The Thousand Bloom – A Chrysanthemum Grows in Chinatown
千朵花開:唐人街長出一朵菊花
Location: Reggie Wong Park
Date: October 2024
The Thousand Bloom uses the chrysanthemum as a metaphor for Boston Chinatown’s resilience in a nod to popular novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Come celebrate the neighborhood’s rich legacy and enduring spirit through three distinct yet complementary parts.
Behold 1,000 silk chrysanthemums, naturally dyed and bundled into bouquets of nine, forming a grand visual of a single chrysanthemum—a fall-blooming flower symbolizing vitality and tenacity.
Support businesses vital to Chinatown’s cultural and economic fabric by dining out, shopping, and engaging in self-care and cultural activities.
Join Chinatown’s first ever Double Ninth Festival, a time to care for and appreciate the elderly. Watch performances, warm up with qi gong, and enjoy Chinese square dancing, among other activities, and take home a bouquet from the art installation.
The Thousand Bloom – A Chrysanthemum Grows in Chinatown 千朵花開:唐人街長出一朵菊花is part of the Un-monument | Re-monument | De-monument: Transforming Boston Project presented by Pao Arts Center, curated by Lani Asunción, and funded by the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, and the City of Boston with the support from the Mellon Foundation.
About the artist:
Anita Yip (she/her)
Anita Yip is a multidisciplinary artist whose works honor and uplift underheard voices and cultures through documentary photography, journalism, curated experiences, and new media. Exploring the intricate relationships between art, archives, and identity within the interplay of cultural truths and fictions, she poses the question: "What is remembered, and what is lost?" Her art confronts and mediates painful experiences, lack of representation, and scarcity or even the absence of resources. Inspired by her life in Boston Chinatown, a neighborhood with limited green spaces, Anita's art embodies a longing for nature, inviting viewers to find beauty, renewal, and strength in what is overlooked, unseen, and no longer visible.
