From Chinatown to the Sidewalk: A Public Art Project Makes Hidden Labor Visible
The project traces its conceptual roots to Wang's 2022 solo intervention Hidden in Plain Sight, installed along Terry A. Francois Boulevard, a street formerly known as China Basin Street.
Once a site associated with early Chinese labor communities, the name 'China Basin' has quietly disappeared from public consciousness. In response, Wang painted a mural directly onto a discarded newspaper box at the location, reimagining traditional symbols like plum blossom, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum to reflect the fractured experience of diasporic identity. She also created and installed a fictional Chinese street sign, 'Bin He Lu', as an act of reclaiming cultural memory and countering erasure.
' I saw this gesture as a small act of renaming and reclamation, " Wang reflects. " Public space is not only physical territory. It is a memory field that revealswho is preservedand who is forgotten. '
Terry A. Francois Boulevard (formerly China Basin Street), San Francisco, California
Non Alien Box extends this act from a singular reflection into a collaborative and growing archive. The first box, installed in early 2025, features a collection of handmade 'classified ads' designed to resemble vintage job postings. The stories inside, however, speak not of opportunity, but of exclusion and survival. One reads:
'Because of my visa status, noone wants to sponsor me.To keep my OPT active, I've been doing unpaid internships at art institutions—doing thesame work as paid employees.'
Another recounts a broken promise:
'They told me, help us build this nonprofit and you'll qualify for an H-1Bcap-exempt. I worked full-time withoutpay for a year. Then they gave me a vague excuse and let me go. I left with nothing andhad to return to myhome country.'
These flyers are pasted inside former information hubs that once delivered headlines to the public. Now, they offer truths that rarely make it into the news cycle.
The project debuted at the 2025 Creative Citizens Symposium at California College of the Arts, where it was exhibited for four days alongside an artist talk and student workshop. Non Alien Box was recognized with the 2025 CPAL Impact Award for its contribution to cultural storytelling and immigrant visibility.
Looking ahead, the team is preparing a series of workshops in Chinatown, Japantown, and Manilatown in collaboration with local nonprofit organizations. These sessions will invite international students, short-term visa holders, and migrant workers to design their own 'ads,' turning personal stories into public messages. These new works will be installed across additional newspaper boxes, forming a network of storytelling sites throughout San Francisco.
Portsmouth Square (Chinatown), San Francisco, California
As these boxes reappear across the city, some will blend in while others will spark curiosity. What was once overlooked infrastructure becomes a site of testimony and cultural resistance.
'We are not only artists,' says Wang. 'We are workers, immigrants, and witnesses. These boxes are our bulletin boards and our monuments.'
Non Alien Box is more than symbolic. It is a public intervention rooted in lived experience and structural critique. The project asks urgent questions about visibility and belonging in today's cities:
Who gets remembered? Who gets to belong? And who remains hidden in plain sight?
Media Contact
Company Name: Non Alien Box
Contact Person: Xinling Wang, Independent Artist
Email: Send Email
Country: United States
Website: http://irenexinlingwang.me
Source: Queqi Culture Media
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