88 Gate Project Brings Original Murals To Chinatown Shops

CHINATOWN, NY — A Chinatown family is converting gritty sidewalk gates into canvasses that celebrate Chinese culture.

The Chinatown 88 Gates Project aims to brighten the neighborhood with dozens of murals peppered across Chinatown. John Yu, sometimes with the help of his two daughters Winnie and Angie, has painted some 30 gates this summer with designs often inspired by classical Chinese paintings.

Yu has adorned gates with horses darting across fields, pandas munching on bamboo and a cityscape of Shanghai — but until this summer the real estate broker hadn't even touched a can of spray paint, he said.

"I like art and painting, I'm not a professional, but I wondered if I could do something to make the neighborhood look nicer," said Yu, 59, who is originally from Hong Kong and has lived in Chinatown for the last 28 years. "A lot of people are interested in Chinese culture so when they come here I want them to see more of that — I try to paint in the culture and style."

The project kicked off when Yu painted pandas on the gates of the Huang Da Xian Taoist Temple on Bowery and Pell Street, where Yu and his family are regulars.

His daughters urged him to continue and approach other businesses who may be interested and stepped in to help establish a social media presence for the project that Yu dubbed the 88 Gates Project — a riff off the Lower East Side's 100 Gates Project aimed at painting local gates with original murals.

"Eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture, I thought, 'Doing eight is too little and 800 is too much,' but I said, 'I can handle doing 88 gates,'" said Yu.

Yu rises in the morning, anywhere from 5-7 a.m., to paint the murals, which usually take him two to seven hours to complete.

The non-profit project has beautified some three dozen gates — that's counting shops with more than one sidewalk gate — and aims to paint a handful more before the mercury begins to dip. Once winter settles in Yu plans to put the project on hold until next spring.

"I think it’s meaningful that he makes something that could not only impact him but the Chinese community as well," said Yu's oldest daughter Winnie, 23, who is a physical therapy graduate student at Hunter College.

The murals give the area a splash of color, but also work to change how people view the neighborhood, said Yu's youngest daughter.

"Hearing my peers talk about Chinatown, they associate it with being dirty and fish markets. It wasn't the most positive light," said Angie, 19, who is a sophomore studying civil engineering at Cornell University.

"I really enjoy how my dad is making a huge effort to change that point of view. I'm glad that this helps show the neighborhood in a better light."

Chinatown businesses interested in having their gates painted can email chinatown88gates@gmail.com

Photos courtesy of Chinatown 88 Gates Project