Tiandi Universal Market 天地通用银行
2025—ongoing
Co-lead
In diasporic communities, these practices also become a way to remember distant homelands, maintain family connections, and reimagine cultural inheritance across generations. Through craft, storytelling, and public participation, Tiandi Universal Market creates a space where death culture can be approached not only as mourning, but also as care, creativity, and community dialogue.
Tiandi Universal Market received a $1,500 grant through the What Can We Do? Artist Grant program, presented by Asian American Arts Alliance (A4), and is supported by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. Special thanks to Council Members Christopher Marte and Sandra Ung.
April 3rd 2026, Accent Sisiter, NY
This creative and performative workshop, held at Accent Sister, was designed especially for younger generations of Asian Americans. Participants were invited to imagine and prepare for their own afterlife by crafting their first paper offerings for themselves. Role-playing as staff members of Afterlife Asset Management LLC, our team used a fictional service framework to reframe paper offerings not only as preparations for the afterlife, but also as a way to reflect on one’s present life, future desires, and personal values through collective crafting. The workshop opened a playful yet reflective space for participants to engage with death, ritual, memory, and self-imagination through collective making.
April 4th 2026, Glow Cultural Center, Flushing Chinatwon, NY
This workshop was designed as a family-friendly event welcoming participants from different cultures and backgrounds. With the support of an art therapist on our team, we created an accessible, caring, and emotionally supportive environment for everyone who joined. Through collective crafting and sharing, the workshop reimagined the Qingming Festival not only as a time of grief, but also as a moment for care, remembrance, and connection. Participants were invited to remember their families, honor their roots, and support one another through making.
Apr 5th 2026, Heritage Museum of Asian Art, Chicago
Paper offerings in many Asian cultures are created to be burned, transforming into gifts for ancestors in the afterlife. Join us at this Qingming Festival to appreciate the delicate artistry of this tradition, along with its contemporary reinterpretations.
April 12th 2026, Think!Chinatown, Mandatton Chinatown, NY
Participants joined hands-on crafting sessions to draw, fold, and create paper offerings for loved ones while learning about the history and cultural meanings of paper offering rituals in Asian communities. Designed for Chinese immigrants, the workshops created a space to reconnect with cultural practices that may feel distant, unfamiliar, or difficult to discuss. Through crafting, participants reimagined paper offerings not only as mourning objects, but also as creative ways to reconnect with ancestors, homeland, and family memory. Through storytelling, collective making, and a shared burning ritual, the workshops invited participants to reconsider paper offering rituals not as fixed or outdated traditions, but as active and dynamic practices of love, remembrance, and cultural renewal.