Happiness Is To Huddle (幸福就是挤在一起) by Sunny Taiyang Chen (Pre-Order)

Togetherness brings Chinese people joy. We huddle closely like a bag of fresh goods.

11"x14" giclee print
Illustration by Sunny Taiyang Chen (SF, CA)

Proceeds from the print will directly support Good Good Eatz and their initiatives within the Oakland communities.

Orders are estimated to ship around mid-September.

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Sunny's piece illustrates a memory submitted by Kimi .

"Every weekend, we would visit my grandmother who lived in a senior home in SF Chinatown near Broadway & Stockton. As we went through the building, senior would pop their heads out the door to see who has visiting. In one building, exposed wires running along the ceiling, shared kitchen and bathroom for whole floor of people, chatting in her SRO with everything tightly packed around us (clothes hanging on the window to dry, food and dry goods on one side, small table in the middle of the room and using the mattress as a bench). Saturday shopping in the crowded streets, holding onto plastic bags in different colors that kept growing as we moved through the street, following her through the crowds and waiting on the sidewalk as she skillfully navigated her way through the crowds to get veggies, noodles, medicine and other items from each shop. Triumphantly holding the pink box of baos that were still warm and steamy and getting to dig into them once we got into the car to drive home."

From the artist:
"Kimi’s memory teleported me right back to my childhood summers in Shanghai. As a kid, I would go visit some of my friends who lived in ShiKuMen homes(石库门). It was not uncommon for a single residence to be inhabited by dozens of families, living in creatively sub-dived rooms while sharing kitchens, bathrooms, and common spaces. To us, it was a dark maze with treasures, a paradise for hide and seek. Everywhere, random objects stacking, balancing on top of each other in the most impossible manner like modern art. Residents maneuvered through the never-ending narrow hallways, in and out of each door. Light would suddenly spill into the dark halls as a door opens, granting me a brief encounter with the world on the inside, it was always so quick, people were too afraid to let out any of their air-conditionings. The hallways came to live during mealtime, hot sizzling woks smoking up with the delicious aroma of the stir fry. Noisy kids laughing screaming running amongst bags of fresh produce, with their plastic slippers clapping the floor loudly. Especially as an only child, I was always jealous of this communal way of living, much more fun to me at the time than just staying in a spacious apartment with your parents. I know the exact crossroad mentioned by Kimi in San Francisco, now if I ever walk by it, I’d look up at the building and feel closer to home."