 All right, we're going to get started with some library information first and welcome you to our library. Thank you for joining us on this beautiful Tuesday night. It is a beautiful night out there. So we thank you for spending time with us here. And we are almost done wrapping up our API celebration or extra celebration because we do like to celebrate API heritage, all year round at the library by hosting events and book lists and authors and artists. But during May we definitely go all out. So thank you for joining us all May. We've had so many great events. We'll have a couple more events coming up so stick around. And we want to welcome you to the unceded land of the Aloni tribal people, and acknowledge the many raw Mutush Aloni tribal groups as the rightful stewards in the lands in which we live here in our beautiful Bay Area. Our library is committed to uplifting the names of these lands and community members from these nations with whom we live together. That link that I put in the chat box has a great reading list, and we've also had many programs which you can find on our San Francisco Public Library YouTube channel about first person culture and land rights and lots of programs about Alcatraz and the occupation of Alcatraz. So some interesting stuff out there. Let's take a moment just to acknowledge that tonight is the year since George Floyd was murdered by police brutality and violence. And that our library is definitely not a neutral institution and we stand in solidarity with Black Lives Matter movement. And we also just want to acknowledge that we condemn the horrendous violence against Asian and Asian Americans in our communities, state, and city in our city and nationwide. We're in solidarity with our neighbors and our colleagues distressed and hurt by these attacks. Anti-Black and anti-Asian racism, both uphold white supremacy, and all are harmed by these racist structures. The library believes everyone has a stake at dismantling white supremacy in favor of a true multiracial democracy. The library has been working hard on our racial equity committee and racial equity commitment, and that link can be found in the, the link that I put in the chat box. We are trickling open with three locations open and more coming. Please continue to wear your mask at our library. You can check out Samuel Rodriguez, his art on Instagram. The last couple programs specifically for adults for AAPI will be featuring Clara Hu, who is an amazing poet, and David Wong, who is a Gucci master. So the romance poetry, music, celebration, and that is happening on Thursday. But also tomorrow I don't have a slide because it's in all ages and I mostly focus on adults, but there's also a Hawaiian dance program tomorrow at 6pm in the virtual library. And you can find all that and I'll put this specifically to AAPI events in the chat box after we get going. Also tomorrow I know in competition with each other which is sort of a peppy and I see I have a typo. It starts at six, not seven. Now that I've seen this up here 20 times tomorrow at six o'clock, our poet laureate Tango, Eisen Martin is bringing poets from Mississippi, and it's sure to be amazing. The shelter in place has opened up our doors, as far as bringing amazing folks in from all over the world, all over the nation. So please if you're into poetry, come check this one out and it will be led by our poet laureate Tango, Eisen Martin. And the end after this week it's on summer is here officially summer stride 2021. And we have this beautiful artwork, also by a Chronicle book author artist Kay Lami Juanita, and that will be the image on our iconic tote bags so do your summer stride reading and get your iconic tote bag at the end. And then just we have so much lined up for summer I can't even begin to start telling you but every Tuesday night, and a few other days throughout we have authors every single night, every Tuesday, 7pm, June, July, and August, so please come by. I just really want to plug this one because, again, Tango, helping us bring in just some hard hitting authors will be celebrating Marlon Peterson whose book is about his time and incarceration is called burden caged and abolitionist freedom song. And he will be a conversation with Casey laymoan who is an amazing and astounding author of the book heavy and long division and I encourage you to check out both of all three of those books but I love Casey laymoans writing so please definitely check it out. And you can pick it up at your library. All right, so tonight's event. I am so excited. I have been a big Chinatown pretty Instagram fan for a while so I'm really excited that we are able to partner with Chronicle books and bring Andrea Lou and Valerie Andrea low and Valerie Lou here tonight. The two hung out hanging out San Francisco's Chinatown, Valerie Lou and photographer Andrea low became fascinated with the style, and they set out to document and celebrate Chinatown seniors and style and wisdom. For the past five years they have been photographing and interviewing trend setting seniors in six Chinatowns across North America. New York, San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, Chicago and Vancouver. They asked each person to participate in a street style photo shoot. And to tell the personal story to tell their personal story. Sometimes funny, sometimes bittersweet, but always stylish. Andrea Lou, Andrea, sorry, I keep doing it. Does that happen every time. Andrea low is a photographer whose work has been featured in San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times and wired. She lives in Oakland. Andrea Lou is a journalist and one half of the Vietnamese pop up restaurant rock paper scissors and she lives in San Francisco. And so we will have a presentation by them both. And then we're going to really just open it up to questions and it's going to be really interactive and dialogue so please get those questions started now feedback and put them in the q amp a function. And I'm going to turn it over Valerie and Andrea. Hi everyone we're so happy to be here thanks for joining us tonight. I'm Valerie Lou I'm the writer behind Chinatown pretty. And I'm Andrea low I'm the photographer with Chinatown pretty. Yeah, and we are so thankful to be here sharing our love of Chinatowns and the resilient people who inhabit it and make it a very special place. We did some very essential research at the Chinatown branch, there's only certain books you can get there so so happy to be here with them and that a lot of branches are open again. So what is Chinatown pretty. Well it's a photo and storytelling project that celebrates the street style and the lives of senior citizens in historic Chinatowns across North America. So seniors are the heartbeat of the neighborhood. As I'm sure you've seen, they're out and about grocery shopping every day they use the parks and the plazas of their living room you'll see them exercising in the morning throughout their playing cards and socializing. I notice that their eclectic fashion was really fun, but through this project, the fashion also became a lens to learn about the people of the neighborhood, and learn about their back stories, their immigration journeys, and it gave us a glimpse into their daily lives. And so what is the style so you might have seen it or you might recognize it, it combines very practical clothes with some unexpected twists. It's really a mix and it's a flurry of patterns, a lot of bold florals a lot of time. It's a mix of old and new handmade and gifted clothing, as well as lots and lots of layers, especially in San Francisco. And this is combined with lots of sun protection so trying to stay warm and trying to keep the sun out are our two big motivations behind the fashion. In 2014 we have photographed and interviewed probably, you know, several hundred seniors at this point, and we've traveled to some of the largest China towns in America, including in North America, including San Francisco and Oakland in the Bay Area, as well as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, and Vancouver. So just a little bit about our story and how the project originated. So this is a screencap of my website, I'm a freelance photographer, and I shoot a lot of food and product. And Valerie and I first met in the food world about 10 years ago and I was documenting a lot of the underground food scene at the time and Valerie had started her food business, Rice Paper Scissors. I started Rice Paper Scissors with Katie Kwan who's pictured there and today's actually her birthday so happy birthday Katie Kwan. Happy birthday. So 10 years ago, and actually depended so much on the SF Public Library's cookbook section, including the Vietnamese books, and we had a lot of overdue fees. So thank goodness that they weighed those a few years ago. You know, Angie and I would go on these dim sum dates in San Francisco, Chinatown, and starting in 2014. And we noticed this like very effortless hip head turning style, and we both had a visceral reaction, we would be like, oh my god, did you see that woman with her shoes, her supreme hat, her really cool Nikes. And what started out as like an appreciation of their style like wanting to know how they compose their outfits, kind of became a gateway to learn more about their immigration stories, where they worked before they retired and and how they were active daily lives. And, in a lot of ways, it's a way for us to connect with our grandparents generation. You know, we are both second second and half generation Asian American. And we saw a lot of similarities in the seniors, the Chinatown community, and once in years life stories with their own family histories. So Chinatown pretty became a way to connect with that generation, even with some language and cultural barriers. In a lot of ways, this project is a love letter to Chinatown. And it's a senior citizens that are the heartbeat of the neighborhood. You see them in Fort Smith Square, you see them getting groceries every day. And they are the ultimate urban dwellers. They utilize the parks to exercise or, you know, host informal dance classes. They meet up with their friends to dim some and take public transportation and take walks around the neighborhood. So yeah, the project has been seven years in the making. And one question we get a lot is, how do we know who to approach. We usually know it when we see it. We love to see unexpected things like color and pattern clashing so sometimes one outfit will have six shades of purple, or four floral patterns and one look. And we also look for things that are handmade. A lot of people work the seamstresses or tailors. So they often make their own little customizations to make their outfits work for them. And it's very sporty, it's very utilitarian. But of course it's always about keeping warm so lots and lots and lots of layers. And of course while keeping the sun out so wide brim taps. And how do we interact with people. I think the first part is just getting people to stop Chinatown seniors are very busy. So getting them to stop on like busy Stockton Street is often a challenge, but we usually start by just saying, Joe San, good morning or Neho, and try to compliment them on what they're wearing and then go from there. And really the last step, you know, after we can engage them in some conversation, if we're, you know, lucky enough to catch them before they hop on a bus is asking them for a portrait. So, I try to get, you know, falling the portrait if possible close up and then just try to capture some of the cool details like there's always a lot of great button details or hand stitching on the clothing so when you take a closer look, you can really start to notice a lot of these like secret pockets and all the ways they customize the clothes to make it work better for them. And these meetings are often very, very short very ephemeral because like I mentioned they might be just at a bus stop and their bus is about to come or they're, you know, on a mission to buy groceries, or on their way to, you know, their iPad class or a lot of these are just momentary, maybe a couple of minutes, but if we're able to get their contact info after we get their photo and we send them a print, then sometimes we can follow up and do like a house call and, and check out, even if we're really lucky we'll get to check out the closet, so we try to do a longer sit down interview if possible later on. So, when we first approached, you know, seniors on the street, oftentimes they're pretty shy, you can feel kind of private, and a lot of times they're really surprised that we're interested in them actually. They just, I think the reaction is just like oh this, this whole thing that I threw on today like they're not necessarily getting dressed to be seen sometimes there's a lot of intention behind that clothing but a lot of times they're really surprised. And our success rate is, you know, honestly pretty low, especially in San Francisco and New York. It's about, or rejection rates about 90%. We had a slightly higher success rate in Chicago and Vancouver, but through this book actually after this book came out we've received quite a lot of notes from children of people in the book or grand children, and they're pretty psyched to see their families and it's been very positive, I think the response. And this is actually a photo of Valerie and her grandma in Ross Alley in San Francisco Chinatown. So here are some of the people that are featured in our book, which is available at the San Francisco Public Library, which is truly an honor. So the Jungs we met in LA Chinatown at Alpine Rec Center, which is their, their park. And Mrs. Jung has taught this type of exercise for about 40 years. So at 8am every day she meets up with her squad of about like eight other, you know, exercise friends, and they do a set of like little exercises to get the blood flowing you might have seen people doing this at your local park. But they wear these yellow bright yellow sweatsuits they've owned for decades but they don't even look a day old. I mean I own something for like a week and it looks a few months old so it's very inspiring. So this is Mr. Wu who in the book and his story is called The One, because he's very special. We had actually his reputation preceded him so we'd heard of him. As you can see he dresses very colorfully. He's often seen in a red suit or maybe a yellow and red suit. They definitely catches the eye. We'd heard about him from friends and we'd also seen him. I think we saw him on the blog accidental Chinese hipster, which is a tumbler like that preceded our project. And we had been hoping to run into him. And this was probably a few weeks into starting off this project and one day we just grabbed some dim sum after making lobster in Chinatown for a couple hours. And we plopped down at the table and he was just happened to be sitting right next to us so we were super excited and he was glad to take a picture outside and we just felt like we were meeting a celebrity if we had run into him. But one of his little nuggets of wisdom that he left us with was when you're young you don't have to care about fashion but when you're old you have to. Next up is Miss Hui and we definitely wanted to highlight her because she is a volunteer at a Chinese language library in Vancouver Canada. This is a library where all the books are donated by people and they have like hundreds and hundreds of Chinese language books, and people can borrow them. And Miss Hui is when we met her she was in her 90s and she volunteered there and said, Listen, you know I received pension from the government so I want to give back. And yeah she was such a fiery spirit and we loved how much she prioritized kind of community. This is Dorothy G. C. Kwok. She was born and raised in San Francisco Chinatown and still lives there. And she's had several careers and she's also, she started including being a model for Chinatown pretty as one of her most recent ones. But she is great because all of her clothes are either handmade or gifted so she has outfits that she's made, you know, 60 years ago and she still has them and is able to fit them. But because her namesake is polka dot. She figured I should start having polka dots in my outfit so she that was one of the first outfit she made which which was a five piece leopard print polka dotted or dotted outfit. And as you can see she incorporates polka dots. Throughout throughout her, her fashion, and let's see. I think we could show you, I think we're missing one of the photos that had this beautiful rice dress that she made for a special event. But I'll just talk about a little bit but it's in the book and it's this gorgeous dress that she made and designed herself. And let me pull it up. I don't see it. It's probably super small on your screen but it's a dress made out of a Bowton rice heirloom right back. As her dad had delivered these huge 50 and 100 pound rice tax all around Chinatown as a job, you know, in the early 1940s. I think that she was able to show her family history in her clothes, in particularly that outfit by repurposing that right side and creating a really special occasion dress with it. Shout out to Dorothy who is in the audience tonight. And next up we have the youth who we met in LA Chinatown. We saw them on a really foggy days and we like jetted over we jaywalked and ran across the street. And they had met through the matchmaker they said, and they didn't reveal much more we kind of loved how they were synchronized there's definitely a theme going there with their kind of taffeta material. And what's really special about Chinatown pretty outfits is that often people are wearing clothes that are gifted to them. In one way or another, in this case Mrs. Yee's wearing a blazer that her daughter had left behind when she went off to college. So that kind of adds to the patchwork of colors textures patterns and eras. You know, senior citizens provide prioritized being warm. So you'll see that they have many, many, many layers on. And I've definitely taken note and try to have worn double turtle necks before. Yeah, as you can see here they have probably minimum five, six layers on each. So Chinatown pretty outfits are kind of like a story, you know there's usually one lead, you know that draws us in. And then sometimes there's themes interwoven and like pops of pink, and usually socks are the punchline or the kicker. So we always check the socks that's one of our secrets. And then at one point meet this nice woman that we met in Ross alley, which is where the four Golden Gate fortune cookie company is. We asked her to lift up her green fleece pant leg, and she had socks that said, my favorite salad is wine. Our minds kind of exploded. But that's just one of the many unexpected things that we come across in Chinatown pretty outfits. Thank you so much for having us. We're going to, we're looking forward to answering any questions you might have so feel free to drop them in the chat and looking forward to talking. Right, I'm going to jump in with some of these questions that are already flowing through the chat, I mean the q amp a function. Has the project changed your personal style or changed you in other ways. That's a great question. So in my 20s I were all black because I worked in the kitchen and I just loved having a uniform. But after doing this for a few years the color and patterns and joy, definitely sunken like I wanted to make others feel the way the Chinatowns and your citizens made me feel so as you can see I'm wearing bright purple today. And you know when my, so I try to wear a lot of patterns, more is more. And when my grandma and Ali who's featured in the book passed away about two years ago, I inherited half her closet. And it's really special to kind of keep her close to me kind of her, her energy. She's very graceful so I feel like I sit a little taller when I wear her clothes, and it also speaks to how timeless certain items are especially if they're made with intention and made for you. I think I've learned a lot of from the seniors resourcefulness. There's a lot of ways that they tailor and customize the clothes, and all those little details and it's really made me think more about, you know, mending my clothes before tossing out that that sock that has that one, you know, toe hole, or just patching it up, you know, we see a lot of creative ways, like Dorothy quack, actually, she has a pair of like cotton Mary Jane, and you know how the toe kind of makes the first hole in those kinds of shoes well she puts a pom pom on them, and that kind of creativity and attention to detail is something I really admired so I'm trying to, you know, repurpose my clothes more by dying them or making sure that they just fit me right tailoring them so I've been thinking a lot about, you know, being a little more sustainable and resourceful with my dress. Thank you. I love, I love that you have your grandma's clothes already that's so special. How about do you go to smaller or secondary Chinatowns like Clement Street or Flushings Queens, any of the smaller second Chinatowns. The book we wanted to focus on historic Chinatowns just because there's so much history there. And they serve as landing pad for immigrants and still do you know you could move to Chinatown without knowing English and find a place to work and live. But second secondary Chinatowns and Asian enclaves are also important and part of the Asian diaspora. They're not featured so much in the book but definitely on our Instagram. We did make it to Queens last time we were in New York, photographing and scanning for the book, but I will say that our success rate was zero percent we really just didn't have much luck. And it was a really vibrant community and we noticed there was perhaps more recent immigrants and maybe from different parts of China whereas in historic Chinatowns they tend to be folks who immigrated from Southern China or Hong Kong. So the dialect was a little different. But the fashion is just as great. I work in the Portola, I'm on San Bruno Avenue and on Clement Street often and it's kind of the same density of awesome Chinatown pretty outfits. We're so lucky to have what three for Chinatowns in San Francisco. Is there, let's see there was one. I have your book and love it the fashion on Chinatown seniors always seem so easy. How intentional are their looks, and how do the seniors talk about putting together their outfits. I think as you could see from some of the photos we showed, including like the one and, and Dorothy, I think they're pretty intentional with their dress. There's a lot of coordination and a lot of kind of flair that they add. But for I would say the majority of the people that we meet. A lot of it is really effortless because they might not consider it quite as much. And their, their style dress is so driven by, by practicality and function. So that creates some really interesting contrast and, and moments in their, in their style. And because they don't follow the rules they're not perhaps aware of fashion rules that we might commonly look to they are fashion rule breakers because they just don't even there are no rules for them. So we love to see that too and I think that's why we find their style to be so interesting and so fun. Let's see, do you find there's a couple interesting fun questions out here. Do you have an age cut off for this sort of fashion, like does it all of a sudden turn into Chinatown pretty at a certain age. I think Chinatown pretty fashion is about being resourceful. It's about color and patterns and kind of like a double may care attitude to life and fashion. So it's kind of dressing with abandoned and living life with abandoned. So any age, we've seen photos of babies, you know, with a lot of patterns. And you know I often ask myself, would a Chinatown grandma wear this, and if yes then I definitely want it. So no age restrictions. What is your favorite dim someplace in San Francisco. I think a lot of our dim some dates took place at doll hoe, which is a mostly take out it's just they have a small seating area. I'm not sure if it's open yet, but they have great shrimp and chive dumpling and yeah it's, it's just a cozy little spot that we love to do take out from so doll how we can drop it in the chat. I'm going to read a couple comments not questions but there's, you know, people love, love to talk about their own side right. Thank you for this book. This is very bitter sweet reminder for me as I grew up in San Francisco is Chinatown and hated it when I was a child, but now I can see the beauty and history as an adult. I can relate in quarantine my fashion has gotten loud and fun, I think. Let's see. Let's go back to some questions. Got that one. Awesome work tactical questions. Do your subjects have have to to sign some kind of release to be in your book, and what lens do you shoot with. Yeah, we always have them sign a photo release it's in English and Chinese. And yeah I guess that technically allows us to, you know, use it in a book but because it under fine art I think that also qualifies but it's really important for us for them to know that you know this photo might be used, and we always print out a photo, and if we can get their address we send it as a thank you. And, you know, I think I usually use. Most of the book is like a 24 to 70 lens I use Canon cameras and or a 50 millimeter lens so it's nice just to bring one with me just because it will be circling for hours walking miles so I just try to have either of those lenses. And Andrea you sometimes get phone calls from the seniors that receive their prints right. Yeah it's really sweet. I don't speak Chinese so I usually know it's someone that I sent a print out to because they'll just be talking Cantonese in a minute. And I mean I know enough to understand that they're saying thank you for the photo. It's really sweet. And sometimes they do speak English they'll have a little conversation but. Yeah, I think they really appreciate having the physical print because they're not on Instagram a lot of times they're not checking their email so they have appreciate having the actual print that they can hold and see, and actually one of our cover models we call him Butterfly Book with this great tie. After we sent him some prints we'd run into him a couple of times. He used to carry around this little photo album that had photos of his family and of himself when he was younger and whenever we would, you know meet him on the street, he would break out the photo album and just show him some photos and then we started noticing that he included the photos we had sent in in his photo album so that was a big honor to be included in there. It's interesting you mentioned language. There is a question, do you find Cantonese, or maybe a different dialect works better than Mandarin when you're approaching seniors, or does that even like come into play. So in most Chinatowns here in North America, I would say like 90% of the people that we meet, or more actually speak Cantonese, and sometimes a dialect of Tanzanese which is twice on twice on these. Neither of us speak Chinese. So we rely on an interpreter to work with us. So usually it's a gaggle of three women, usually approaching the senior citizens in Chinese. So we have a few key phrases. It's all song good morning. Paul Paul whole thing, which is our number one cat call which means Dan grandma you look good. So we'll usually say that like 50 times and in one hour, if not more. So we encourage everyone to tell a grandma that you see, Paul Paul whole thing. I'll throw it in the chat. So I guess that's sort of like your technique then right for picking up the seniors. Mom's favorite fabric shop was in Oakland, New York fabrics, she would head for her favorite table that had discontinued materials, remnants, she would mix and match whatever caught her eye, making shirt tops and pants sets, even under clothes plus pajamas she was quite a fashion play. That is a comment from our audience. Can you talk a little bit about the opportunity you had to visit one of the seniors homes. What was the most memorable about this visit. Great question. Thanks serene. So we in the book you'll see there are some longer interviews. Dorothy is one of them. Also, there's a style Kelly who's in our. She's popping up. She's in our Oakland chapter. And they have, you know, longer multi page spreads, because you're able to visit them. But, yeah, it's really special to, you know, be able to sit down, take the time to chat with them. And, for example, Estelle has a really incredible story she's been through a lot, but she also worked as as a dancer. And I think Val was in like the 1950s at this club in SF Chinatown called Forbidden City. So she has these, they're not in our book but you can look on our Instagram these incredible professional studio shots of her and just like these cow girl outfits and just, she just looked amazing and you know she was an orphan as a child so she has just been through a lot. And to be able to hear her tell the stories firsthand is pretty incredible and then also just to check out her closet. So she has, she modeled a few different outfits for us near her home in Oakland and she has quite the jewelry collection she let us kind of rifle through. And, yeah, it's just like over the years they're able to collect such interesting pieces and, you know, have us but they have a very she has a very strong sense of style so I think to visit someone like her was a really great, great opportunity. And shout out to Estelle's family who's with us and audience tonight. Oh cool. Um, how about a YouTube question. What's your favorite piece of wisdom given by an elder. There's a gentleman in the book called extra stitch who do want to give his name. And we met him in Columbus Park which is kind of like the Portsmouth Square of Manhattan Chinatown. And he called him that because he had all these little stitches you know who had a half inch here on his collar or on his sleeve. He sewed together three hats to build it up and make it warmer. And he said to us, you know, a little proper he said one day the sun will set on you as well. And he was kind of frustrated that younger people didn't talk to older people. And we took that to mean you know one day we will both be old. But when I'm old, I have a gaggle of women telling me I look good. So the lesson is, you know, to treat. See your citizens the way you would want to be treated when you're older and it taught us the value of kind of intergenerational relationships and interactions and for us it really just starts out by saying hello, good morning, and you look good. Andrea, any wise, wise words from elders. I would check out to me was let me find her in the book. This is Yang in San Francisco, and she worked as a caretaker actually before she retired. And she actually, or no I'm sorry she worked as a teacher. And when we met her she, you know she had Alzheimer's. So she, you know she couldn't remember a lot. She remembered things from her past here and there but she wasn't stressed about it. And she told us, you know, right now I have no cares I have nowhere I need to be the kids and the grandkids are okay so there's nothing to worry about. And she said she was a perfectionist when she was younger, but now I'm carefree if I remember I remember. And if I don't I don't. So I like that she wasn't, you know, I can, I can relate a bit to be in a perfectionist so there's a lot you know that runs through our minds but I think kind of letting go of a lot of that and just going with the flow. There's something we said about that. It's beautiful. There seems to be a to be some commonality with the lovely seniors that they had a limited time to spend with you, like they had places to go. Did you find that to be true. What I love about China Towns is that you know it's seniors living independently. Sometimes they choose to like we've heard from people, you know I could live with my kids and the burbs, you know but I'd rather live here I can hang out my friends at the park I can go downstairs get groceries, I can get around on my own in this neighborhood. So yeah there are other ultimate urban dollars often heading to get groceries or to go on a walk or to meet up with their friends so very busy and often walk faster than I can with 20 pounds of food, no less. Thank you for creating the book it warms my heart and brings a smile to my face. It brings me fond memories of growing up in San Francisco is China Town with my grandmother. Let that tell us about how the book came about did you approach chronicle that they approach you did you approach other companies publishers. Did you have a book in mind or did it just kind of grow. So we started the project in 2014 and you know we're working on the project on and off for about five years and then the book process was about two years and throughout that we were, you know up until actually the year that came out we were still are not know maybe about a year before it came out we were still out taking pictures and it takes quite a long time to refine the edits and do the layouts. So, especially with a book that has so many photos and so much text and I think it's quite a lot to juggle. But we were really happy to work with chronicle you know they have such a great reputation city they're local, and they're, they published so many great like gift and culture books. But we, I think, after, you know, I remember thinking after we had first started the project and we had first published this article that came out in the bulletelic. The original pitch that we had made to this magazine, and we didn't work on it for, you know, a year after that I was thinking oh you know this project is done that's great. This was so much energy and effort just to get these eight or nine profiles for that original article I remember thinking oh my gosh, you know book would be cool but there's just no way like this. This 90% rejection rate I don't think my heart can take it this. I just couldn't imagine that we could have collected over 100 stories and you know hundreds of photos and gone to 60s. You know it took a bit of time but each of these profiles in the book is developed say well earned. But yeah we did build a book proposal so that's sort of the process as you create a proposal that has some photos and some sample stories and a little bit about the authors. And then you can kind of shop it around a different publishers so we're able to work with a great agent Danielle set co. And yeah we were lucky that chronicle was interested but it didn't it didn't work out with any of the other publishers but all we were lucky to have one and we're really happy to have our local one local independent publisher. We were speaking before the event went live that. How interesting and great it would be to have you in person at the library. And now that we're in the event. Do you know how amazing would be to get all the Chinatown seniors into the library and have an event that would be fantastic. I have seen our Chinatown community Chinatown community Asian community fill the library for certain events so that would be let's make that happen. What a stylish event that would be. Let's see more questions. Lots of love out here in the audience that's for sure. Lots of people remembering their grandmas. I love to hear that. Do you think warmth is really the like what it is that's driving force behind the fashion. The question is, is there a common accessory you see hats seem to be popular. Do you know anything about the history of hats, or the utility of wearing them beyond maybe keeping warm. So one of the other Cantonese phrases we know is mall holding which is dang your hat looks good. When I drive down Paul Powell Street to get to work in the morning. I just like try not to get an accident just like looking at all the hats that are out in the morning. I think hats are really big, because one child of a Chinatown senior told us, instead of wearing sunglasses because they have to wear prescription glasses, you know, you could have a really big bonnet or bill to protect you. And often, you'll see them kind of cocked sideways hip hop style because they're moving it with the sun, especially when they're playing cards on Portsmouth Square. But keeping warm is a huge priority. You know, as you all know, as every Cisco residence probably the weather can shift like that. And it changes when you're hauling up hills with your groceries for that day, or if you're in a shady spot. So there's lots and lots of layers and keeping warm is a big priority. Now we know the secret to why the hat is cocked to the side. I love it. Let's see. How about any next project anything on the horizon, or the two of you either together or separate. Yeah, I mean I think I would love to keep continue telling stories from Chinatown. There's so many Chinatowns we haven't been to, as well as just so many people stories restaurants businesses to explore and hopefully share with others so I think, you know anything involved with celebrating and sharing more of Chinatown I'd be interested in. And with the book coming out in 2020 during the pandemic we haven't been able to do any in person events but yes we would love to make a SF library or Chinatown branch special event happen for Chinatown pretty and hopefully more but talk like that in person. I have a lot of chat chat questions right now. How many years did you work on this project and how much time did you spend each day on it. And do you have other jobs day jobs. We recently did a book talk with some elementary school kids and someone was like, how many senior citizens do you think you've talked to, and it's a quick math it's probably in the upwards of like 800, if not more 100 to 1000. In 2014, and we would go out on an average of once, once a month, sometimes more if we're getting ready for a photo show, or more because of the book was coming out. And we would usually go out for three hours at a time and approach a lot of seniors 90% of whom would say no. So yeah we worked on the book or like content for five years. It started out as an article, and then a solo photo show at 41 Ross in collaboration with the Chinatown Community Development Center. And we just loved it so we kept going with no kind of goal in mind other than just telling stories meeting senior citizens and see more awesome outfits. For five years, we're like, oh, we have enough for a book. And that's when we got the book deal and spent the next two years going to other cities and then putting the book together. So seven years or eight years as of now. And promoting the book in this phase of the book is kind of like a part time job, you know, like just getting the word out, talking to people about it. And yes, we do have other jobs. Right now I work in the Portilla neighborhood which is another Asian enclave as a small business liaison. And I'm a freelance photographer. So I shoot a lot of food and products and still life, as well as people. But that's, yeah, that's my full time job. I like this question in the chat and it's a comment slash question. And this is from me. My mom used to sew pockets made with scraps from on her innermost underwear. She wears at least two teas under her floral nylon blouse. Were you allowed to see those undershirts? I love this question. Yeah, actually surprisingly, when I think about it just, you know, we'd get a peek of an undershirt sometime, or an inside pocket. And surprisingly, they would often just be like, oh yeah, it would just like show us their inside pockets and their amazing undershirts. Or even, you know, we would bend down to kind of check the socks. And I think after we were able to chat with them and earn some trust, they, they actually were just laughed and were cool with it. It kind of surprised me how intimate they would, we could get with them. But yeah, Valerie just showed a great example of an undershirt we were able to peek. Growing up, my grandma had secret pockets that she sewed in her pants where she would keep 20s that she would sometimes pass to us grandchildren. So we have an interesting question. Not about the book, but is Valerie's background the grocery store on Clay Street below Grant? I believe so. I'm not reporting live from grocery store in Chinatown, but it is taken in a grocery store in Chinatown. Good eye. During your course of the project, have you seen changes in fashion trends among Chinatown seniors? Curious how much these seniors draw inspiration from each other? Well, in this COVID era, you know, masks were just another layer. And a lot of Chinatown seniors have sewing as part of their skill toolkit, something I do not have. So yeah, it just became another piece of fabric, another pattern that we would see. I think the older generation that we met, especially early on in this book, had the most Chinatown pretty fashion, like colors, pattern textures. And one inevitable part of this project is that people do get old, and some of us will no longer be with us. I think as the years have gone on, we have seen a little bit less, like a teeny bit less of this Chinatown pretty fashion, but I think pattern mixing and wearing clothes from different eras and gifted items still thrives in Chinatown. So the look still exists. But I think the people we were meeting early on kind of exemplified that a lot more. I will add, you know, add on that actually we see more so that young people are influenced by this style of dress. So, you know, it's not uncommon to see this style. I think it influences a lot of streetwear, honestly, and just, there's a lot of like, I guess it's called like Norm Core or pattern clashing and bucket hats, and just kind of like comfort clothes, which of course exploded in the COVID era. Lots of like elastic waist pants and sandals and socks, you know, crocs. That's all stuff that has been around Chinatown for years. And it's pretty cool to see that kind of influence. I feel like it's kind of trickle down through Chinatown and just kind of the senior style that is having a moment. Thank you. Here's some library love coming back to you since you gave us the library and love as a librarian who's worked in Chinatown. I really appreciate this work as a piece of documentation, so valuable for today and future generations and they thank you for your work. I think we have made it through all the love and questions with one last comment from Loretta which is I was tickled to see Dorothy quack featured for SF my sis and I took a private tour with her. We are distantly related to her Dorothy is related to my uncle by marriage married to my blood and side of the family. So that's nice to see this audience here tonight coming out and the connections. And we will give it one more moment for any questions and if anyone wants to you know I can unmute you if you really want to say something to Valerie and Andrea we can make that happen. Thank you to Dorothy, who's one of her seven careers is a tour guide for walk with tours, and hopefully they'll be back up and running again. And I just want to do a quick plug. Chinatown Community Development Center is a nonprofit near and dear to our heart, one of the biggest organizations that help with affordable housing tenants rights and just general support for Chinatown. We're calling our book as part of a fundraiser for their youth leadership programs. So I'm going to throw that in the chat. So if you want to buy a signed copy of the book and get an inscription a personal message order before the end of May. So the link is in the chat. I'll also put it in the document to some folks can, if you don't catch it in the chat, you can catch it in this document. And you can also watch this event again if you missed something and just want to watch it again on our YouTube channel. And the Chinatown Development Center really helped promote this event. They were very active on our Twitter and they are very proud of you. So I love that as well. We love our community organizations. And we all support each other in library land like this. So that's really nice of them. How many people have tuned in. There are over 100 folks here. That's nice. Thanks for asking. We had a nice crowd tonight. So I really appreciate it. Like I said, it's a, it was a beautiful day today. So we appreciate you all coming. And I hope you aren't getting too burnt out on virtual programming. Because we still have a whole summer lined up for you. I'm coming back on. Sorry. I feel like I'm talking to there we go. Hi. Valerie and Andrea. Thank you so much. And library community as always we miss you. We love you and we will have such a wonderful events coming up this week and all throughout summer. And Valerie and Andrea, I will be getting in touch when we are able to do so in person and I think we must have an event. I think it would be really wonderful. And it's already percolating in my mind. So let's make that happen. Good night. Thanks so much. Tell some grandmas and grandpas they look great tonight or tomorrow. I can't wait. My teenager, once in a while walks to Chinatown from our place to go get a stim sum for breakfast. So, I'll make him tell all the grannies. Paul Paul holding. All right friends. Thanks so much. Bye bye. Bye. Lots of love, lots of love.