Tommy Lei

Recess, 2022 From the series Chinatown Reverie Children play in the courtyard of a school in Manhattan’s Chinatown, enclosed by the iron gates that separate the street from a shared interior space. For many immigrant families, neighborhoods like Chinatown provide more than housing—they offer cultural continuity, language, and collective safety for the next generation. Within these small urban courtyards, childhood unfolds inside a community that holds memory, identity, and belonging.