紅 (red) is a series of portraits of Asian Americans taken over the course of 2023. 

Red in Chinese and Taiwanese culture, my family’s culture, is significant for symbolizing life, vitality, and good fortune. Yet across cultures, red often symbolizes many other things.

Passion, lust, desire. 

Anger, violence, and danger. 

Blood. 

Communism and socialism. The Republican Party.

That red takes on so many different and sometimes contradictory meanings at the same time is, I think, a reflection of ourselves.

What does it mean to be Asian American when America itself is in decline?

Can you be proud?

They’re laughing, aren’t they?

Can’t I laugh too?

I see waste ahead of me. A long, terminal decay; scattered trash; ripped curtains; my neighbors gone and my favorite restaurants — closed.

I close my eyes and hold their hands. Whispers as I grip tighter.

The embers between us keeps us warm, and that’s enough.