My family roots began in Detroit Chinatown. My grandfather, Henry Yee, and my Obachan, Seiko Yee, raised my mom and her three siblings running the family restaurant, Forbidden City.

Years after a freeway exit was built through the old Chinatown and the community living there was forcibly relocated, the Detroit Chinatown Vision Committee (DCVC) was founded. Their goal is to rebuild and re-establish a pan-Asian community in the new Detroit Chinatown in collaboration with other organizations like the Association of Chinese Americans (ACA) and American Citizens for Justice (ACJ).

As a third generation Asian American raised in rural Michigan, having a place of cultural belonging and pride was the missing piece of my childhood.

The following gallery is documentation of intercultural and intergenerational celebration of Asian culture. It is a call for the work that still needs to be done to grow our roots back, where we belong.