Kayan Cheung-Miaw 張嘉欣 (she/they) is a mama, artist, organizer, and educator based in North Carolina. Originally from Hong Kong, raised in New York’s Chinatown, Kayan's art aims to humanize those who have been dehumanized by sharing the stories of marginalized communities. As an organizer in San Francisco, Kayan’s leadership in the Yank Sing restaurant workers’ campaign resulted in a historic $4 million settlement for 280 workers.
Kayan earned their MFA in Comics from the California College of the Arts, her BA in Gender Studies from Smith College, and they earned a Master of Arts in Teaching: Urban Education & Social Justice from the University of San Francisco. Their piece, "Dear Brother," is collected in the anthology Artists Against Police Brutality.
hello (at) kayancomics.com
© 2005-2022 Kayan Cheung-Miaw
Art on Market Street - Chinatown: Love, Struggle, Resistance
Chinatown: Love, Struggle, Resistance
August - October 2022
© Kayan Cheung-Miaw & Vida Kuang.
View all six posters in Chinese, Spanish, Tagalog and English: https://www.flickr.com/photos/sfac/albums/72177720300544664
Artists’ Statement
In a few years, the San Francisco Chinatown we know may not exist anymore.
Even before the pandemic, Chinatown had many empty storefronts while hungry developers waited close by. Tenants were vulnerable to displacement due to lack of protection and economic instability. The pandemic also escalated the dehumanization of our AAPI communities through racist scrapgoating.
Our poster series highlights the stories of Chinatown’s mothers, workers and tenants. The comics foreground the themes of love, community, survival, and resistance.
Having our community members’ stories visible and centered through Market Street’s kiosks is a part of ensuring the Chinatown we call home will survive in post-pandemic San Francisco.
Chinatown: Love, Struggle, Resistance is part of the The Art on Market Street Kiosk Poster Series. This series is a project of the San Francisco Arts Commission and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
The Stories Behind the Comics
Most of the stories for this project are inspired by the oral history project “Our Intergenerational Stories 歲月心聲: 家 ” where mothers, women, tenants and workers are invited to tell their own stories. Listen and read the stories that inspired this poster series (forthcoming):
Poster 1 Freedom: Ah Lian’s story
Poster 2 Climate March
Poster 3 Waiting: Ah Lian’s story
Poster 4 Two Americas: Ah Lian’s story
Poster 5 Essential Worker: Huang Jie’s story
Poster 6 Resistance
Our Intergenerational Stories 歲月心聲: 家 was curated and led by M. Min-Chong Lin and Vida Kuang in 2019 as part of an Intergenerational Oral Storytelling and Photography Workshop Series in partnership with the Chinese for Affirmative Action and their parent leaders.
To learn about and to support the organizing of our communities, please visit:
SRO Families United Collaborative
Chinese Progressive Association SF (CPA)
Asians 4 Black Lives
SF Anti-Displacement Coalition
To learn more about the history of Asian American organizing:
Chinatown Rising
Asian Americans PBS documentary series
Acknowledgments:
- Thank you for sharing your stories: Ah Lian, Ivy, Huang Jie
- Thank you for sharing your photos: Ah Ai (Poster 3, inside SRO photo), Ah Yu (Poster 1, playground photo), Chinatown Community Development Center (Poster 1, shower photo), Brooke Anderson (Poster 6, images of activists), Vida Kuang (Poster 3, SRO hallway photos), Stanley Tudor (Poster 1, kitchen photo)
- Thank you to my movement siblings: Laiwa Wu, Emily Lee, and Cynthia Fong
- Thank you Tere Almaguer for your guidance in depicting Danza Azteca and for photograph modeling
- Thank you for the translations: the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs.
- Thank you for the support and for making this project possible: Craig Corpora and the San Francisco Arts Commission.
- Thank you for modeling for us and providing childcare, and endless support: Ben Lee, Pam Tau Lee, Calvin Cheung-Miaw
