Night at the Museum

Susan Chen’s “Chinatown Block Watch” resonated with me as an Asian-American. The painting depicts multiple figures with wary eyes as they walk around Chinatown. The description details the creation of Karlin Chan’s community control to protect residents from xenophobic attacks during the Covid pandemic, a period when those of Chinese heritage were targeted. In contrast to the vivid colors of the painting, possibly symbolic of diversity and how it should be celebrated, the people in the painting look at each other cautiously. To me, this piece offers the message that we often overlook the beauty of our differences and instead use it to villainize each other in times of conflict. It’s almost as if we are looking for someone to blame to make sense of a difficult situation.