A stroll to Peterboro Street and Cass Avenue will reveal the remnants of Detroit’s Chinatown: a kiosk welcoming passersby to Chinatown, Association of Chinese Americans Drop-In Center, and a mural of Vincent Chin. Though previously a bustling ethnic area on Michigan Avenue and Third Street, the 1961 urban renewal plan moved Chinatown to its Peterboro-Cass location to make space for the John C. Lodge Freeway (Chan, Kim, and Gauri, 131-132). The new location, however, failed to attract the same numbers and level of activity as its predecessor as most Chinese inhabitants either moved to the suburbs or, turned away from real estate due to increased post-World War II prejudice, moved out of Detroit entirely (132). Chinatown was left with only a few hundred inhabitants by the 1980s, and despite movements to revitalize the area, has resisted growth.

One such revitalization effort came in the form of a Vincent Chin mural in the summer of 2003. Vincent Chin was a Chinese-American murdered in 1982 by two unemployed autoworkers, furious with Japanese-looking Detroiters who represented the more successful Japanese auto industry. The Asian American movement erupted with the unjust verdict of the two workers’ $3,780 fine for the murder (Boggs, 129). It wasn’t until the Vincent Chin Twentieth Year Remembrance and Rededication to Justice event was celebrated in 2002, that the Detroit Chinatown Revitalization Workgroup collaborated with Detroit Summer and the On Leong Chinese Welfare Association to create a mural memorializing Vincent Chin and a history of social and political movement in the community (130). The mural’s unveiling which took place on September 13, 2003 was also a signal for Chinatown’s comeback (Suzuki & Lin). Though gradual improvements to Detroit were signs of such a comeback and Asian American groups united in their mural’s message, the visible power of the mural alone was not enough to territorialize Chinatown’s boundaries into an active Asian American space.

The mural is located on the north wall of On Leong Association building (425 Peterboro) and faces Peterboro Street. Through its textual images, the Vincent Chin mural’s claim was one of “Justice, Equity, and Diversity” as well as a promise for the creation of a once-again booming Chinatown with images of projected Vincent Chin Museum, and new restaurants, among other new buildings. The mural displays figures relating to identity-movements that had local significance in Asian and African American civil rights: Vincent Chin, Asian American activist and spokesperson for American Citizens for Justice Helen Zia, and Dr. Martin Luther King who’s first “I have a dream” speech occurred down Woodward Ave. Further, the neighborhoods painted in the upper left and right of the mural are of Black Bottom, Paradise Valley, and the previous Chinatown, predominantly African-American and Asian neighborhoods which relocated to Cass Corridor following the building of the Lodge freeway. These two racial groups displayed by the mural refer explicitly to the area of Chinatown and tie the territory to two historically racial neighborhoods (Mural Brochure, 2).

The Mural's Fate

The Vincent Chin mural has been removed from the area in 2017 as a result of changed ownership of the property. The mural is currently being housed away from public view. Making way for new improvement projects, downtown Detroit is being steadily populated with new restaurants and shops, including a restaurant serving contemporary Chinese-American food in the Historic Chinatown.

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Grand River Creative Corridor is a project involving murals from local artists to revitalize decaying buildings along the stretch of Grand River Avenue between Rosa Parks Boulevard and Warren Avenue. Started by local street artist Sintex and managing director of 4731 Gallery and Studio Derek Weaver, the project initially started in 2012 with the intent to bring in local artists to create murals on fifteen buildings along the street. Benches were also placed in the area for passersby to admire the surrounding work (Sands). Though the revitalization effort was slated to end by July of the following year, the area’s mural-making activity has continued to flourish with murals totaling 100, swapping out murals every 1-3 years, and inviting local as well as outside artists into the fold. The purpose of revitalization was also married with the idea of creating a local community, and the open direction of the project’s development has produced active contestations and rewritings of murals as a form of dialogue in defining the local area and community—a dialogue that has since problematically given outsiders a say in this definition.

The Vincent Chin mural was created in 2014 by international artist Gaia. The Vincent Chin Memorial mural began as the idea of Gaia after he was invited by Weaver to contribute to the street. The Baltimore artist, touched by Chin’s story as a watershed moment in Asian American history and wanting to connect it to the globalization which spurred the racist attack (Neavling), offered the mural idea to Weaver who then sought the Chin family for approval. Weaver was referred to American Citizens for Justice, a non-profit group organized because of Chin’s injustice and serving Michigan’s Asian Pacific American communities. The group negotiated details of the mural with Gaia before the final mock-up was confirmed (Grand River). The mural depicted a portrait of young Vincent Chin with hands holding up layers of frame.

The Mural's Fate

The mural was created in 2014 and defaced in a matter of two months, making it the shortest-lived mural since the Creative Corridor project’s start. Though an APA-oriented organization signed off on the mural, it was the artist’s non-local identity and message that made the mural an instant target of local resistance. Street artist Sintax painted over the mural to contest the Baltimore artist and further admonishes, “This just is not just painting some bullshit ass mural about what you think my city is.” The local challenges the mural's significance to the community, citing Chin’s relation to Highland Park, Gaia’s relation to Baltimore, and even the mural’s relation to global events.

Gaia, while noting the problematics of revitalization through outside art, articulated this clash in his response, “Buffing the memory of Vincent Chin is a misplaced critique on the murals that are clashing with graffiti. Instead it comes off as a gesture against the Asian community of michigan” (Pisacane). Though Sintax’s main issue with the piece was its nonlocal affiliations, he later acknowledges the representative and community-identifying power of iconography by repainting over the mural to include Vincent Chin among other famous victims of hate crimes (DeVito).

For place/space analysis on mural impact and bibliography:Read More