Illustrator and Paper Engineer Star Shen Brings Manhattan Chinatown's Legacy to Life Through Pop-Up Book

An overview of the pop-up book, Unfolding Chinatown NYC: A Pop-up Journey Through Times. Image Courtesy of Starry House.
NEW YORK - In the heart of Manhattan's Chinatown, a handcrafted popup book has quietly become a powerful vessel for memory, culture, and community pride. Unfolding Chinatown NYC: A Pop-up Journey Through Times. , created by New York-based illustrator and paper engineer Star Shen, transforms one of America's oldest immigrant neighborhoods into a three-dimensional storytelling experience-folding architecture, tradition, and collective memory into a work of art that fits between two covers.

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The project, released earlier this year, has been distributed exclusively to local schools, museums, small businesses, and community centers. Though not available for sale, the book is already making its way into the daily rhythms of Chinatown. In corner bakeries, herbal shops, and cultural institutions, visitors and longtime residents alike are stopping to open its pages-quite literally unfolding the untold.

The book's launch, marked by a community gathering featuring a documentary screening and artist talk, introduced the public not just to the artwork, but to the story behind it. Shen, who founded the independent studio Starry House, explained that the project grew out of a personal need to reconnect.

"When I first arrived in New York three years ago, Chinatown reminded me of home," she said. "But as I spent more time here, I realized that what people often see is just the surface-food, lanterns, maybe a festival parade. I wanted to use paper, this seemingly fragile material, to reveal something deeper: the lived history, the struggle, and the soul of this neighborhood."

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The five spread scenes in New Year on Paper are each rooted in detailed observation and archival research. The opening page introduces the viewer to the Chinatown Gate on Canal Street, with suspended lanterns, flashing signage, and crowded sidewalks. A second scene reconstructs the now-vanished Peach Blossom Theater on Doyers Street, once home to Chinese opera and, below ground, an underground speakeasy whose existence is hinted at through a hidden pop-up flap. Shen even tucks in a miniature figure of Sun Yat-sen, seated at the bar, linking the visual storytelling to political history.

Another spread is inspired by street-level encounters: a fruit vendor cart with an umbrella and hanging scale, based on actual vendors observed around Mott Street. Shop windows display roasted duck and gold jewelry-every object carefully drawn and cut, every scene backed by a page of text explaining its origins.

The fourth spread reimagines the gothic architecture of the Church of the Transfiguration, one of the oldest Catholic churches in New York and now home to a school. Inside, the foldout reveals both a wedding ceremony and a classroom-two sides of the building's layered present. The final scene depicts a nighttime Lunar New Year celebration: firecrackers light up the sky, diners gather over hot pot, and a seafood market glows under neon lights.

Beyond its visual charm, the book's creation process offers its own story. Shen worked with a small team of artists and researchers, walking the streets of Chinatown, interviewing residents, and sketching directly from the neighborhood. "Sometimes I didn't even plan it," she said. "I'd be eating lunch, and I'd draw on a napkin. That sketch would become a draft, then a white mockup, and eventually, part of the book."

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The pop-up book making blends traditional paper craft with architectural techniques. Shen describes it as "architectural origami," using layered die cuts and hidden pull-tabs to mimic the density and surprises of the neighborhood. The manufacturing process-carried out by artisans in Guangdong, China-involved multiple prototypes and late-night video calls across time zones to get the cutting patterns just right.

As of this spring, over 1,000 copies have been gifted to institutions in Chinatown. Shop owners have begun displaying the book for customers to browse. "Tourists used to come in and leave in five minutes," said Mr. Lee, who runs a bakery on Bayard Street. "Now they stay, they ask questions. The book helps them see something more."

The project was produced in collaboration with the Chinatown Business Improvement District. Wellington Z. Chen, Executive Director of the Chinatown Business Improvement District, praised Shen's work for its cultural depth and innovative form. "Star is really a super star," he said.

The origins of Unfolding Chinatown NYC: A Pop-up Journey Through Times. can be traced back to a serendipitous moment when Wellington Z. Chen encountered Shen's earlier pop-up book, The City of Mountains. The book, which earned a nomination for the 2023 Meggendorfer Prize for Best Artist Book-one of the highest international honors in pop-up book artistry-stood out for its ability to translate a city's architectural and emotional landscape into intricately layered paper forms. Moved by its depth and creative clarity, Chen invited Shen to develop a new project centered on Manhattan's Chinatown, one of the oldest and most culturally complex immigrant neighborhoods in the United States.

Although Shen was born and raised in China and had no prior personal connection to Chinatown, she embraced the challenge with deep respect and commitment. Her shift from depicting Chinese cityscapes to exploring diasporic urban spaces reflects a broader artistic vision: not merely to document physical locations, but to map the emotional, political, and cultural terrain within them.

Over the course of several months, she conducted extensive field research-walking the streets of Chinatown, interviewing longtime residents, studying archival materials, and sketching on site. Throughout this process, Chen and his team played a critical role in facilitating local access and organizing guided walking tours, helping Shen and her collaborators immerse themselves in the multi-layered narratives of the neighborhood.

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The resulting work is more than a book-it is a civic object, a three-dimensional archive of living memory that bridges generations, languages, and geographies. Through paper, Shen offers not only a new way of seeing, but also a new way of remembering.

Looking ahead, Shen is in the early stages of developing her next project-an exploration of New York City's broader cultural identity through the medium of paper. While the final format remains open, she is considering a range of possibilities, from pop-up cards to large-scale paper-based installations. "Chinatown is only one chapter in New York's long and layered history," she said. "There are so many stories embedded in this city that deserve to be seen and remembered. I want to document them in my own way-and share them with others."

"Paper remembers what concrete forgets," she added.

For a city shaped by waves of migration, resilience, and reinvention, Unfolding Chinatown NYC offers more than nostalgia. It stands as an act of cultural preservation, a quiet form of resistance, and a gift-folded and returned to the streets that inspired it.

Media Contact
Company Name: Starry House
Contact Person: Xingtong Shen
Email:Send Email [https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=illustrator-and-paper-engineer-star-shen-brings-manhattan-chinatowns-legacy-to-life-through-popup-book]
Country: United States
Website: https://www.starryhouse.nyc/

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