Chinatown Pretty: Andria Lo & Valerie Luu

On the right is a portrait of a woman. She smiles and looks to her right, just off the camera. On her head is a red and navy Yankee's hat, and she wears a hot pink floral top. To the left of the image is the caption and information about this portrait.

Chinatown Pretty is a storytelling project, founded by photographer Andria Lo and writer Valerie Luu, that documents senior citizens’ street style in Chinatowns. What qualifies as Chinatown Pretty? It combines urban utilitarianism with unexpected sartorial choices that reveal resilience, personal histories, and cultural values. Since 2014, they’ve photographed and interviewed hundreds of the seniors in historic Chinatowns across North America. The project is not only a celebration of this unique style, but a way to share the seniors’ immigration stories and life wisdoms. Their first book was published Fall 2020 by Chronicle Books.

Follow the project on Instagram @chinatownpretty.

Andria Lo is a freelance photographer whose work has been featured in the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, and Wired. She lives in Berkeley.

Valerie Luu is a writer and one-half of the Vietnamese pop-up restaurant Rice Paper Scissors. She lives in San Francisco.

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