Alum Zoe Chen's Projects for Peace Zine Illustrates Chinatown

Chicago’s Chinatown neighborhood is home to nearly one third of the city’s Chinese population. It’s one of the only expanding Chinatowns in North America, yet it faces unique challenges of its own. In the zine Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going, recent School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) alum Zoe Chen (BFA 2025) gathers voices from everyday life across Chinatown to share their experiences living in a neighborhood balancing expansion with internal pressures that don’t fit the usual gentrification script.

This zine was pitched to and accepted by Projects for Peace, a global program that sponsors student projects that deal with conflict resolution and awareness. “Applying to Projects for Peace gave me an opportunity to have fun brainstorming what my fantasy project would look like,” Chen said. “Writing the proposal around comics and Chinese American history came easily since those are two things I’m excited about.” With funding secured, Chen turned the sketchbook outline into fieldwork, community partnerships, and a zine that reads like a sidewalk conversation.

Chen was inspired by Lecturer Larry Lee’s Beyond Oriental art history course, where they dove into Chicago’s Asian American archives and the 19th‑century era of Chinese sojourners who seeded the city’s first Chinatown along Clark Street. “My work is engaged with history,” Chen said. “Chicago’s Chinatown is a microcosm of that history because it was established by those same sojourners.”

Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going’s subject matter directly responds to the changes in this South Side neighborhood—including the underbelly of the current rapid growth. “The insularity that protected [the neighborhood] for so long is waning. Gentrification is starting to creep in as rent increases,” Chen said. “A lot of legacy family owned businesses closed after the pandemic and are still closing because of increasing rent. They’re being replaced by international chains.”

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In the zine, Chen brings that history into the present through interviews and street‑level observations. “My goal is to represent Chinatown through a handful of diverse perspectives,” Chen continued. “This [zine] is for anyone who wants to learn more about Chicago’s Chinatown and its future, which, in spite of its growth, I’d say is becoming precarious.” 

In the comic’s opening, Chen interviews a temporary resident of Chinatown whom they named “Some Guy,” a tattoo artist who resided there from 2022 to 2024. “It’s interesting to start off the series with an outsider’s perspective,” Chen said. “He moved here when it was already tough to meet people, and with his solitary work as a tattoo artist, he stayed somewhat on the margins.”

Through this opening, Chen lays groundwork for readers new to Chinatown, guiding them in through a fresh set of eyes—while longtime residents are invited to see how their home might appear to a newcomer. “He’s revealing and informative at times but naive and misguided at others, which I found amusing,” Chen adds. “The rest of the interviewees, who know Chinatown much better, end up confirming or challenging his assumptions.”

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Aiming to continue to advocate for the Chinese community through their work, Chen remains intentional with their subject selection and sensitive to their exploration of this marginalized community.

Through Where We’ve Been and Where We’re Going, Chen builds a vivid, living archive that captures Chinatown’s heartbeat at a moment of profound change. The series makes space for voices rarely found in mainstream accounts or scholarship, gently challenging readers to reconsider who and what defines the community.

“That’s a unique and engaging way for people who don’t live in Chinatown to learn more about the community,” Chen reflected. In lifting up overlooked stories and perspectives, their zine offers not just documentation but a bridge, inviting both insiders and newcomers to see Chinatown, and themselves, with fresh eyes.

Currently Zoe Chen’s landmark zine is available for pickup at Chicago’s Evoke Gallery, Western Exhibitions, and Quimby’s. You can continue to follow their work on Instagram @z0ech3n.