SAN FRANCISCO, July 7 (Xinhua) -- An art and oral storytelling exhibition that delves into the life of grassroots immigrant Chinese families opened Sunday in Chinatown in downtown San Francisco.
The exhibition, titled "Our Intergenerational Stories: Home," was born out of a six-week oral storytelling and photography workshop series dedicated to intergenerational exchanges between immigrant families that described how they showcased their resilience and built unity among different communities impacted under a growing negative atmosphere targeting certain groups of immigrants.
The event came in partnership of Chinese for Affirmative Action, San Francisco Arts Commission, the Chinese Culture Center with community artists MLin and Vida Kuang, who worked with seven Chinatown families to tell their stories as working-class Chinese immigrants.
Their narrations shed light on their experience of housing, education, community engagement and dreams for their future.
Camille Zheng, who immigrated with her husband to the United States from China's Guangdong Province several years ago, told Xinhua that she and her family encountered unexpected difficulties when they first settled down in Chinatown in the country.
Like many other new immigrants, Zheng said her family experienced many problems such as lack of housing and language barriers.
"When I first came to the United States, my husband, my nine-year-old son and I had to share with my parents-in-law a 9-square-meter room without toilet and kitchen, and the overcrowded living condition created inconvenience for my life," she said.
Zheng noted that she hopes the exhibition could catch the attention of the San Francisco government so that more attention will be paid to the hardships of low-incoming grassroots immigrant families and more affordable houses will be provided for them.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed has been working hard to address housing problems in the city since she took office last July. She has promised to build about 1,000 affordable houses by 2020.
The exhibition will run through July 31.
