Envisioning Chinatown as Temple, Art Group Invites You on 'Pilgrimage'

A group of area artists and historians are planning to connect the dots between historic places around Boston and their direct link to Chinatown today.

“I think what this exhibition is trying to do is offer a space for us to remember who are the people who came before us — especially thinking about Chinatown’s history and memories,” said theater artist Wenxuan Xue, a co-curator for the diverse exhibit, “Temple of Our Ancestral Dreams” hosted by the Pao Arts Center from April 8 to June 19.

The months-long exhibit that will include visual arts, rituals and performances, will offer visitors the chance to make a “pilgrimage” throughout the neighborhood, stepping into the past, present and future, said Sung-Min Kim, the other co-curator of the event.

The exhibit will recognize several historical sites, starting with Mount Hope Cemetery in Mattapan, which was founded in the mid-1800s and was the burial place of many early Chinese immigrants whose remains were neglected over the past century and a half.

Confronting both successes and hardships of early immigrants – including Chinese who faced exclusionary laws and policies – the exhibit will give “us the permission to grieve and dream together in this time of loss,” said Xue. “One of the losses is really the kind of neglect at Mount Hope Cemetery, where the early Chinese immigrants had been buried there but been not been receiving a lot of attention and care. How can we attend to the losses of these stories buried there through ceremonies and rituals?”

Rituals, say the curators, will be significant part of the work.

“A ritual can look like an artist sweeping Chinatown’s Gate,” said Kim, referring to a performance by Yolanda He Yang.

“Temple of Our Ancestral Dreams” will also visit the history of the old Shanghai Printing Company on Oxford Street, famed China Pearl restaurant and places like Johnny Court. Another presentation will discuss the adoptee diaspora.

The curators collaborated with Historic Boston Incorporated’s Chinatown Immigrant History Trail to identify specific spots for various artists to respond to.

“We thought, OK, let’s activate these points on the Immigrant History Trail though performance,” said Kim. “So, we invited six artists to respond to a different site…. We are imagining that visitors will visit each of them as if they are on a pilgrimage.”

But the focal point of the exhibit is Chinatown itself, which the team of artists sees a “temple.”

Ancestors of Chinatown: A Day of Remembering and Dreaming

Saturday, April 11, 2-5 p.m.

This event will be a collaboration with the Friends of the Chinese Burial Grounds at Mount Hope Cemetery, which is spearheading the restoration project of Mount Hope Cemetery. Mount Hope is a public cemetery containing the remains of more than 1,500 Chinese immigrants to come to Boston, including many who arrived in Boston in the late 1800s. Many of these were workers who faced discrimination, including and especially during the Chinese Exclusion Act, according to the Friends of the Chinese Burial Grounds at Mount Hope Cemetery and Nany Lo, who will be involved in the April 11 event. (Look out for Lo's column in the next issue of Sampan.) The event will include a panel discussion and ancestral worship ritual, include filmmaker Ken Eng who will screen a short film produced by the Boston Chinatown Immigrant Heritage Center on the history of Mount Hope and the significance of the Chinese burial grounds.

For more information: https://www.paoartscenter.org/events/2026/templeexhibit-ancestors

Future Ancestor: Seeded Mythologies from the Adoptee Diaspora

Saturday, June 13, time TBD

Partnering artists: Madeleine Conover and Eva Lin Fahey

Contact the Pao Arts Center for more information.