Biography

Awards & Commissions

Family

House

Studio

Personal Writings

2005 China Exchange

Recent Publications

I learned the value of family from my parents, Gee Seow Hong and Gee Suey Ting, who were immigrants from China in the 1900s. My father taught our family of seven to give and to take and to never go anywhere empty handed. My mother taught us to work hard. Together, they taught us the significance of family.

As a working class family we also worked in a variety of businesses. By the time I was 5 we opened the Great China Restaurant located at 723 Webster Street in Oakland, California’s Chinatown. We left Chinatown in 1961 when my parents closed the restaurant. Many years later, our restaurant, community, and family experiences inspired me to start making art. I created installations such as made in usa: Angel Island Shhh. made in usa to explore the identity secrets of Chinese immigrants detained and interrogated in the United States due to the impact of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Law. In 1933, my mother entered this country under a false identity. She claimed to be my father’s sister and not his wife.

My siblings and I - writers, poet, and community activists - are all over sixty now. We share in one another’s joys, triumphs, and sorrows. We get together five times a year to celebrate our birthdays. I rely on them to help me, and quite often, they are the sources of my research for my projects. They contribute funds and attend my openings.  Sometimes, we appear on family panels together. My nieces and nephews from my side of the family and my husband’s (Edward K. Wong) side of the family and their offspring are also supportive. My husband, Ed, has and continues to support by my art-making with his feedback and technical assistance on the computer. I was inspired to create the Baby Jack Rice Story to honor his childhood memories in Augusta, GA during segregation. Hopefully, Ed and I have passed on strong family values to Felicia, our daughter, and to Brad, our son. Now, our family has grown to include a wonderful son-in-law, Jonathan Halperin, two lively grandchildren, Ben and Sasha Wong Halperin, a lovely daughter-in-law, Liu Dan, and a new active grandson, Peter Edward Wong. I currently divide my time between making art, babysitting, gardening, practicing wellness, and self-care.