in the early days of
new york’s chinatown
women coalesced into
a garment district
a labor movement
fast yellow hands forming
shapes that became metaphor
darting needle, dancing thread
the easier sewn bundles
sih yauh gai,
could earn you more—
steam-press a dress
a young woman can wear
while falling in love
my parents came to america
later that century
master’s degrees tucked into crisp shirts alongside
white colleagues—
my mother wove capacitors and diodes into green schematics
so that electricity speaks to itself
in the palm of your hand
our chinglish stitches
hyphenate space
between powerpoints
and pork feet at the super 88
i learned to sew,
after four years of family-paid
private arts education
writing english poetry about
how fast bamboo grows—
a childhood memory so foreign to me
i am a tourist within it
i only know how swiftly
luxury condos materialize—
entire groves, several feet a day
a force to be reckoned with
a magnet for trust-fund whites and
crazy rich chinese
as trade war makes headlines
fabric taught me namelessness
the ways some people are artists
and others workers
needle taught me how two sides holding together with tension
can almost create the shape of a story
no one is surprised to see
slanted eyes in corporate america
yellowness weaves
convenient allegiance across lines—
professionals with macbooks extract capital from silicon pockets,
are also the adopted daughter
of a manhattan shopkeeper
placing her hand on my shoulder—
a touch that feels familiar
ni de lao jia zai naer?
“my mom is from anhui—”
extra bag is free, she insists
we are kin now, and in chinese
“home” and “family”
are the same sound
over and under—
yi shang yi xia—
hide stitch, cut thread
remembering a thousand migrations
that aren’t one’s own
Kathy Wu is a second generation Chinese-American tech worker who makes art, design, and sometimes poems. Currently thinking about class, mass production, softness, and invisible labor.
Ying Bonny Cai is a designer and researcher studying traditional garment engineering, experimenting with innovative materials, as well as collecting precious narratives. She is passionate about sharing histories and culture through a contemporary design spirit that pays homage to our earth and can reach people’s hearts. She breathes blossoms and blue skies and loves her friends indefinitely.
SPICY 
in the early days of
new york’s chinatown
women coalesced into
a garment district
a labor movement
fast yellow hands forming
shapes that became metaphor
darting needle, dancing thread
the easier sewn bundles
sih yauh gai,
could earn you more—
steam-press a dress
a young woman can wear
while falling in love
my parents came to america
later that century
master’s degrees tucked into crisp shirts alongside
white colleagues—
my mother wove capacitors and diodes into green schematics
so that electricity speaks to itself
in the palm of your hand
our chinglish stitches
hyphenate space
between powerpoints
and pork feet at the super 88
i learned to sew,
after four years of family-paid
private arts education
writing english poetry about
how fast bamboo grows—
a childhood memory so foreign to me
i am a tourist within it
i only know how swiftly
luxury condos materialize—
entire groves, several feet a day
a force to be reckoned with
a magnet for trust-fund whites and
crazy rich chinese
as trade war makes headlines
fabric taught me namelessness
the ways some people are artists
and others workers
needle taught me how two sides holding together with tension
can almost create the shape of a story
no one is surprised to see
slanted eyes in corporate america
yellowness weaves
convenient allegiance across lines—
professionals with macbooks extract capital from silicon pockets,
are also the adopted daughter
of a manhattan shopkeeper
placing her hand on my shoulder—
a touch that feels familiar
ni de lao jia zai naer?
“my mom is from anhui—”
extra bag is free, she insists
we are kin now, and in chinese
“home” and “family”
are the same sound
over and under—
yi shang yi xia—
hide stitch, cut thread
remembering a thousand migrations
that aren’t one’s own
Kathy Wu is a second generation Chinese-American tech worker who makes art, design, and sometimes poems. Currently thinking about class, mass production, softness, and invisible labor.
Ying Bonny Cai is a designer and researcher studying traditional garment engineering, experimenting with innovative materials, as well as collecting precious narratives. She is passionate about sharing histories and culture through a contemporary design spirit that pays homage to our earth and can reach people’s hearts. She breathes blossoms and blue skies and loves her friends indefinitely.