Yellowed

2014 – Present


This is an ongoing exploration into the lives of the yellowed: East Asian elderly immigrants in America who’ve fled wars, raised families, and worked sacrificially, abroad and at home. This is an attempt to pain a picture of the lives that they’ve made for themselves, having known two worlds.

Though they’ve lived for decades with the cards stacked against them, such as having limited English proficiency or being cast under the model minority myth, they still embody a certain quality of resiliency. For example in Los Angeles Chinatown, a neighborhood with a significant population of elderly Asians, 53% of household incomes average less than $20,000. Yet, the elderly there are evidently determined to make full lives for themselves, even when overlooked.

So, these are their lives – replete with homegrown greens, ancestral recipes, tender devotion, small indulgences, cultural dissonance, and yearning. They are yellowed, and daresay golden.