Christine Wong Yap

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storefront in San Francisco Chinatown with two lanterns in the window

Photo of a storefront of black tile with two lanterns in the windows.

close up of a sign with a statement installed in a window, by Lupita Iraheta

screenshot of a video interview with AiLan Xie

A lantern of purple metal with a portrait of a woman split in sad and happy halves.

a wood lantern with red papercut depicting scenes in chinatown including a family eating at a night market

A wooden lantern with a purple papercut showing a cross section of an SRO apartment building.

A wooden lantern with a papercut of blues showing two figures interacting in front of an SRO interior scene.

A papel-picado inspired lantern in hot pink showing hands reaching through a door towards a graduation cap

A lantern in light violet which shows a young woman looking in the mirror where her reflection is surrounded by community members.

a lantern in a window with a design in blue of two overlapping heads, with a storm from one mind overlapping the sun in another mind

A lantern of wood with fabric that has a papercut in red and blue with a kid pouring cereal into a bowl, a figure in a full moon, and an adult pouring tea for an elder.

a lantern inspired by papel picado, in green. a woman falls into a safety net. she is clutching a portion of a dollar bill that has been cut by a chain saw

Lantern with papercut in red with a figure under various pressures

an lantern of steel with orange powdercoating showing a Latina next to a day laborer wearing a hat, surrounded by allies with linked arms

Lantern with a woman shouting into a bullhorn at City Hall

A lantern of yellow inspired by papel picado featuring a woman shouting over a student looking sad.

A lantern of wood with a papercut in pinks and blues showing a woman juggling many items/concepts.

A wide shot of an exhibition of papercuts in a gallery with aqua-colored walls

A row of 4 papercuts framed in white frames.

A row of several papercuts framed in white frames

Flyer for the Scavenger hunt taped to a window, with a lantern and viewers in the background

Two smiling women holding up colorful folders

A family with young children collect stamps from two designers inside a gallery, with lanterns in the background

a sheet of white paper with 15 colorful rubber stamps on it

A man and woman stand outside a storefront viewing a lantern in the window.

A family with young children speak with a person seated behind a desk, who holds up an envelope.

a group of participants holding up stamp collection sheets along side designers in a black box theater space

A group photo with a large group of women with a few non-women standing on a sidewalk, smiling and making cute heart-shaped hand gestures.

Bay Windows / Ventanas en saliente / 窗花 is an 11-month long art process to foster belonging and build cross-cultural bridges between working-class, immigrant, Chinese & Latinx women through the art of papercuts and lanterns.

Lanterns & Papercuts

Bay Windows: Illuminating Immigrant Women’s Perspectives was a decentralized exhibition of 15 sculptural lanterns. Each lantern is based on a paper cut designed in collaboration with one of 15 working class, immigrant, Chinese or Latina women. The artworks explore intersectional lived experiences of issues such as immigrants’ rights, workers’ rights, the high cost of living, affordable housing, public safety, and mental health, plus how the women confront these structural challenges.

The trilingual exhibition (English, Spanish, and Chinese) includes statements and links to video interviews. Audiences can see and hear all 15 collaborating designers speaking in her native language about the stories behind her papercut, and her reflections on the process.

The lanterns were on view from December 11, 2025–March 11, 2026 in various locations in San Francisco Chinatown & Mission District (Google Maps ):

Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco’s Design Store, 41 Ross Alley*
City College of San Francisco—Chinatown/North Beach Center, 808 Kearny Street
Galería de la Raza’s Studio 24, 2779 Folsom Street**
Acción Latina, 2958 24th Street
Brava! for Women in the Arts, 2781 24th Street

*An exhibition of 15 Bay Windows papercuts was on view in 41 Ross from January 7–March 11, 2026.

**Fiften Bay Windows video interviews were screened inside Galería de la Raza through March 11, 2026.

Scavenger Hunt

On January 24, 2026, we activated all five sites of the decentralized exhibition by hosting a fun, free, family-friendly Scavenger Hunt. The public was invited to visit the sites, view the lanterns, collect custom rubber stamps from the contributing designers, and answer trivia questions for the chance to win prizes. Designers were at each location to stamp sheets and engage in discussions. Prizes included gift certificates purchased from small local businesses, which could be redeemed for books, gifts, boba drinks, and conchas. Additionally, a few lucky players took home a pair of concert tickets to Brava! for Women in the Arts as well as a $100 cash prize distributed at random.

Players shared overwhelmingly positive feedback, noting that they enjoyed learning about the designers, the sites, and the neighborhoods.

Artistic Vision

Click to learn about the cross-cultural connections of papercutting and the intent of Bay Windows.

Learn more about Bay Windows via the SF Examiner, Sing Tao Daily, El Tecolote, Art is Awesome, and You Can’t Eat Art.

Workshops

In May, June, and July 2025, lead artist Christine Wong Yap organized a series of six workshops in collaboration with community partners, interpreters, and guest artists Beatriz Vasquez and Xiaoqing Shi.

The trilingual workshops were tailored for the cohort of 15 multigenerational women, who received stipends as well as monetary support with childcare and transportation.

Participants learned about each other’s cultural traditions, shared stories, and created papercuts about issues which are important to them, including immigration, the cost of living, budget cuts, housing, worker’s rights, public safety, and mental health.

Guest Artists’ Exhibition

Exhibition flyer, Twin Windows: Papercuts by Beatriz Vasquez and Xiaoqing Shi, May 10–June 7, 2025, Reception: Sunday, May 25, 12-3pm, Kearny Street Workshop

As part of Bay Windows, Yap curated an exhibition featuring the two guest artists at Kearny Street Workshop from May to June 2025.

2022–2023: Track record

Bay Windows reconvenes a cohort that was first assembled for How I Keep Looking Up / Como Sigo Mirando Arriba / 仰望 (2022–2023), a collaboration with Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco (CCCSF) and numerous community organizations in Chinatown & the Mission District, which resulted in banners carried in the 2023 Chinese New Year Parade (300,000 in-person/televised audience), an exhibition at CCCSF (seen by 20,000 visitors), and features on El Tecolote, Hyperallergic, KGO ABC 7, KTVU Fox 2, KQED, and Sing Tao Daily.

A photo of a contingent with a lead banner in teal and pink with the title of the project in calligraphy, with a mariachi band and banners behind. It's night time and raining but people are smiling.

A large white gallery with windows along the left and bays with banners along the right.

Postcards Available

Set of 20 postcards with various colored papercuts on them

Set of 15 postcards featuring photographs of all 15 Bay Windows papercuts. The designers’ complete statements can be found in English, Spanish, and Chinese on the reverse side.

Credit: Christine Wong Yap and contributors, Bay Windows / Ventanas en saliente / 窗花, 2025–2026, social practice, papercuts, lanterns (lasercut wood, digitally printed fabric, powdercoated steel), videos, mixed media; dimensions variable.

Bay Windows is supported by a 2025 Creative Capital Award, Zellerbach Family Foundation’s Community Arts program, Southern Exposure’s Alternative Exposure Grant, Community Engagement’s Artists & Creatives Grant, A Blade of Grass’ Field Funds, and ASIAN, Inc.

Lead Artist: Christine Wong Yap

Contributing Designers: AiLan Xie 謝愛蘭, Cammi Xingyu Huang 黃幸瑜, ChunMei Cao 曹春梅, DanLi Xu 許丹麗, Lidia "Lupita" Iraheta, Marcela Escamilla, Mayra Alfaro, MiaoFen Guan 關妙芬, Nadia Rodriguez, Selina Luo 羅玉蓮, Tomasa Ramirez, YongYu "Ah Yu" Lei 雷泳瑜, YongYu "Yoyo" Situ 司徒咏瑜, YuJuan "Ah Juan" Chen 陳玉娟, Yurisma Gonzalez.

Project Coordinators: Stephan Xie, Lee Oscar Gomez.

Interpreters/Translators: Andreína Maldonado, Weikun Tang, Lauren Huang, Katie Beas.

Guest artists: Beatriz Vasquez, Xiaoqing Shi.

Photos by Rich Lomibao, Lee Oscar Gomez, Christine Wong Yap, Aaron Stark, Jenna Garrett. Explainer video edited by Nick Schiarizzi courtesy of Creative Capital with subtitling by Stephan Xie. Vertical videos include footage by Versoul, Huan Filippi, Lee Oscar Gomez, and Christine Wong Yap; edited by Christine Wong Yap.

Community partners: Kearny Street Workshop (Jason Bayani, Mihee Kim), Galería de la Raza (Ani Rivera, Ivette Rojas, Paola Castellanos), and Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco (Hoi Leung, YY Zhu, Jenny Leung, Jack Quon, Kyan Ng).

Additional presenting partners: City College of San Francisco—Chinatown/North Beach Center (Dean Kit Dai, Eric), Acción Latina (Andrew Brobst, Paul Flores, Imelda Carrasco), and Brava! for Women in the Arts (Kimberley Acebo Arteche, Lottie Pacheco-Lobatos, Jocelyn “Jojo” Thompson-Jordan, Teresa Pasion, Kiana Nguyen, Edith Castorena, Marco Flores).

Thanks to Rich Lomibao for art handling assistance; Chinese for Affirmative Action, The Women’s Building, Susana Rojas and Xochitl Frausto of Calle 24 Latino Cultural District and Dr. Martyna Ayala of Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts for planning support; and Maysoun Wazwaz, Emily Pilloton-Lam of Girls Garage, and Weston Teruya for feedback and advice.

Fabricators: BooVara Designs, BWC Architects, Cloud Graphics, Digital Pre-press International, Light for You, Seaport Stainless, West Coast Powder Coating.

Connect

Instagram @christinewongyap