $4 million settlement for 280 workers. Originally from Hong Kong and raised in New York’s Chinatown, she holds an M.F.A. from the California College of the Arts and an M.A. from the University of San Francisco; she is currently based in North Carolina.
Image: This Asian American Life, 2025, by Kayan Cheung-Miaw (b. 1984). Commissioned by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. © Kayan Cheung-Miaw. Photograph courtesy of the artist.
Organizers & Sponsors
About the Lawrence and Gorretti Lui Hyde Street Art Wall
This Asian American Life is the fourth commission for the Lawrence and Gorretti Lui Hyde Street Art Wall, a 7-by-40-foot site on the exterior of the Akiko Yamazaki and Jerry Yang Pavilion. The Lui Art Wall is a prominent venue to recognize local talent, address the Asian American experience, and raise issues relevant to our neighbors — from immigrant traditions to concepts of sanctuary — through an ongoing series of commissioned works primarily by Bay Area Asian American artists. Curated by Naz Cuguoglu, assistant curator of contemporary art.
