24-05-2025
Oakland muralist seeks to tell story of city's Chinatown with new works
Community leaders in Oakland's Chinatown are looking to paint a different image of their neighborhood, with the help of series of murals to add color to blank walls.
"Art, it is so important for any community district," said Stephanie Tran, who serves as President of Oakland's Chinatown Chamber of Commerce (OCCC). "It helps build identity of the area, but it also helps tell the story of Chinatown as well."
This year, the OCCC hopes to complete at least 10 murals in Chinatown that will include the work of Oakland native Sorell Raino-Tsui who is commissioned to paint two installations.
"He is able to create art in a way that tells the story of Chinatown, and he helps to create a sense of belonging for the Asian community," Raino-Tsui told CBS News Bay Area.
His latest project is a mural on the side of a mixed-use building at 10th and Harrison streets – a colorful giant Chinese antique vase painted in blue and surrounded by a mixture of floral designs.
"The vase is the very traditional element. And then the other elements have more of my style, a more contemporary feel," said Raino-Tsui. "So, this is a real fusion of kind of like traditionalism and, and contemporary styling."
Raino-Tsui's work as a muralist began in 2016, after quitting his job in finance to purse his passion as an artist.
Today, you can find his work across the Bay Area, including several murals in San Francisco.
During a recent tour of his work, he showed CBS News Bay Area a variety of murals including a massive installation in the Richmond District at 4200 Geary on the side of a senior housing development.
"There is a lot of Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian residents in this area, so we wanted to design a piece that honored those three cultures and brought them together," he said.
Other murals include a piece in the Sunnydale neighborhood that pays homage to the history of the community by featuring an iconic photograph taken by Barbara Bernstein, of kids sitting on top of the "The Bear" sculpture by artist Beniamino Bufano.
"So, the kids on the bear is a famous photograph that was in the newspaper," said Raino-Tsui. "Residents told me that if you ever lived in Sunnydale, you sat on that bear. And so, it's a great ode to the past."
Recently, he completed a giant mural near Portsmouth Square in San Francisco's Chinatown for NBA All-Star weekend. Commissioned by the NBA, the work honors the Year of the Snake and the city's basketball culture.
"So, it's a celebration of Chinese culture, the New Year and basketball, he said. "It is very important to me be able to authentically create works that symbolize the culture, but also have a contemporary twist on them."
Raino-Tsui believes his work, and the work of other artists can help transform communities and neighborhoods.
"Murals contribute a lot. I mean murals are art, and art is culture," he said. "It feels like a real personal blessing to work in my hometown and the Bay Area,"
His next mural project will begin later this year and will be located at the Shoong Family Chinese Cultural Center in Oakland's Chinatown.
